Áine Carroll: IMAGE’s All-White Women of the Year

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From top: IMAGE Woman of the Year 2018 logo; Tweets between Áine Carroll and Image magazine’s Digital editor Dominique McMullan; Áine

IMAGE.ie published their Women of the Year list at the weekend. All of the women featured were deserving of the accolade, but one thing stood out and made the list seem, well, odd. They were all white:

Dominique McMullan, IMAGE’s digital editor, responded on Monday to a tweet I had sent over the weekend (see above), but later deleted her reply.

Dominique subsequently reached out and provided a statement, which you can read at the bottom of this article.

There should not be two lists, and yet here we are. In 2018. With a white-only list and an alternative list that, frankly, I should not have had to compile.

Here are some exceptional women that IMAGE could have included, but didn’t:

Ellie Kisyombe
Ellie is from Malawi and is set to become the first woman living in Direct Provision to stand in the local elections when they take place next year. Running for the Social Democrats in the North Inner City ward of Dublin City Council, Ellie is an activist speaking out about Direct Provision and founded Our Table to highlight the ban on asylum seekers cooking their own food in Direct Provision centres. Ellie is seeking asylum in Ireland and has lived here for more than nine years. She was recently celebrated in an exhibition of specially commissioned works of art, Local Heroes, run by Dublin City Council Culture Company.

Wuraola Majekodunmi
Ola is absolutely smashing it as a fluent speaker of Irish and has a weekly radio show on Raidió Na Life every Saturday from 4pm-5pm. She is also a contributor to the Motherfoclóir podcast. With Nigerian heritage, she has a degree in English, Media and Cultural Studies from the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Ola is also a video producer and recently produced and directed a video, What does ‘Irishness’ Look Like, challenging stereotypical assumptions of what it means to be Irish in 2018.

Shubhangi Karmakar
Shubhangi is a young person of colour who is queer and disabled and who has recently moved on from housing insecurity to starting a not-for-profit brand. She raised over €10,000 for Repeal and other social causes in Ireland, on top of being a medical student and researcher who is lecturing publicly about the need for diversity in science communication. Shubhangi also recently created a website, repealist.ie, to platform diversity in Ireland.

FeliSpeaks
FeliSpeaks (aka Felicia Olusanya) is a young Nigerian-Irish spoken word performance artist, writer and poet who is in demand. She delivers show-stopping performances and co-wrote a sold-out spoken word play called ‘BOYCHILD’. Felispeaks is also an award winning artist, honoured by the African Professional Network of Ireland for her unique contribution to the Dublin City art scene in 2017. Blurring the lines between music and poetry, she has performed alongside Saul Williams, Super Silly, JyellowL, NC Grey and more. With poems that explore different ideas of feminism, coming of age experiences and universal personal experiences, her art is centred on connecting with her audience through honesty, openness and thought provoking observations.

Ilaina Khairulzaman
Ilaina is scientist and public engagement coordinator with Sense about Science, a charity campaigning to challenge the misrepresentation of science and evidence in public life. Ilaina has a research masters in immunology from Trinity College Dublin and is trained as a bioinformatician. Ilaina is also a campaigner and activist highlighting issues faced by migrant women and ethnic minorities.

Celaviedmai
Celaviedmai, also known as Maimouna Salif, is an Irish-born rapper who has opened for Lil Wayne, Mac Miller, Hoodie Allen, Tinchy Stryder, Sneakbo, Section Boyz and recently Jimothy Lacoste. She also wrote the catchy theme tune to the popular It Galz Podcast. The 25 year old from Galway is a talented songwriter and regularly performs at festivals and events, including Electric Picnic, the Fringe Festival and recently Working Class Heroes. Celaviedmai has been featured in the New York Times and Vice’s Noisey and is the face of hip hop in Ireland on Google. She has her own catalogue of music on Spotify.

Filomena Kaguako
Filomena is a blogger, YouTuber and Tedx speaker with a special interest in modern dating and relationships. She regularly features as a commentator and writer in Irish media and recently wrote about the nuances in implied consent for thejournal.ie. Her viral open letter titled ‘Dear Irishmen, Please Stop Sexualising Us,’ garnered immense media attention last summer where she shut down a phenomenon that has been recognised as the fetishisation of black women in dating circles. This catapulted her across the internet and featured her in over 15 publications worldwide, including Huffington Post, Refinery 29 and The Metro, to name just a few. Filomena made her television debut in May 2018 where she was part of the cast for a ground-breaking Channel 4 series called Genderquake. Watch her Tedx talk here.

