This week, humanity did something pretty cool. The European Space Agency landed a drone lander on a comet. It was a monumentally incredible and fantastic scientific achievement, and everyone associated with it should be very proud. Instead, we’re talking about a shirt.
This is Matt Taylor. He was part of the team that did it. This is awesome. He also made the decision to wear this shirt, which made a lot of people upset. The response to it resulted in the guy giving a ‘teary, heartfelt apology’ for his decision.
You kind of felt for the guy. As one woman commented wryly on Facebook, “You have to feel sorry for the scientist though. Imagine what it must be like to have all his accomplishments ignored in favor of his appearance and what he was wearing.”
Still, good on him for doing so – he seems like a genuinely cool guy. I can only imagine that he is somewhat horrified on how he has become a hero for some of the worst, most ardently anti-progressive voices on the internet. Speaking of which, remember how I said that #GamerGate was stridently anti-feminist movement? Well, right now, the primary reddit for the cause has half a dozen threads about this topic, which appears to have nothing to do with gaming other than blending into their utter distaste for uppity SJWs telling them what to do.
Here’s some quick thoughts on the matter.
1. Man, landing a lander on a comet is FUCKING AMAZING. I mean, seriously cool. The fact that WAY TOO MANY people know more about this fucking shirt, than this truly staggering scientific achievement is tragic (and I’m looking at people on BOTH SIDES of this thing. Seriously. Do the world a favor, and take the time to read up on it. The guys and gals who did this are seriously hardcore motherfucking rocket scientists, and are worthy of the utmost respect for their accomplishment.
2. I actually like the shirt. Look, I’m no puritan. I’m also the guy who is pro-Boobplate in games. Younger Damion probably would have owned such a shirt, but now I’m trying to pretend I’m more dignified than I actually am. However, younger Damion still would not have tried to wear the shirt to work because, even though I am sex-positive, not a prude, and like the slightly kinky does not mean that I’m not open-minded enough to realize that other people have very different tastes.
3. That shirt is totally not workplace appropriate for many, many workplaces. I’ve been a manager for a long time and I can tell you, there are a lot of places you’d be asked to change or sent home for wearing that shirt – even in the games industry! Why? Because there are a lot of people, mostly but not entirely women, who would feel uncomfortable being around it. If you don’t see why, perhaps some of the the gender-bent variants would make this more clear. Part of being sex-positive is respecting that other people react very differently to your kinks than you do.
Oh, yeah, I definitely have friends who would buy and wear these alternate shirts, seriously. And all of them would be smart enough to not try wearing them to fucking work.
4. Even if it was okay in his workplace culture, it shouldn’t have been worn in this environment. I’ve done innumerable interviews, speeches and other press interactions in support of various games, and in almost every case, I’ve worn a company T-Shirt. Why? Because you are representing YOUR company and their principles and ethics when on a stage. And you don’t want to shanghai all of your companies’ good works with unfortunate choices. Now, Matt may never have done this before, or maybe he did, and he either didn’t think about it, or didn’t think it was a big deal. But certainly, on the biggest day of these scientist’s lives, there should have been Public Relations Personnel managing things that said, ‘dude, seriously, just for today, not cool, maybe a bowling shirt WITHOUT tits?’ In my mind, these are the guys who really fucked up here.
5. The fact that the shirt was made or designed by a woman is fucking irrelevant. Seriously, people. Women can be sexist. Women can also not be sexist, but make work that other people think is sexist. Black people can be racist. This is plainly obvious. The argument is stupid. And you people making it should know better.
6. For all the bitching about how the SJWs are making a big deal about it, it has NOTHING on the furor of the anti-SJW howling. Seriously. Yes, the shirt merited comment, the comment was made, and yes, there are those on the left who were altogether too entirely precious about all this. But man, the reason this story is dominating my twitter feed has nothing to do with the progressive/leftists in my feed, but rather those on the other side who are determined to be outraged on behalf of a contrite Matt Taylor.
7. There is still hope for humanity. Despite the fact that idiots on both sides seemed determined to turn shirtstorm into a thing, let’s not let it. Keep in mind, landing a lander on a comet is still SERIOUSLY FREAKING COOL. And it did the amazing – it beat Kim Kardashian’s ‘internet breaking’ photoshoot handily in terms of retweeting. Maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for humanity after all.
For the record, it wasn’t just the shirt. It was the comments he was making about Rosetta while wearing the shirt, while the webcams were rolling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/13/rosetta-mission-scientist-cracks-sex-jokes-while-wearing-a-shirt-covered-in-scantily-clad-women/
And, interestingly enough, the “sexy” comments were taken out of at least one edit from the web feed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv6ZBZtzRA&t=1m26s
First, notably, there hasn’t been mass calls for his firing from the ESA, or an email campaigns saying that he should be let go or have funding pulled — because, hey, you *can* engage in criticism without feeling the need to ruin a livelihood, or to affect the livelihood of an organization.
