Slate: It’s Remarkable How Wrong This Newsweek Cover of a Woman Deflating a Balloon Penis Is

Good grief Newsweek...what were you thinking?!

From Slate: 

Something weird must be wafting through the HVAC system over at Newsweek, where the storied weekly has chosen to illustrate a story about sexual harassment and assault with a larger-than-life set of male genitalia, rendered as a bright orange balloon animal, being popped by a needle in a white lady’s hand.

In no imaginable universe is “woman poking a fake penis with a sharp object” the appropriate visual shorthand for “women bravely sharing their experiences with sexual harassment.”

Making a penis (or its inflatable equivalent) the central image for a story about women seizing power over their assailants is actually a pretty good example of how rape culture distorts discussions of sexual violence. The problem with sexual harassers isn’t their boners! Boners in a vacuum are neither good nor evil! If the teenage boy–cum–carnival worker in charge of Newsweek covers these days really wanted to go with the woman stabbing body parts idea, it would have made more sense for her to be slicing up a male brain, where decisions to abuse and exploit women are made.

Read more at Slate.com