Dr. Ebun Joseph
Dr. Joseph is an author, social justice activist, motivational speaker, intercultural consultant and researcher in the field of race relations, racial stratification and the labour market. She oversees a module in UCD, the first of its kind in Ireland, called Black Studies and Critical Race Perspectives in Education. The course examines “the histories, social movements and contributions of people of African descent, as well as look[ing] at contemporary forms of Blackness in society and around the world.”

Vanessa Ifediora
Vanessa is a talented photographer and actress originally from Belfast. She was living in Japan when she took up photography to help her combat anxiety. Vanessa moved to Dublin in 2017 to attend acting school and from there contributed to the What does ‘Irishness’ look like video. Her mental health and recovery project, Zone In, was exhibited in A4 Sounds to raise money for the rape crisis centre and Vanessa’s newest project is called Off-White Sheets.

Clara Rose Thornton
Clara Rose Thornton is a spoken word artist, culture journalist, event organiser and radio and television broadcaster. Her work focuses on the arts and their intersection with social justice, identity politics, history and place. She is a three-time Dublin/Leinster Poetry Slam Champion. Clara Rose frequently contributes to RTÉ radio shows including “The Ryan Tubridy Show”, “The History Show”, and “Arena”. She was instrumental in founding the inaugural Black History Month Ireland in 2014, and toured the country as the observance’s headlining performer. She performs her provocative spoken word at festivals and venues across Europe and North America and her print cultural criticism is published internationally, including in the Irish Independent and the Irish Times.

Áine Mulloy
Áine is a co-founder of GirlCrew.com, a start-up venture aimed at helping women make new friends and to date they have raised €810,000 in seed funding with investors who include LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Wrigley CMO Orla Mitchell and PCH chief executive Liam Casey. She recently featured in the Forbes EU Top 100 Female Founders to follow and is a TEDx speaker, a diversity advocate, and an activist in areas such as Direct Provision and homelessness.

Dr. Georsan Caruth
Native of Trinidad and Tobago, Georsan came to Ireland nearly two decades ago. Now a Neonatologist in training (fancy for doctor of babies) and award nominated clinical lecturer in Paediatrics at UCD, she’s an ardent defender of human rights causes. An annoyingly eternal optimist, Georsan is always willing to try anything twice. When not eating her way around the world, she lifts heavy things for fun.

Lorraine Maher – #IamIrish
Lorraine Maher is a proud Tipperary woman with an African twist. Frustrated with “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish” as the only explanation given for her existence and inspired by the lack of representation of the Black Irish experience, Lorraine launched #IamIrish to celebrate mixed race culture and to question the what an authentic ‘Irish’ identity means for communities today. She is an experienced cultural advisor, educator, trainer, international speaker, creative practitioner, director, producer and curator and brings some of the hardest to reach communities and organisations together through inspirational collaborations and experiences. She has developed pioneering creative programmes that place hidden stories and voices at the heart of their vision. Lorraine also has a special interest in work around identify and belonging, mental health and well being, domestic violence, young people, gender equality and homelessness.

Zainab Boladale
Zainab Boladale is a reporter and presenter for RTÉ’s daily children’s news programme, news2day. The 22-year-old was born in Nigeria and raised in Ireland. She loves talking to people and learning about their stories, which is one of the reasons she chose to study Journalism at Dublin City University. In 2017 she was named Journalist of the Year at the DCU Hybrid Awards and was nominated in the same category in the Union of Students in Ireland Achievement Awards. Earlier this year, she was nominated for U Magazine’s 30 under 30 awards in the Entertainment category. She spoke at the Other Voices Ireland’s Edge Conference in 2017 about Ireland being a ‘Migrant Nation’ and is on the line up to speak at 2019’s Inspirefest.

Emily Waszak
Emily Waszak is a long time anti-racist activist and organiser. She is a Japanese-American woman originally from North Carolina who first arrived in Ireland more than 10 years ago. Emily was heavily involved in the campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment, and tirelessly fought for migrant and ethnic minority inclusion in the campaign. She was a member of the Abortion Rights Campaign for many years as well as co-organiser of Strike 4 Repeal and co-founder of MERJ (Migrants and Ethnic-Minorities for Reproductive Justice). Emily has also been a member of the Anti-Racism Network and the Irish Housing Network in Ireland.

Tolu Makay
Tolu Makay, aka Tolulope Makanjuola, is a singer-songwriter based in Dublin who expresses and makes sense of life around her through music. She began by writing poetry and later transitioned to songwriting. Inspired by the likes of Jessie J, Sabrina Claudio, Erykah Badu, Nina Simone, Kirk Franklin, this Soul alt-Rnb singer aspires to be a household name one day. While staying true to the theme of experience, empowerment and self love her two singles Goodbye and Reflection have become anthems for many young women finding their feet and she has her own catalogue on Spotify. Her message is one of love and hope and she is part of an NGO in Nigeria founded by her mother (Monimak Global foundation) which was set up to help the less privileged. She has projects on the way to improve ones mindfulness with the use of the degree she acquired in Psychology and Philosophy in NUIG.

