Jewish Action Article–Text only

Please Put the Women Back In

By Ann D. Koffsky

 

I am an artist. Dealing with images is my stock and trade, and I know their value.

 

That is why when I see the elimination of female images and names from Jewish publications and dinner advertisements, my heart twists. I worry that we are following in the chukkas hagoyim of the most radical in the Muslim world and sacrificing something incredibly valuable: the images of our righteous women.

 

Removing women from images is a completely unprecedented phenomenon. Indeed, there is a long history of Judaic art showing women: Esther is illuminated in magnificient megillos, Yehudis is a common motif sculpted on old menorahs, and women are pictured sitting around the seder table in ancient haggados. In our own generation images of Rebbbetzin Sima Feinstein appear in a book about her husband, Rav Moshe (Brooklynn, 1986) and a photo of Rebbbetzin Itta Ettil Kaminetsky standing next to her husband Rav Yaakov in their family Succah was published without question. (Brooklyn, 1993).

 

There is simply no Jewish tradition for this new exclusion.

 

Why do we suddenly think that women are inherently inappropriate to be seen by men even if they are dressed appropriately? If that’s true, let’s break out the burkas! After all, if women can’t be seen on a flat printed page, how can they possibly be allowed to be seen in provocative flesh and blood at the grocery store? The premise that we need to protect men from possibly seeing a tzniously-dressed woman is on its face ridiculous and an insult to our husbands and sons. They are not so fragile.

 

Some suggest that it’s just easier this way. Women’s tznius rules are so complex hair covering—sleeves—skirts–etc. that it’s better to just throw everybody off the pages and not deal with it.

 

True.  Tznius is complicated. Life is complicated. In fact, words themselves are complicated. There are numerous rules of lashon horah, and their halachos have filled piles of books over the years.  Perhaps we need to throw all words out of magazines, too. After all, lashon horah, is a d’oraiya, a biblical prohibition equated with murder. It’s arguably an even more serious issue than sleeve length.

 

To be sure, blank pages would be a hard product to sell. Fortunately, Jewish publications have come up with an elegant solution: editing. Jewish newspaper editors use their judgement to curtail lashon horah and write appropriate content. I am confident they can do the same with images of women instead of showing them such disrespect.

 

Yes, erasing our women is not just ridiculous and unnecessary, it is downright disrespectful. Blurring out someone’s name and image has always been a symbol of abhorrence. That’s what we do to Haman on Purim. Now we are choosing to do that to our wives and daughters.

So, what’s the big deal? It’s just nahreshkeit. Who cares?

 

Our children care. The female images they are exposed to begin with Disney princesses and end with underfed, barely clothed fashion models. No matter how we insulate our children, these images creep in from everywhere. Their message is clear: immodest beauty is the most valued asset a woman has, and will get her honor, prestige, magazine covers and news anchor jobs. We must respond to this assault on what it means to be an isha chashuva with powerful images of our own.

 

Showing our Torah-observant heroines to our daughters and sons emphasizes our values. The paragons of chessed who give of themselves, the Rebetzins who have led Bais Yaakov’s, the women who are building their own bayis neeman b’yisroel–these are the women we need images of our children to see and know we value. Why are we surrendering the battlefield of image to the secular world so that our children only get to see printed images of un’tznius women? Our blank spaces have no chance of competing with the power of their photos.

 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Please use those thousands of words to tell and show our sons and daughters what a true Bas Yisroel looks like. Please put the women back in.

 

Ann D. Koffsky is the author and illustrator of more than 25 books for Jewish children. They all include pictures of women. See her work at www.annkoffsky.com.

 

21 Responses

  1. Pingback: Jewish Action-Fall article on women in images

  2. Well done! How sad that in this day and age, Jewish women (or anyone for that matter) would have to deal with such ignorance and intolerance. It speaks very poorly of those publications that are adhering to this policy. I suggest we hit them where it hurts…in the pocketbook and not purchase the publications or newspapers.

  3. Well…we should at least all write lots of letters to the editors.

    The problem seems to be that the audience that wants this as policy gets very vocal, whereas those of us who disagree with this policy just laugh it off as mere ridiculousness.

