THREAD
I& #39;m assisting one of our researchers with some #scicomm visuals & went foraging online for some #stockpictures of #black #pregnant #women. And man, I& #39;m disappointed. Below, a thread comparing searches for "black pregnant women" with searches for "white pregnant women" https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">
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 https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
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! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
Over at the paid (but damn expensive) @adobestock they also have a good variety of images. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
With a lot of image ads by @Shutterstock at the beginning, the images available on @StockSnapIO are zero to none. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
As mentioned in the previous tweet, @Shutterstock has a good variety, but they& #39;re also super pricey. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
The prices at @Depositphotos are better and there are one or two images that would have worked, but I& #39;m not sold. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
On the other hand, @megapixlbyDT& #39;s prices are a mystery, but they too have one or two pics in the first few results that would have worked. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
Sister (or mother?) company @Dreamstime has a few options, but I won& #39;t pay $25 a month for 5 pictures if these are my options. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
The free platform @pixabay doesn& #39;t offer many choices on either searches. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
Last up is the free stock platform @pexels and there are also a few options that could work. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↘️" title="Südost gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südost gerichteter Pfeil">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Pfeil nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach unten">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="↙️" title="Südwest gerichteter Pfeil" aria-label="Emoji: Südwest gerichteter Pfeil">
When you look at the amount of search hits, it& #39;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& #39;s a skill I worked long and hard to acquire. But it really shouldn& #39;t be that bloody difficult to find a usable stock picture of a black pregnant woman, should it? I& #39;ll be using @unsplash until the paid platforms do better in terms of price and representation.
Disclaimer: I& #39;m a white, cisgender woman and while I& #39;m doing the work in becoming increasingly #antiracist, I& #39;m still learning, dismantling & acquiring the language to do so. I hope this thread calls out rather than empower structural racism.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤞" title="Crossed fingers" aria-label="Emoji: Crossed fingers">I& #39;ll listen and learn if it doesn& #39;t.
You can follow @maggie_marx.
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