Móna Lxsa
Móna Lxsa established her name working with high profile brands like Heineken, Thinkhouse, Google, Facebook, Hennessy, Benefit Cosmetics, Pretty Little Thing, Nasty gal and IMRO, among others, and has been quickly recognised as a true tastemaker and voice of authority within the creative and music industry. From co-founding record label Souletiquette in 2013 to playing the biggest festivals stages as Soule’s official DJ, she is an all-rounder with a proven track record. In May 2018 she launched Gxrl Code, a creative collective and platform for women across the industry to celebrate, showcase and support women in all areas. She has mastered the art of juggling the fast-paced realms of being a community leader, an artist manager, social influencer, a fierce creative entrepreneur and now earning her spot as MRA Executive at Thinkhouse.

Some of the listees named above provided their perspective on IMAGE’s list:

Shubhangi Karmakar said:

“I think the issue with IMAGE’s list of Women of the Year that is all-white plays into the exact same kind of myopic platforming that we have seen with other publications like Irish Tatler when they published their Remembering Repeal article. I’ve also been calling out organisations like Tatler and TEDx every single day for the last six weeks for erasing the achievements of people of colour.

It is incredibly endemic and it is systematic. Whenever the issues are called out the only outcome we get is organisations saying, “Oh, exclusion wasn’t our aim.” Exclusion that comes around as a result of targeted, deliberate erasure is something that is easier to draw attention to and easier to drive change within. Exclusion that happens innately or almost thoughtlessly is much harder to change because that speaks to the entrenched nature of white privilege in Irish platforming at large.

It is very unfortunate to see because there are so many people of colour putting in their labour and talent in such diverse ways after having faced inordinate adversity. We have faced physical abuse in person and verbal abuse online on almost a daily basis in Ireland for doing the work we do, but have made such a contribution with our talents that it is about time that contribution is fairly recognised.”

Vanessa Ifediora said:

“This shit freaks my nut not only because women of colour shouldn’t be an afterthought in the first place, but a magazine editor asking the public for suggestions as if we’re not out here smashing it…like if you work in media and can’t think up a single worthy woman of colour for yourself like…yikes.”

Áine Mulloy said:

“In recent months we’ve seen some very obvious and high profile instances of erasure and sidelining. This is a problem as it allows there to be a continuation of the perception that only a certain section of society are active and worth championing. That the creators of this list didn’t see a problem with it when they published it – is the issue. When people in positions of power, such as the media, put forward such lists they are accepted.

That the list is not inclusive tells readers that only one section of society is worth rewarding. That one section of society is doing anything of merit, worth reading about, worth considering. That, ultimately, there is only one section in society. Yet we know this is isn’t true. Ireland is an increasingly diverse nation – and there has been diversity here for quite some time.

It’s long overdue that media organisations become more reflective of the society they represent and create content for. It’s not about diminishing the work of the women listed, it’s about acknowledging that there is an incredible pool of people to choose from and that we should be looking to uplift new voices.”

Lorraine Maher said:

“This crap from IMAGE does not surprise me in the least, the continuous whitewashing gets boring.”

Filomena Kaguako said:

“To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t even aware of this and I probably wouldn’t have noticed had it not been pointed out to me. I think the women included in the list are all very credible females and I couldn’t thank you enough for holding my work and achievements to the same esteem as theirs.”

Georsan Caruth said:

“The Ireland I live in isn’t often reflected in the media. Take public transport or look at our school children for proof that it’s a country of more than one shade. When best of lists only include a homogenous slice of our island, it’s not lazy but willful ignorance. Don’t practice tokenism either. There are more than enough women of colour doing their best everyday. It’s not our job to be seen, it’s a reporter’s job to see.”

Ellie Kisyombe said:

“The IMAGE list is some list! I am happy to see the women I look up to and being close with named in that report, such as Dr. Ciara Kelly and Una Mullally. We can only celebrate them, how do they choose?! Do they do research? I am sure they just choose to play a blind eye because if I remember there was an article that Una wrote and she recommended my name. I can’t speak for others but in my opinion my name has come through to them or maybe we don’t meet their criteria.“

Emily Waszak said:

“To be clear, magazines like IMAGE do not exist to empower women, they exist to reinforce patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism by creating an “IMAGE™” ideal woman that is rich, cishet and white that we are meant to aspire to be, all while working harder under austerity for less money to buy more shit that we don’t need off of the backs of other exploited labourers.