    Also, if you are a woman who is being honored for a dinner, and you are asked to please step aside so that you are out of the photo, I think it is almost against human nature for that woman to insist she be included. It feels arrogant to demand inclusion; she won’t want to put up a fuss. OTHERS have to insist she be included. And if we don’t, then we are complicit in this craziness.

  4. BS”D

    Sorry that my lengthy comment got erased. I hope you’ll continue drawing pictures of men and women in your delightful books. But the way I see it, we need the fence of not publishing photos of women in weekly orthodox newspapers. It’s not to profect the men but the women who, in most cases, prefer not to have their photos sent around the world. Our children will just have to look to their mothers and morahs as role models.

    All the best,
    Ruby Grosblatt

  5. Go Ann, so well said. We cannot allow our Jewish women to be required to wear burkas, which is obviously the next step.

  6. Hi, Ruby: thanks for your comment! I have trouble understanding the opposite argument on this so I really appreciate you taking the time to articulate the reasoning behind it.

    I guess my issue is is that the individual women are not choosing to be included or not–this is a modesty requirement that is being imposed or expected by the community.

    I personally do not have a problem sharing my picture, and I do so often in my press materials, and on my website. I wear a sheitel, and I am dressed appropropriaty–I am tznius. If I am tzniusly dressed, I should have the choice of whether my image is shared or not. Instead women are, as a matter of course, being cropped out without being asked their thoughts at all, no matter how they are presenting themselves.

    And if that is the concern…why is not OK for womens photos to be shared around the world, but it is OK for mens to be shared around the world–when they are BOTH tznius!? Rebetzin Feinstein and her kids fine with her photo being published on a mass scale in the Artscroll book about her husband. Why are we trying to be ‘frumer’ than Rebetzin Feinstein?

    Thanks again for discussing this with me. It really is great to have the opportunity to dialogue about this–Thank you!

  7. Dear Ann,

    Of course we’re not trying to be frummer than Rebbetzin Feinstein nor other great role models such as Rebbetzin Raichel Horowitz whose family photos add so much to her book The Bostoner Rebbetzin Remembers. It’s different to print a woman’s picture in a book about her or her husband then to weekly print women’s pictures in orthodox newspapers.

    I hear your view, and I read and respect papers such as The Jewish Press that prints photos of women. But, I also respect the right of other papers such as Hamodia and Yated Ne’eman for choosing not to publish photos of women. Someone has to take a stand to protect the precious view of tznius not related to how a woman dresses. Throughout Jewish history, a women’s role has been more hidden. Hidden but vital to the survival of our people.

    Thanks, Ann, for the opportunity to dialogue with you.
    Sincerely,
    Ruby

  9. Hey, Ruby.

    Hmm. Nope I still don’t get it. But I respect that you have a different view, and will agree to disagree!

  10. As a woman in the Conservative world, I find this dialogue interesting and yet I also find it sad. Healthy, yes. But why sad? Because while there’s often little agreement among the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements, in my naivete I wanted to believe there’d be agreement among the modern Orthodox; as Jews have enough enemies and disagreement from the rest of the world. So I felt quite drawn and connected to the issue Ann posed, and her points are so clearly expressed… And on a related note- I just finished reading a remarkable book, Sky of Red Poppies, by Zohreh Ghahremani. An adult fiction book, not a peep of anything Jewish in it. And how does it relate to this discussion? It’s the story of several Muslim families in Iran at the time when the Shah was in power, and when revolution was just beginning in Iran. Each family was religious/observant in varying degrees, and the story is told through the point of view of mainly the teenage characters in all the families, and their teachers and their schools. It relates to Ann’s article because it shows how fundamentalism (OK, here we are calling it issues of what is more “frum,”) seeps into the society, when certain practices formerly OK are newly restricted. In this case Ann brought up the issue of women depicted in ancient illuminated and exquisite megillot and haggadot. We all know the outcome in Iran’s case – the Shah was deposed, Khomeni came into power, and moving along… the lives of women have become ever so more restricted. You can say, “Oh it’s them, not us,” but fundamentalism can become the same in all religions. The question is raised in Ann’s article of – why the restriction IF is it not there historically in our holy texts? BRAVO ANN!

