[heterogenic]

Honestly, the fact that all his "demo" screens are filled with porn, on a university page, is almost as interesting (in a sociological sense) as the actual clever image multiplexing hack.

I just hope he's only a student, and not in a position of responsibility. (Not that that necessarily makes it OK, but at least it would reflect less on the institution).

edit: ok, not porn, "objectified female bodies". Because that makes it more appropriate?

[HarryHirsch]

The choice of images is backwards, that's the only way to describe it. Lenna as reference image was a suitable choice in the 1970s, when IBM engineers would attend live sex shows on the company's dime, but nowadays she raises eyebrows, and we are stuck with her.

The imagery is a statement, and it makes you ask yourself how the place is run. How would someone who isn't exactly like the rest of them fare, someone who is older, female, gay, or not a foosball-playing craft beer fanboy brogrammer? It's a common observation of foreigners that Americans have a very hard time with diversity. A walk around any college campus confirms this. Where are the punks, hippies, and queers? And what's with all the girls wearing hotpants? It's as if they were some kind of uniform.

[coldtea]

First, that's not porn. In the worst case, it's "glamour models" (could also be regular models).

Second, we "objectify mens/females bodies" all the time. It just means that we treat them as something nice to look at. That's 90% of Hollywood, pop music, advertisements, and tons of everyday interactions. An art nude, by Picasso or whoever, it's exactly that too.

This guy is not involved in sex trafficking or anything. He just likes how professional models, people paid to be photographed and wishing for a successful career in modeling photography, look on photographs.

Also, from my experience with similar discussions: if he had gay models on the monitors, nobody that speaks of "objectification" would have said anything. Some (stupid) people might have made fun of him for the gay pictures, but champions of non-objectification would not have mentioned anything about objectification.

[bluedino]

>> all his "demo" screens are filled with porn

I don't see any porn there. They may be images of models that participate in adult-themed photo shoots, but none of those images are 'porn'.

It's also not uncommon for images of women from magazines such as Playboy to be used in graphics research. One of the most famous images in computer graphics, 'henna', is a scan from a Playboy magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna

[smallerize]

Porn is a slang term and the definition can be fuzzy depending on context. I don't think it's very common. Lenna is the only on I can think of, and it's more of historical accident.

[heterogenic]

Aaaaand... That makes it appropriate how?

[coldtea]

First you have to prove why it's inappropriate.

Is it because some people have a magic ability to give dictums to what other people can and can not enjoy?

Or because the naked human form should never be considered pleasant to look at, and hang at walls, as wallpaper, etc?

[stbtrax]

It's inappropriate because the field of engineering is in dire need of more women, and it doesn't help the situation. Imagine if you wanted to go into a field such as nursing and all of the men in the text books were oiled up shirtless muscular dudes.

[coldtea]

>It's inappropriate because the field of engineering is in dire need of more women, and it doesn't help the situation.

That's marketing thinking though, not a real moral objection.

>Imagine if you wanted to go into a field such as nursing and all of the men in the text books were oiled up shirtless muscular dudes.

This is not text books though. It's a student page. If another student, a woman, has pictures of shirtless ripped-abs male actors in her page, I wouldn't bat an eye.

[anonbanker]

I dunno. I'd probably enjoy the textbook more. I suppose I'd be the target demographic, though.

[angersock]

It's rather tacky, sure, but the technical content is good.

Would you prefer he used "objectified male bodies"? "objectified trans bodies"? Guro (don't look this up)? Scat? Cat macros?

Also, how does being in a position of responsibility somehow magically disallow you from expressing yourself honestly (and having to deal with those repercussions)?

Close-minded lot.

EDIT:

I would've used different source images had I been presenting in public, but this looks more like a little project page of some hobby stuff for him. The fact that he decides to use Asian pinups as his test cases is just a minor side-note to me.

[Hytosys]

>Would you prefer he used "objectified male bodies"? "objectified trans bodies"?

I'm sure the OP is level headed enough to not prefer the author have used any image that objectified a human being, regardless of their sex or gender.

> Also, how does being in a position of responsibility somehow magically disallow you from expressing yourself honestly?

I agree that the level of imposed responsibility is meaningless, but the problem still remains that women are being objectified and it's a normal and casual part of our culture.

>Close-minded lot.

Unnecessary. This exact jab can just as easily be used to get a rise out of your ilk.

[coldtea]

>I'm sure the OP is level headed enough to not prefer the author have used any image that objectified a human being, regardless of their sex or gender.

