tldr;

I set about my street harassment map project to share how my life is filled with disturbingly frequent and banal sexism. By calling women on the street "hotties" - whether or not it was weakly sarcastic - and by deciding that a glamour shot of an attractive woman who could conceivably be me was the best way to market the project - Upworthy simply reinforced that, at the end of the day, my gender and my appearance is what matters most.

When Upworthy reached out about acquiring my street harassment map, I was thrilled. I was assured that it would be attributed in all the right ways, and the writer offered to send me a version to look over before it went live. He gave me superb feedback about how to maximize the exposure by making a Facebook page for myself and building a GIF.

I saw the live post and was, again, enthusiastic, until I looked on the Upworthy homepage and realized that the article thumbnail was, well, not me, my map, or anything related whatsoever to the piece. They selected a stock image of a good looking red head. I wrote the following email to the writer and my contact:

Hi *****,
I wanted to share my thoughts with you about a specific aspect of the recent Upworthy piece. I engaged with *an old contact from school* about it - she's an old connection from college - and she encouraged me to share my thoughts with you. I know that many aspects of this are beyond your control, and of course this is not directed to you personally, but I do want to air on the side of transparency.

I am grateful for the affirmation and exposure that the piece has afforded me, and every interaction with you and the rest of the Upworthy team has been lovely. That being said, I was first disappointed, and later disillusioned, when I saw that the thumbnail for the article was not of my map, or anything to do with street harassment or me, but rather a stock photo of what I can only describe as a prettier version of what you know about me.

*My contact* described how your testing schemes inform your thumbnail choices, and how that image performed the best to get traffic. She also explained that Upworthy regularly protects its contributors from harassment by concealing their identity. I have taken those factors into consideration.

I am not upset that the photo wasn't of me. I don't think that would have been appropriate. I also understand that maps as thumbnails are not massively appealing. That being said, I am confused and upset by the choice to use an image that so clearly had nothing to do with the content or message of my work or words. It was not an image of woman experiencing street harassment. It was not an image of a woman on a street. It was not an image of a woman on crutches, or even a woman who is visibly uncomfortable. It's one thing and one thing only: a glamorized and fictional depiction of me.

I understand the balancing act between being true to the content and getting maximum shares. I also understand that to someone who knows nothing about me (i.e. 99.99% of Upworthy) this doesn't alter their perception of the map at all. However, I do feel personally mislead and misrepresented. The editors made a conscious choice to pick someone who could conceivably be me, and more importantly, get a lot of clicks by appearing to be me (red hair and all), without considering that there really is a me, who put herself on the line both in the production and distribution of that map. Moreover, and most importantly, it prioritizes the identity and appearance of a woman over the experience of a woman (...me!), which is what I was trying to highlight in the first place.

I can't help but feel that it was a particularly poor judgment to pair a project about societal perceptions of beauty with an anonymous, unrelated glamour shot.

And all of that aside, the fact that the main draw of the article has nothing to do with its content generally makes me less proud to share it with friends and family, which is extremely disappointing.

I'm still an avid fan of Upworthy, and I think that the process is generally fair and that the mission is deeply important. I do believe that, because of the specific content of this map, this was a poor choice.
Sincerely,
Sarah

He responded, politely but somewhat dismissively:

I'd be happy to change it to this image: [image] Which scored just as well, if you wish. There's a balancing act when it comes to posting things on Upworthy: things that will get people to look at your map that makes a very important point, and being totally 100% politically correct. Still: you make a good point, and if you'd like, I'll change the image to this.

I asked him to change the image, and it seemed to work:

Until I realized that their effort to correct the mistake (not to mention, acknowledge it) was painfully half-hearted, when I saw that they were still Tweeting my work with a misleading photo:

I have a lot of discomfort with how Upworthy ultimately treated the project. Apart from the total lack of common sense with the thumbnail image, titling the project "If You See a Hottie Walking by..." was extremely off point and underwhelming. My blog post accompanying the final day of the project specifically talks about how it's discouraging and demeaning to be called pet names, or to be called anything at all by a stranger based on your gender and appearance alone. Upworthy chose to manipulate that fact to get clicks from strangers looking for hotties.

Upworthy's motto is, "Things that matter. Pass them on."

Needless to say, I'm unimpressed.