As a woman in tech, it's actually the discussions surrounding this proposal that I find most telling. The use of Lena is a waterline. Most women (my personal standpoint bias) probably find it inoffensive at face value, and vaguely grating when they learn that it's a centerfold. It's a reminder of a time when porn in the workplace was rather common; one component of a baseline of inescapable sexual harrassment.
We've made progress, and sexual harrassment is less socially acceptable now. Some of us would like to erase that waterline, because it's a reminder of an ugly past. But what of the people, mostly men, who cling furiously to using that image? They make me uncomfortable, because it's an indicator of where they stand on pervasive sexual harrassment.
Unlike changing terms like master/slave etc, this is a zero-cost proposal (where those are very nearly zero themselves, but more pervasive). Replace the image with something that's got high contrast and color variation. I'd say you can even keep the old name so it won't impact your tooling.
I hope I can weigh in here as a woman (and I do not think my opinion carries any special weight). I don't mind the image, but I definitely do not cling to it - in fact, I wouldn't mind if it's gone at all, and I would treat as suspect someone who continually argues for its place in tech. Engineering is engineering, and porn is porn.
That doesn't stop the bizarre campaign linked in your post from being rather hyperbolic. The entire premise is that by removing this one image from common use, "millions of women" (their own phrasing in the trailer) will be empowered to pursue and feel welcomed in tech.
The presence of the image (some arguments can be put aside for a moment[0]) is a symptom, not (as far as I can tell) a cause. A campaign like this (and what methods and to whom it is addressed is not clear) would serve better to give a false sense of victory over sexism in tech. Getting the image unused isn't a "small win", I'd say it's detached completely from the battle. A total inversion of the problem, almost comically.
[0] Often people argue for things out of sheer principle, not caring much for the specifics of the matter. This is especially common, in my experience, in tech circles. However, there are interesting questions raised vis-a-vis the intersection of meaning, intention, and purpose. It is suspect to cling to 'original meanings' and intentions, and on the basis of that argument, some could well make the argument that the image is empowering as an inversion of traditional morality against sexual expression which still holds sway in conservative groups today. Just as a slave from the 19th c. would understand 'slave' in Git to refer to them, the Victorian puritan would consider the cropped Lena an abhorrent and obscene reference. They would be happy to see the terminology and image gone, but totally miss out on their situational context.
As a woman in tech, it's actually the discussions surrounding this proposal that I find most telling. The use of Lena is a waterline. Most women (my personal standpoint bias) probably find it inoffensive at face value, and vaguely grating when they learn that it's a centerfold. It's a reminder of a time when porn in the workplace was rather common; one component of a baseline of inescapable sexual harrassment.
We've made progress, and sexual harrassment is less socially acceptable now. Some of us would like to erase that waterline, because it's a reminder of an ugly past. But what of the people, mostly men, who cling furiously to using that image? They make me uncomfortable, because it's an indicator of where they stand on pervasive sexual harrassment.
Unlike changing terms like master/slave etc, this is a zero-cost proposal (where those are very nearly zero themselves, but more pervasive). Replace the image with something that's got high contrast and color variation. I'd say you can even keep the old name so it won't impact your tooling.