What makes that "level-headed" instead of "wrong in multiple directions"?

Define "objectification". Those are professional models, that specifically picked that line of work, and want to have a succesful career in it. And wanting to appreciate something not for its whole qualities but for some aspect of them is completely normal. When I watch basketball I only care for that guys athletic qualities, not his personality. When I go to a fast food joint, I only care for the persons ability to serve my order, not his/hers other qualities in general.

Heck, I'd consider a photo of McDonald workers flipping burgers far more objectificated, but since it's not "fashionable" enough topic, nobody bats an eye.

[Hytosys]

I posit the effects run deeper. The idea when discussing these photos is not so much the effect on the subjects (who did indeed choose the field) but the effect on the onlookers and the resulting effect on the general population of women. I hypothesize that viewers of such content are more expectant that all women are to be viewed as sexual objects.

Admittedly, I do not know the extent of which this idea is true; I'm researching now.

[angersock]

That it is a normal and casual part of our culture suggests that it may not be inherently wrong. There are some other (better!) arguments to be made here, but the but but but objectification one is overplayed and usually rings hollow.

If you'd like to make an argument about objectification, we really ought to broaden it to include things like objectification of programmers (rockstar ninja 90+ hr workerbees), of entrepreneurs (I can get 10x my money back if I invest in this person), or of anything else, really.

How would you go about showing that objectification is inherently a bad thing?

EDIT:

Sexual objectification as a particular subset of objectification would be a good starting point. Do be careful in your word choice, because words and phrases have specific connotations.

EDIT2:

Look, look, downvote away, but the deal is that objectification as an argument is so often used and abused in discussions that, unless you are careful, you end up casting a sort of vague "sexy pictures of people are wrong or undesirable" message out.

A lot of people (unfortunately, not always only the ones that are idiots) will tune out your point if you say "objectification" without supporting rhetoric and reasoning. If you want to claim the high-ground (which is not unreasonable), you have to form your arguments better.

So, instead of downvoting because you disagree, downvote and try to explain why sexual objectification is wrong (if it is indeed wrong), why it isn't (or shouldn't be, or should be) held to the same standard as normal objectification (a useful form of abstraction for doing business with people we all use every day), and/or how using any image of a human being without a lot of humanizing detail isn't also objectification.

Taken to its extreme, you end up with something similar to Islamic aniconism. I'm not sure this is a bad thing mind you, but depending on your arguments you may well arrive at a similar proscription.

[Hytosys]

>How would you go about showing that objectification is inherently a bad thing?

A good question for students of psychology and sociology. I'm certainly not claiming authority, but here are a couple of relevant studies:

[1] http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/01/21/036168431038...

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777639/

[kevinpet]

They're not porn, people pointing it out aren't whining about nothing. You are misusing a word in a way which completely changes the interpretation. Calling something "porn" generally implies nudity, if not actual sex, or at the very least, revealing lingerie. The pictures appear to be of women in bikinis. At least one of them seems to be posing next to a car as you would find at an auto show.

If someone posted an article with screen shots of actual porn, it would be distracting to the point that you would assume he had psychological problems.

The term you're looking for is "swimsuit models", "pin-up models", or "booth babes".

None of these are the "Lena" image. That image is defensible in an image compression context because it's standardized. It's unfortunate that a cropped photo out of Playboy became the standard for image compression, but someone could agree that it's an unfortunate choice, but continue to use it because it is relatively standard. Similarly, others may find its content distracting and unprofessional and use a different image.

And if you want to make a point and try to move people in the direction of realizing that using scantily clad women as a decorative touch is unacceptable in a professional context, you would do well to not exaggerate this and equate it with porn. By calling this "porn" you lump yourself in with the caricature of straw man feminists equating inappropriate remarks with rape.

[heterogenic]

And your reason for posting this pedantic diatribe hours after the original post was corrected to "objectified female bodies" is... What? To revel in a pedantic takedown of a straw man?

[sqrt17]

To be really straightforward with it: your post calls for censorship, both self-censorship and the institutional kind. It is your burden to point out why you think using zhis material in illustrations of a technical claim deserves censorship, and if you overstep the line of what is reasonable, you deserve as much criticism as the person you would want to censor. To be sure, persons (not bodies) can be objectified ... as a means for attaining power, money, sex, whatever. As one person pointed out, the actual contents of the pictures didn't matter to most HN readers, it could have contained gay-specific material and still have the exact effect ("whoa, splitting into three b/w channels"). Was there any objectification involved in the student using these photos to illustrate this point to us? I guess not. Should we be sad that this guy didn't have any pictures of food or sunny beaches that looked recognizable in black and white? Probably yes, even though calling for public ostracism and censorship would be way over the line.

