The first pictures from the comet landing were spectacular, but it's another picture that's getting attention.
Scientist Dr. Matt Taylor — who led the European Space Agency team that landed a robot probe on a comet, capping a project project decades years in the making, according to the BBC — had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction at a celebratory press conference for the success of the Rosetta mission.
His shirt covered in cartoon-like images of buxom, scantily-clad women in seductive poses caught plenty of flak on Twitter for the unwelcoming, sexist message they said it could send women in science fields.
His shirt says to women in STEM: I have no respect for you as a professional. When I look at you, I see a sex object http://t.co/ql13ZdJqLj — Katie Grasha (@ktgrasha) November 13, 2014
No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. https://t.co/r88QRzsqAm pic.twitter.com/XmhHKrNaq5 — Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 12, 2014
"ESA can land their robot on a comet. A comet! It’s amazing. But they still can’t see misogyny under their noses," Alice Bell wrote in a column for The Guardian. "Pointing this out is not a distraction to the science. It’s part of it."