It’s not a surprise then that they don’t rate us or our work. And so what if we got a woman of colour in that list? Of course it would be good for young women of colour to see themselves reflected in the world, but would that change the material reality of the lives of black and brown women in Ireland? Our work can’t just be about getting our individual faces on the cover of a magazine without challenging the structures of oppression that these publications are built upon.”

Statement from IMAGE:

On December 14th IMAGE.ie published a Women of the Year 2018 list. This list was compiled to honour, recognise and celebrate Irish women who made an impact in their field this year. IMAGE staff were invited to put forward their nominations and all were all taken into account. In the reader nominated category we asked IMAGE readers to let us know who their woman of the year was.

The winner was the person who received the most votes.

On receiving feedback in the last few days, we can see clearly that there was an omission of women of colour from the list. All we can do is speak from a place of sincerity and absolute honesty in stating that this was not by design.

At IMAGE it is incredibly important both to management and everyone at team IMAGE that we use our platforms with the utmost integrity and as a space to embolden, inspire and shine a light on all women.

We champion women of different backgrounds across our publications, platforms, covers, awards and podcasts. Going forward, we will strive to be especially aware in ensuring intersectionality across our publications and that we always represent a modern Ireland.

We are extremely grateful to all who have given us their time on this topic, it is because of your voices that we will continue to improve and grow every day.

On receiving feedback we have commissioned pieces for early next year to further celebrate exemplary Irish talent of all ethnicities and backgrounds. Until then we continue to welcome and encourage all feedback and comment, so that in 2019 we can bring you the very best in engaging, relevant, inspiring content.”

Áine Carroll is a journalist and freelance writer who lives in Dublin. You can follow Áine on Twitter here

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159 thoughts on “Áine Carroll: IMAGE’s All-White Women of the Year

  1. David

    Whoever’s left in, whoever’s left out, in 2018 someone will always get OUTRAGED. Apologizing to all the women of colour etc etc? Get over yourself!

  2. Captainpants

    ““To be clear, magazines like IMAGE do not exist to empower women, they exist to reinforce patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism by creating an “IMAGE™” ideal woman that is rich, cishet and white that we are meant to aspire to be”

    Are there actually real people that talk like this? Its so ideological its like listening to a Red Guard from Wild Swans.

    1. newsjustin

      There are. Everyone must identify with a group and everyone must strive to ensure their identity group wins.

  3. Jeffrey

    Im sure anyone can come up with their own list also… That’s their list however….. Do we actually care who is on their list?

  4. Cian

    Seriously?

    Newsflash: Ireland is predominantly white.
    82% are white Irish; another 9.5% ‘other white background’ .7% traveller,… totalling 95% white.

    190 of every 200 women in Ireland is white. The other 10 are most likely to be 4x Asian, 3x African, and 3x ‘other mixed background’.

    There are 29 women on the list. We would expect 28 to be white.

    1. Captainpants

      Using evidence in an argument is heteropatriarchal. Statistics are intellectual genocide. Irish people are colonial white supremacists, whose country was built on torturing black bodies.

    2. newsjustin

      Twitter has led a lot of Irish people to believe they are living in the US and are directly involved in many of their social issues.

    3. Clampers Outside!

      So, Asians should be a bigger priority then. More proof that identity politics is really about who plays the bigger victim card.

      Asians never engage in this type pizzing contest. Far dues !!

    4. Listrade

      “There are 29 women on the list. We would expect 28 to be white.”

      Well, no. You would expect it to be made up of the most deserving. That “might” mean 30 white or it “might” mean 30 non-white. It depends. It depends on the issues you deem worthy of merit.If you aren’t looking at issues that would be exclusive to the 5% non-white, then you are already limiting the pool of who to include.

      The key to this whole issue is that based on Dominique’s response to Aine you could infer that they didn’t try to hard to find any others as they didn’t seem able to name any. Aine demonstrated there were quite a few who could have been considered if they had done even a small bit of research or expanded their categories beyond general media high profile.

      Are those Aine picked worthy of the list? Hard to argue we couldn’t have missed off one or two of the actors or authors for a spot. It doesn’t seem like Image went too far down the path of looking into issues. Authors, politicians, actors, presenters, editors of magazines…we’re not exactly digging deep into a meritocracy with the categories they chose. It’s practically a line up on the Six O’Clock Show. Not the kind of categories that would throw up much diversity…even the 5%.

  5. McVitty

    Any Muslims? Any gender-queer folks? Any non-heteros? Any less-abled? Any elderly? And what makes image so important? are you fat-shaming us? …the outrage!!

