By Wikipedia’s definition, I’m a feminist. I also believe women should have a bit more rights than men. Because, for example, there is no way I’m getting pregnant, and I reckon that should account to something. Other than these nuances, I do believe in gender equality.

Also: by Wikipedia’s definition, I’m not an idiot. Not always, at least. But normally I don’t have to try hard not to be one.

It took me a moment to fully understand the latest and greatest something-gate™: this time it’s #ShirtGate, and you probably heard about it. A brilliant scientist achieves something humanity hasn’t achieved before, and what we talk about is the shirt he’s been wearing when he made history.

His sense of fashion is undoubtedly questionable. But pictures and interviews of Dr Taylor made the round trip on the internet, pointing to the sexism that having comic-like girls on your shirt represents.

As if that shirt is the reason why there aren’t women in tech. Not the salary disparity, not the lack of blind tests in tech, not the perpetual genderisation of toys and presents for kids leading to a lack of women in STEM studies.
No. It’s that shirt now.

We keep telling ourselves that we shouldn’t give appearances too much of a weight. And while an Australian anchor wears the same suit for a whole year, making an excellent point on how we judge differently men and women when it comes to style, we had to witness an amazing scientist in tears because of a shirt.

Let’s consider what’s the take away for a young kid who read about this: it doesn’t matter if you’re able to pilot a probe that responds to your inputs with 28 minutes of delay, if you’re not dressed to the task. Oh, and you need to be able to drive, apparently.
Given I am a big nerd, and I’ve always been, I do remember the harassing caused by my looks. We used to call it bullying.

I bought a Breaking Bad t-shirt, representing a killer and drug dealer, one of the nastiest anti-heroes that has ever been depicted. I am absolutely certain that if Matt Taylor wore that t-shirt when Philae landed on 67P, no controversy would have been stirred. Rather, he would have received a ton of “Hey, a fan of Breaking Bad!”, followed by a lot of high fives, from both men and women.

Walter “Heisenberg” White is the worst role model possible, and yet I didn’t see anyone complaining with Qwertee about printing such a t-shirt. Why is it more acceptable to praise such a character rather than wearing something that depicts anonymous women?