All of humanity made history today by landing a spacecraft on a comet.
Unfortunately, many of the women following that development — and a few men, too — were made to feel pretty unwelcome in the space exploration sphere when one of the people leading the mission decided to show up to talk about it wearing a shirt covered in dozens of half-naked women.
Let me rephrase previous tweet: Sent a probe to a comet, millions are watching. Only a douchbag would wear this shirt pic.twitter.com/ObYBqTopgY
— Henry Legg (@PhysicsHenry) November 12, 2014
After Rosetta Project Scientist Matt Taylor wore the shirt while talking to reporters during a global livestream of the comet landing, people watching took to Twitter in frustration:
No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. https://t.co/r88QRzsqAmpic.twitter.com/XmhHKrNaq5
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 12, 2014
No RT @yannisp This is the scientific head of operations for the ESA’s rosetta project. Cool shirt for an engineer :) pic.twitter.com/DvlzxylBHR
— A Geek Mom (Shannon) (@ageekmom) November 12, 2014
Women a strong presence in India's Mars mission control room, #Mangalyaan (pic by NDTV): http://t.co/QBSmSTYtCkpic.twitter.com/vAzYWi3maq
— Anil Ananthaswamy (@anilananth) September 24, 2014