    Right…let’s take to the streets – oh wait, it’s cold outside so I’ll pound the keyboard a bit longer…what am I angry about again? Oh look, Neighbours is starting on the telly

  6. Conski

    From top: Image Woman of the Year 2018 logo; Tweets between Aine Carroll and Dominique McMullan, Image magazine’s Digital editor; Áine Carroll

    Goddamit. Subeditor!?! Who’s who?!?!

    From top: ‘Image Women of the Year 2018’ logo, Tweets between Áine Carroll and Dominique McMullan (Image magazine’s digital editor) and Áine Carroll.

  7. Junkface

    I’m really tired of identity politics. Its getting old really fast, and yes as mentioned above, Ireland is not the USA, so we should not be adopting the same identity politics nonsense as them. We do not have a history of enslaving africans. Social media is really shoving this stuff down our throats, the modern left has lost its mind in America. If the magazine had one non-white person of the year sometime soon I suppose it would quell the outrage. It couldn’t hurt, but maybe it just is representational of Irelands current population including other ethnicities.
    I mean, when Paul McGrath was big news all of those years ago, he was on Magazine covers, on Late Late show interviews. Everybody loved him because he was a great player for Ireland. I don’t think the Irish media go out of their way to not include people with different skin colour. It just depends on who stands out the most achievements wise.

    1. rotide

      Paul McGrath, Phil Lynott, Jason Sherlock, Samantha Mumba, sean og o hailpin, Simon Zebo, gail kaneswaran, Lee Chin, Leo Varadkar, and a lot more that I’m forgetting about.

      All of these people have been been given a fair shout by the media and haven’t been ignored. Most of them were before the increase in immigration as well. In 20 years, there’ll be more names to add to that list without having to comb the identity politics blogs and twitter accounts like Aine did.

      It’s in Aine’s interest to create stories like this, hence this story.

        1. Clampers Outside!

          Creating drama where there is none is what “journos” in need of work do these days.

          Click bait! The nerve of them.

          Yes, the nerve. Well put.

          1. realPolithicks

            Haha, you can always tell you’ve touched a nerve with clampers when he starts being condescending.

  8. Clampers Outside!

    Has Nigel sharpened the pitchforks or built an effigy to white supremavy for burning yet?
    Where is the white night on such an important issue!

    s/

    1. Nigel

      I’m happy to stand back and let this burst boil full of affronted toxic male outrage slosh about like so much manspreading pus

      1. Clampers Outside!

        LOL! …surely you can squeeze in another cliché to add to that comment… spice things up, as Harry says, it’s all rather boring now :)

  9. SOQ

    The post was @ 16:23 and now time is 19:41.

    Comments mainly by males, negative, aggressively so in some cases so here is the deal lads. If you are a male then just shrug your shoulders and move on.

    Do you really have so little to do with your lives that you need to spew bile at a woman who feels that some achievers are being, in the main, ignored?

    I never heard of most but I will certainly check a few out. I suggest you do likewise.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        generally, men just say things like that for sex

        suppose we’ll have to take SOQ at face value

    1. newsjustin

      Áine has written a piece considering what she feels is a topic worthy of discussion. Other people are happy to discuss it. I’m baffled as to why you think men shouldn’t comment on the discussion, just because the list happens to be a list of women. Although, I guess that’s the issue….everyone stay in your lane, clearly marked with the symbol of the group you identify with, all the other groups are out to get you.

      1. Nigel

        She’s being mocked and scorned for bringing some people you may not have heard of to your attention, but sure, HER message is ‘stay in your lane,’ and you’re NOT acting like ‘other groups are out to get you’ somehow.

        1. newsjustin

          That’s not Áine’s message. It’s SOQ’s message.

          And most people are commenting on identity politics, which this article is a manifestation of.

          1. Nigel

            SOQ is giving you some kindly and badly-needed but belated advice. You lot have run down through a bingo-card of hostile reactionary responses to a list of women and their achievements posted as an alternative to a more conventional list. About the best that can be said about these comments is that there’s probably far, far worse being posted at Journal.ie.

          2. newsjustin

            So Nigel, maybe you can explain to me, why should men not comment on either of these lists, or the general topics of race or identity politics, or the merits of Áine’s arguments?

            Because it just seems like you and SOQ are saying men shouldn’t discuss any of these because they’re men and Áine is a women. As I say above, that’s just baffling to me.

          3. Nigel

            Without wishing to speak for SOQ it might be because he likes you all and doesn’t enjoy seeing you embarrassing yourselves.

          4. newsjustin

            Right so.

            Look Nigel, I suspect Áine is perfectly able to state her case and hear criticism of it. You trying to shoo commenters who are men away from her because she’s a woman and the topic is about a list of women is a bit sad and weird.

          5. realPolithicks

            Its always the same crew too Nigel. Clampers, rotide, cian, newsjustin etc, its almost like they are so insecure that they are “triggered” by a woman expressing an opinion of her own. The nerve of her!