Second, the “this shirt was made by a woman!” is the exact same argument that people made when criticisms were made of Bayonetta. “The character designer was a woman!” Similarly irrelevant, but also similarly picked up as an on-going refrain.
The shirt was not only made by a woman, but it was a special one-of-a-kind created as a gift by a female friend of him. He probably wore it as an act of appreciation for her. That is the reason of the outrage. The fact that the gender zealots are weaponizing sincere acts of appreciation, made by overall good people, baffles me.
All the tactics that now are part of GG’s repertoire: character assassination, decontextualization of single instances of perceived misbehaviour, were first used by the Tumblr outrage crowd. You can’t condemn GG’s attempts to defame and destroy lifes and careers of people like Jenn, Brianna, and Zoe without recognizing that we are seeing the same tactics against someone who pushed humankind forward to the stars. It’s a shame.
@Mizahnyx: If you assume that critics are insincere, they they’re “weaponizing sincere acts of appreciation”.
If on the other hand you behave like a decent human being and assume that people mean what they say, then they’re _taking note of something that bothers them, and exercising their right to comment_.
No, it’s not a shame. It would only have been a shame if he hadn’t apologized. He did. Let’s move on and not hand-wring about it.
If you make a special, one-of-a-kind shirt that is that obviously inappropriate for the big day, you’re not a very good friend if you then guilt him into wearing it. She may not have meant to, but she set him up.
Although, once again, I really blame whoever managed the media team. Hell, my media team at SWTOR would freak out if you wore something White or Striped because it looked shitty. They’d never let something like that shirt on the air on something that was representative of our team’s work.
“The shirt was not only made by a woman, but it was a special one-of-a-kind created as a gift by a female friend of him.”
That’s great! Many of my friends have given me gifts that I treasure greatly. But I also realize that several of these gifts would not be appropriate for all circumstances.
I had a shirt as part of my collection that was at least as inappropriate, as part of my collection of tacky club shirts (covered with old Playboy covers). I did wear it to work, for my sins, not because I meant to be sexist but because I had given up on ever being fashionable and was making “tacky” a statement.
I did have enough awareness to never wear it when outsiders were going to be in the office, and I never wore it at industry events (that I can recall, it might have happened, I did mention I have virtually no clothes sense?). Everything I’ve read about this guy indicates something similar, he’s a functional person on the Autism spectrum that almost certainly never thought about how his choices in fashion would be perceived by others, much less that they would be cast as making a deliberate anti-woman statement, and turn one of the crowning moments of his career into a public humiliation.
For my part, I don’t think that any of my co-workers at the time thought I was trying to make a statement, and if I ever made them uncomfortable with it, they have my apologies.
–Dave
Here are some quick counter thoughts on the matter.
Point 1: I agree that it is an amazing achievement. The shirt is largely an irrelevant issue.
Point 2: I have to disagree. That shirt is plain ugly.
Point 3: Agree, couldn’t imagine going to work with a shirt like that on.
Point 4: Very much agree and think this should of been pointed out more. I mean come on, even if you were just a friend and not part of their PR team, give your friend a heads up ‘hey you probably shouldn’t wear that shirt in an interview’.
Point 5: Um I somewhat disagree. Sure a black man, for example, could potentially make a racist piece of art that is derogatory to blacks. Buuuuut it is much less likely happen than a white man making such a shirt. I think if people are debating whether or not the shirt is actually sexist, the fact that a woman made the shirt does have some bearing.
Point 6: Neither agree nor disagree. Would just say that it is likely your sample size on twitter is far to small to make that statement. Could just reflect your own ‘twitter echo chamber’ that you talked about in another blog.
Point 7: COMPETELY DISSAGREE. HOW DARE YOU IMPLY THAT KIM KARDASHIAN IS NOT IMPORTANT!!!
Overall I fill sorry for the guy. Having to apologize for shirt he wore I’m sure is the last thing he wants to be talking about.
On a side note, I really need to get a job where Mr. Taylor works. My god that must be the most laid back workplace culture on earth.
5: A random observer off of the street should not have to ask ‘hey, did a woman create that?’ before deciding to be offended or made uncomfortable. That’s a very silly line to draw, and creates one where it’s impossible for someone to be offended for good reason.
7: That champagne shot, OMFG.
As to your final point, it’s customary when managing geniuses to give them certain room to run, so you tend to get more freedom. Still, you clean up before you go on TV. It is known.
5. Point taken. I wasn’t really talking about peoples initial reaction to the shirt. Which in this case is what mattered. I was talking about the latter internet arguments over the shirt.
Arguments that I am proud to say I have yet to participate in.
This whole thing reminds me of Justin Bieber – if the only people who talked about him were his fans I would hear about him roughly once a year. Instead, because so many people are dedicated to hating on him, I’m lucky if I avoid hearing about him once a day.
As far as the issue itself… Well, the shirt didn’t upset me but I did feel it was inappropriate for the occasion. Your words on the subject are pretty spot on.