  11. And why should a woman’s role be hidden? I don’t think it’s prideful to have your efforts publicized and I certainly don’t think it has anything to do with tznius in the strictest sense. If we’re extending the concept of tznius beyond dress and applying to actions and deeds and the celebration of them, shouldn’t this apply to men as well?

    I think that it’s a lofty idea for girls to have their mothers and morahs to look up to. But what about those who don’t have such good role models? Wouldn’t it be nice for them to open up the newspaper or see the news and see these wonderful role models there?

    Ann, I am 100% with you on this. I’m fairly out of the loop on this whole thing and the only instance that comes to mind is Hilary Clinton being edited out the famous Situation Room picture in Der Tzitung. Whether or not you agree with her politics I think she’s a good role model for girls to show that they can achieve positions of prominence where they can make a difference. That other papers are editing tzniusdik Jewish women from their publications doesn’t surprise me, and disgusts me as well.

  13. I don’t think it’s the newspapers fault, btw. I think they want to make a parnassah, and are catering to their audience. The fund raising dinners are doing it too. This is how they define themselves as ‘kosher’. Their audience is expecting/ demanding this new standard. Or tolerating the new standard. Or not even noticing what’s missing. Not sure why…

  14. Excellent article and well said.
    To the issue that people are entitled to their chumrot, yes but only if they are private and not on the cheshbon of others. The problem as well is that today’s craziness in tomorrow’s norm and yes, absolutely we must vocally protest or this crazy shtick will indeed be the new normal. In the misguided quest not to offend some perhaps nonexistent anshei sgulah publishers have no problem offending the vast majority of Jewry. The excuse is halachah but the goal is obviously the disenfranchise women and make them disappear. This has nothing to do with halachah since as the article points out, images of tzanua women are equally discarded.

  15. However one should protest loudly not just to the publishers but also to organizations that allow the publishers to remove all evidence of women as if we live in some Judean desert Essene community devoid of women.

    I recently complained to Aish bc they had pics in a community circular of their dinner without a single pic of a woman bc those are the rules of the publication: men only. However the irony is that this Aish dinner was a fundraiser HONORING FOUR WOMEN for their contributions to the community!

  16. Here is what I sent to them, without a meaningful response:

    I wanted to express my disappointment that Aish allowed pictures of its Gala Dinner honouring great Jewish women who impact our world to appear in The Community Link with evidence of the existence of women expunged. I understand it is the policy of that publication to exclude images of even the most tzanua women. Regardless, I am disappointed Aish played along.

  17. Ann, thank you for your article, you summarized the issues well. It is important to speak up against discrimination. Discrimination, even in the name of religion is not ok. I hope it will be a wake up call to people against the dangers of extremism. Like Melech said above:”Today’s craziness is tomorrow’s normal” and there is no end to craziness.

  19. Melech–I think your note is exactly the appropriate action that we should all be taking. No boycotts, no flame throwing–just the articulation of our thoughts to those making these decisions. They are being so careful not offend–we should sensitize them to the fact that in fact, they are offending even more people by this new exclusion.

  20. Hi Ann,

    I just read your beautifully written article. I was so impressed with your heartfelt and respectful call for change. I agree with you wholeheartedly, Tznius does not require erasing anyone!

    Yael

  21. Thank you Ann! for articulating so powerfully what we are up against. These insidious”rightous” moves that seem so small, build up to have a larger effect and so much is being sacrificed for what Yiddishkeit could be.Along with moves like these – fear based moves comes the stifling of the feminine voice – the joy, the creativity and the self expression. My Bais Yakkov daughter just told me that aside from the kids who are completely off the derech, she estimates 50% of them are “not feeling it at all.” we have a lot to combat. Thank you for your brave and outspoken stance.
    I want to doubly thank you because I have a website and my image is very public and I’ve really had to ask questions and work this

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