          6. SOQ

            All I am saying is that in my own head, I knew who and what would be rushing in to bleat about identity politics before I even opened the thread. But one point is valid, about people thinking they are in the US, ON BOTH SIDES.

            Áine talks about women of colour. She’s right, they are women and they are of colour. And in Ireland, some non white people still get a hard time. Is it such a leap to think that there may be some truth in what she is saying?

            Filomena Kaguako’s work is impressive, but it goes further than women, black men can have similar experiences and Ola Majekodunmi produced one of the most thought provoking pieces I have seen in a long time.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWKR7eq-CQ

    2. rotide

      Why are you trying to paint this as a gender thing. Most of the negative comments center around the american identity politics aspect

      1. newsjustin

        It is because Áine happens to be a woman and you happen to be a man. In the eyes of some people, a debate can not be had between women and men. Women must be protected from criticism of their ideas apparently. The ultimate expression of sexism.

          1. Yep

            Can’t you chat through a hole in sheet?…Or does she have to wear a sheet?..NO they have to CLEAN sheets…. Is that right?

            Enjoy midnight mass.

    3. Starina

      +1 SOQ, Can’t believe the amount of lads getting their panties in a twist above. Spare us the bile, guys.

        1. rotide

          Sorry, I’d like homosexual northern irish people to please not discuss straight dublin peoples opinion.

  10. Alan mc gee

    the let’s celebrate ‘women in business’ is one of the most odious tropes of recent times. why is there special treatment if you have a special garden?
    it’s business, get on with it. succeed or fail regardless of your garden or indeed your chap.
    I’m frankly agog at the lowering of the bar for ‘ the gals’. glass ceilings, gender quotas. rubbish.
    work is hard. life is tough. get on with it.

  11. Dub Spot

    It’s right to call out IMAGE and other magazines on their poop. Odious tropes of women in business/women in politics/women in tech – same old, female, stale, and pale.

    Of course just look at the diversity of the publishers and staff behind these coffee table/waiting room throwaways for the middle class Avoca/BT set.

  12. Lilly

    As for that annoyingly precious ‘people of colour’ description… black people please. If it’s good enough for Dr Ebun Joseph, it’s good enough for the rest of us.

  13. Dub Spot

    Surprised they missed Ruth Negga.

    IMAGE is hardly a vanguard of feminist resistance. Or even real Irish women’s lives.

  14. Termagant

    I’ve got a third nipple and there’s been no representation for my people on any publicised list of any sort within living memory. When will we know justice?

  15. Dr.Fart MD

    i think people like aine absolutely mean well, but are fighting the wrong battles. i reckon she’s on twitter and see’s this kind of discussion from american twitter users, where racism is a real problem and far more prevalent that here in ireland. then transfers that on to things here, such as this image mag list. but image mag are not racist, ireland is 95% white, chances are, the list is guna be white people, the racial make-up of ireland is v different to america.

  16. Tom

    Her list is laughable and as mentioned mostly likely made up of mates.

    Ola is given a nod because she has a show on radio na life. Fair play to her but how is that in any way notable?

    1. millie st murderlark

      Is it because you don’t know how to pronounce their names?

      That doesn’t make them fake, btw. Just makes you an ignorant fool.

    2. Dr.Fart MD

      yea, and like, not being lousy, but i did laugh out loud when the opener for one nomination was that she’s gay and disabled. like it’s an achievement. not slagging off the actual woman, and it’s great what she’s done, but i feel it to be more exclusionary to introduce someone as gay and disabled, like thats how she’s pigeon holed her, instead of letting her credentials speak for her. its almost like shes saying “she’s double minority, so that’s two steps ahead straight off the bat”

      1. Starina

        The point would be more that she’s two steps behind right off the bat, making her achievements that little bit more impressive

          1. Dr.Fart MD

            being disabled is by defintion, a handicap. Being gay i really don’t think is. if anything it helps. I’ve worked (and do work) with gay dudes and they get away with murder, and curry favour from people thru fear of being seing as homophobic.

  17. max

    “last summer where she shut down a phenomenon that has been recognised as the fetishisation of black women in dating circles.”
    Must have shut it down before it started as i have never heard of any of that.

    Thats a nice list of women i have never heard of. Missing the other 2.5million

  18. Starina

    Wow. Ye are all an embarassment to yourself. For such a group of well-adjusted manly men, you sure are #triggered by women talking about things.

    1. millie st murderlark

      Glad it’s not just me who took a look at the laundry list of comments and thought, why does this bother the menfolk so much?

      What exactly is the problem with Aine’s point? I think she makes a perfectly valid point. There are very few comments above which actually manage to rebut her points with any kind of serious and credible argument.

