#Je Suis Le Deuxième Sexe

Now you see 'em ... Now you don't ...

In the front line of the march of world leaders and important personages in Paris a few days ago:

In HaMevaser,  a Charedi newspaper in Israel, members of Le Deuxième Sexe (to quote the title of Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 book) have been airbrushed out.

This is not the first time a minority of ultra-Orthodox elements in Israel have gone to such absurd lengths to, presumably, prevent the male gaze from leading to lustful thoughts towards the female; Tzipi Livni and Hillary Clinton's images have also been airbrushed out in the past, and I seem to recall that, even though she was in or approaching her nineties, the distinguished Israeli biblical scholar Nechama Leibowitz was permitted to give a lecture to Charedi men only when seated behind a screen.

Time to concede a little bit to the twenty-first century, boys!

From the Left, prejudice against Israel needs no excuse, and absurdities like those only serve to stoke it.  No wonder the Independent and the Guardian have been swift to report this latest airbrushing! As also (the gleeful sense of triumph is palpable) the biased BBC.

Still, boys, you have served the cause of women in one respect: as remarked here you've shown how few of Le Deuxième Sexe in Haim Zach's photo (above) remain if Le Premier Sexe (the title, incidentally, of a 2006 pamphlet by Éric Zemmour) is airbrushed out.  From left to right: EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel:

Credit: Colm Williamson/Waterford Whispers