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I'm assisting one of our researchers with some #scicomm visuals & went foraging online for some #stockpictures of #black #pregnant #women. And man, I'm disappointed. Below, a thread comparing searches for "black pregnant women" with searches for "white pregnant women"
I'm assisting one of our researchers with some #scicomm visuals & went foraging online for some #stockpictures of #black #pregnant #women. And man, I'm disappointed. Below, a thread comparing searches for "black pregnant women" with searches for "white pregnant women"
I have a paid subscription with @Freepik_Vectors, but cancelled it just now because of these search results showing up on the first page of the respective searches. Not a single black woman in the searches 
The free stock platform, @unsplash, does well with actual gorgeous black pregnant women on page 1 when searching for those images. Thanks to the photographers and models making these available for use!
With a lot of image ads by @Shutterstock at the beginning, the images available on @StockSnapIO are zero to none.
As mentioned in the previous tweet, @Shutterstock has a good variety, but they're also super pricey.
The prices at @Depositphotos are better and there are one or two images that would have worked, but I'm not sold.
On the other hand, @megapixlbyDT's prices are a mystery, but they too have one or two pics in the first few results that would have worked.
Sister (or mother?) company @Dreamstime has a few options, but I won't pay $25 a month for 5 pictures if these are my options.
When you look at the amount of search hits, it's clear that on most of the platforms, there are more image options of white women than black women.
As #contentcreators we need to do better to facilitate representation in media. I search for stock images on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, and try to represent the communities co-producing our research accurately. Sometimes that means adapting vectors in @Illustrator.
That's a skill I worked long and hard to acquire. But it really shouldn't be that bloody difficult to find a usable stock picture of a black pregnant woman, should it? I'll be using @unsplash until the paid platforms do better in terms of price and representation.
Disclaimer: I'm a white, cisgender woman and while I'm doing the work in becoming increasingly #antiracist, I'm still learning, dismantling & acquiring the language to do so. I hope this thread calls out rather than empower structural racism.
I'll listen and learn if it doesn't.
I'll listen and learn if it doesn't.