      1. Cian

        I can only answer for me.

        I wasn’t looking at gender – if it were someone complaining about a list of men that didn’t include black men I would have responded in exactly the same way.

        We are in a 95% white country. Any list of ‘people-of-the-year’ will be mostly white.

        1. Starina

          With the demographic changes that have happened in Ireland in the last 15 years, don’t you think it would be handy to start out being inclusive *now* rather than wait until there’s a real representation problem another 15 years down the line?

          1. Dr.Fart MD

            absolutely start being inclusive now rather than later. but that won’t work as well for anyone, if ya do it by shoehorning in people into awards etc. just based on their ethnicity. a fair play field without prejudice, and let people earn their accolades. if you just hand out these based on purely being a different race it doesnt help.

          2. Starina

            @the eminent dr fart, md: I think the inclusion of Amy Huberman and the ‘Aisling’ women is shoe-horning enough, considering the achievements of some of underdog efforts of the women mentioned in the article above.

          3. Dr.Fart MD

            good point, Starina. i would defo agree some of these women could slot in instead of them. It’s probably down to Image mag wanting to be more kinda glam etc., and not really actually honouring the most credible women at the moment. i think for that reason then maybe, this doesn’t matter, it’s not the kind of publication who would talk about direct provision, fighting for rights etc., and more of a “ooh. look who’s kissing rob kearney” rag.

          4. rotide

            The Aisling girls are far more relevant to a lot more people than ANYONE on Aine’s list. That’s why they’re there. Amy is there because thats what the target demographic who buy Image magazine want to see.

    2. Andrew

      Nope, just challenging this nonsense for what it is. It’s really not a man/woman thing. Do yourself a favour and pick your battles better. Don’t be defending dimwittery.
      In fact she’s engaging in patronising and vaguely racist behaviour herself. It’s pathetic.

    3. Dub Spot

      +1

      Obviously a lot of George Hook Rugby-watching relaxed-fit men out there who follow the mediocrity of the Amy Huberman set’s every waking move and who cling on to the idea that women want that Victoria’s Secret tat.

      1. Neilo

        I watch rugby all the time, darling, and I’m slim fit all the way. Not entirely sure about The Amy Huberman Set as they sound like a 60’s beat combo although I find her charming. I agree about VS – more discerning birds prefer Oysho.

  19. Captainpants

    There is absolutely no problem with creating a list of women of colour who have done great things, or even questioning why there are no women of colour on the Image magazine list.

    What makes people angry is the automatic assumption that the lack of women of colour on the list is evidence of racism. People (of all genders and races, sexualities etc) are getting rather tired of the casual wielding of serious accusations like racism and sexism in areas where they don’t apply. And some of those people above addressed exactly this – Ireland is still 95 odd percent white, so of course there aren’t going to be many women of colour on the list. That seems like a ‘serious and credible’ argument to me. If its not, it would be nice to hear an argument against it that isn’t just predictable stuff about the gender of the people saying it.

    A large amount of the people arguing against this stuff worldwide are themselves women, gay, of colour and so on. Its not just the proverbial neckbeard straight white males that dislike this stuff. Statistically speaking its a large majority – https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-majorities-dislike-political-correctness/572581/

    1. millie st murderlark

      The gender thing isn’t an issue for me. I do find it interesting that the voices shouting loudest about this are the male voices. But not surprising. And aside from that, I think gender has little to do with this.

      As someone who has never experienced any kind of discrimination based on the colour of my skin, I don’t know that I can comment on whether one accusation of racism has more validity than the next. But I do think that the 95% of Ireland’s population being white isn’t as relevant a point as it’s being made out to be. What has that do with it, if the achievements are worth noting, as some of them undoubtedly are?

      Are we waiting for some arbitrary figure? When it’s 92%? 87%?

      1. Cian

        Unless you feel that minorities are more like to have achievements worth noting, which I don’t, then I would expect the % of achievements to mirror the % of population.

        If there are 29 achievements of note in Ireland this year, then (statically speaking) 28 of these should be by white people, and the other is an Asian (as Asians are the largest non-white minority).

        1. Starina

          now THAT is tokenism. By your logic, since women are around 52% of the population, we can expect to be 52% of executive boards, etc.

          I don’t see what the problem is with somebody providing an alternative list to the IMAGE selection. Why are all the menz getting so upset over Broadsheet publishing a list of additional excellent women? Ms Carroll isn’t calling for IMAGE to withdraw all copies of their mag and publish hers, she’s just saying “hey check these people out, too!” since most of them wouldn’t be a part of IMAGE’s gang of PR-event-attending, VIP-area-at-Taste pals like Huberman and the Aisling authors.