[heterogenic]

So... Tearing down a straw man then.

You could've just said "yes".

(The operative part of that reply was "hours after it was amended". Your rant, and 90% of the other replies on this thread, added nothing at all to the conversation besides typical red pill douche-baggery.)

[anonbanker]

I'm posting a day late into the thread to say that all of your posts on this thread have been very counter-productive, glib, and mean-spirited. Please don't accuse other HN'ers you've never met of being douchebags. You ruin the conversation by doing so. This is not reddit, or 4chan, so please don't treat HN as if it were.

I'm frankly shocked that dang hasn't been here to state this for me.

[mrweasel]

While I agree it's an interesting choice of demo images and I would have chosen differently, I really don't care. He could have used gay porn and I still wouldn't care.

It's a fun little project, if you're into electronics, but perhaps not all that useful.

[sliverstorm]

Well, I probably would be annoyed/mildly offended if it was truly graphic. E.G. if it was a clip from one of those beheading videos, or hardcore porn, or... Choice of images isn't utterly irrelevant.

[scardine]

It is a sad sign of our times: a post complaining about sexism - edited to change a hyperbole for a more politically correct phrasing. Sigh.

[angersock]

It's not politically correct...the author of the comment was acknowledging that the word choice used was incorrect, and amended (not edited!) their comment to show a different phrase.

When discussing things of a delicate nature, where precision matters and thoughtless wordchoice will easily derail any useful discussion, having such scruples is something to celebrate and not mock.

[heterogenic]

I was under the impression that amending > editing if the text in question had been discussed or quoted.

In the (extremely) unlikely event that I post here again, I'll be sure to stealth edit any changes instead.

[anonbanker]

well, then thank you for choosing to improve the signal-to-noise ratio at HN by opting not to post again.

[angersock]

Eh? Stealth edits are lame...amendments (as you did) I think are strictly better.

[scardine]

I remember the time when nobody would care about the pictures or the word choice. And boy, I miss it!

[Theodores]

Long live Lenna!

I am glad so many people today are familiar with that particular reference image. Choosing Lenna (or the baboon or the Landsat picture of the Bay Area) simply shows that one knows one's history and one has some respect for the pioneers.

At the end of the day these images are arrangements of ones and zeroes yet so much more than that at the same time. Long live Lenna!

[A_COMPUTER]

FWIW, all the girls on the Coby TV are Japanese TV serial stars from around 2006-ish, which looks to be about when that webpage was made.

[ehmorris]

This is a student's account. In the CS department at Northeastern, each student is given some server space and can do almost whatever they want with it, including hosting a website.

I was in Northeastern's CS program for a bit.

[beedogs]

Could we as a society maybe tone down the SJW just a bit? They're pictures of women. Big deal.

[pr-gilbert]

How are these photos "objectified female bodies"?

[heterogenic]

I assume you're not serious...

But maybe you're not seeing the same images as everyone else. Most of us see these on his page: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/test_rgb/testrgb.jpg http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/test_rgb/3girl_test3.JPG http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/test_rgb/3girl_test.JPG

In fact, all of his non-technical images are of scantily clad or posing women. That's fine in some contexts, but definitely not professional or welcoming to female students.

[pr-gilbert]

> In fact, all of his non-technical images are of scantily clad or posing women. That's fine in some contexts, but definitely not professional or welcoming to female students.

The professionalism of the photos on a university website is an entirely different issue. I was addressing the point of the photos objectifying the women.

There was a convention in my state this past weekend that had plenty of "cosplayers", men and women, who were dressed similarly to the women in these pictures. They were scantily clad as you mentioned. I'm sure many of these people wish they could dress that way on a day to day basis but it's not yet acceptable in today's society so they don't. Hardly anyone would say they were objectifying themselves, so how is this any different without making assumptions about the source of the photos? Maybe these women also choose to dress this way?

[Hytosys]

I think that objectification is part of the reason that many cosplayers do not dress as they do on a normal basis. We live in a culture of sexual repression, and as a result: sexual objectification.

[scotty79]

This just looks like some still frames from Rihanna or whatever...

[inportb]

Objectification is in the eye of the beholder.