          1. Cian

            Starina
            No. If I said “women are as likely as men to become board members” – then yes, I would expect 52% of board members to be women (or whatever the proportion of women in the relevant age-group is). But I didn’t say that.

            I stated that I would expect all women (regardless of ethnicity) to be equally likely to have achievements worth noting. And based on this, the numbers should match census proportions.

            As a man I don’t have any issue with a second list. The only person that I know has a problem with a second list is Áine Carroll herself – she writes “[I created] an alternative list that, frankly, I should not have had to compile.

            The only people making this a gender issue is the girlz.

        2. millie st murderlark

          Cian, where did I say any of that? Some of the achievements listed above are much more notable than those listed in Image.

          And I think you completely missed my point. The percentages of white vs minorities are irrelevant. Merit is what should be important here. Not their background, their ethnicity, or whatever percentage of our population they fall in.

          1. Cian

            I’m not sure what you think I said you said. I’ll ask a direct question:

            “Do you think minorities are more like to have achievements worth noting?”

            If the answer in no, then (statistically speaking) the numbers will be proportionate to population.

  20. Captainpants

    Nobody is saying that the achievements noted in the alternative list aren’t worth noting.

    The question is whether the fact that the list is all white is the product of racism. What we would expect is that in a society totally free of prejudice, the ethnic breakdown of the list would roughly track the ethnic makeup of the society. Which it pretty much does. We have no evidence that women of colour were excluded from the list because of their race, and making such an extraordinary accusation requires extraoridinary evidence.

    If there was an award for 10 greatest Irish Nurses (and there should be), I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the list was all female, since the overwhelming majority of nurses are female. I wouldn’t be complaining of prejudice against men.

    “As someone who has never experienced any kind of discrimination based on the colour of my skin, I don’t know that I can comment on whether one accusation of racism has more validity than the next”

    Yes you totally can – because you can look at statistics and evidence, which are a much more reliable guide to large social trends than personal experience.

    “Are we waiting for some arbitrary figure? When it’s 92%? 87%?” The figure wouldn’t be arbitrary at all – if the society is 95% white, I would hope that there would be at least 5% women of colour on that list. That said, the list is based on the achievements of the people involved, not on their colour, so it might not track that number exactly.

      1. Neilo

        You know it. I mean, I light a few burning crosses or kick in a few hundred shop windows and now I’m a racist. Really doesn’t seem fair…I blame the Hillary/Industrial Complex

  21. Captainpants

    Great, so anytime we don’t find conscious racism, we can just accuse people of unconscious racism. No evidence required, because of course anybody accused of unconscious racism will deny it.

    Classic Kafkatrap.

  22. Neilo

    @Starina: if you day doesn’t end with a nip of the hard stuff you’re not the hardy woman I thought you were! :)

      1. Clampers Outside !

        So, the big glaring obvious bit, is that… it was a reader poll.

        By readers, for readers.

        Áine didn’t do her research very well then if she missed that. Maybe she doesn’t buy the mag and is not a reader and so didn’t make any nominations. Certainly appears that that is the case.

        Simples.

  23. Áine Carroll

    You’re wrong Clampers. Read the statement again, slowly if it helps. I like how you commented loads before reading the whole way to the bottom. Classyyyy

    1. Clampers Outside!

      “In the reader nominated category we asked IMAGE readers to let us know who their woman of the year was.

      The winner was the person who received the most votes.”

      1. Áine Carroll

        That was one category (won by Robinson) and the 25+ listees were nominated by IMAGE staffers, as outlined very clearly. You really think they would have issued that statement (at my request) if I’d gotten my facts totally wrong? Also it wasn’t published in the mag, but online only.

  24. stephen c

    They had Una Mullally on the list, anyone of substance wouldnt want to be on it anyway.

    Also all the suggestions from broadsheet are pretty much just artists and musicians. Like im sure theres atleast one woman ‘of colour’ doing something in industry in Ireland.

  25. Yep

    Christ, this whole thread is bemoaning the existence of identity politics while jumping head first into the faux battle that is identity politics without the slightest hint of irony.

    Not one mention of the people Aine mentioned. Did anyone click a link to read more about the people listed? Regardless of the award (which we all agree is nonsense) the people listed are worth a look and your respect outside of this post. I wouldn’t have heard of most of them without Aine providing them and ‘m glad she did.

    Thank you, Aine.

    I/we/you really are the fupping worst sometimes. Happy Christmas.

  26. Dub Spot

    Given Una Mullally – a white woman – is one of the award winners – and an Irish Times opinion writer and diversity champion how come the Irish TImes and her access to platforms such as the Guardian remain silent?

    Does Una Mullally accept the award?

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