Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals | Ars Technica

See Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals | Ars Technica on arstechnica.com

On Wednesday, the IEEE Computer Society announced to members that, after April 1, it would no longer accept papers that include a frequently used image of a 1972 Playboy model named Lena Forsén. The so-called “Lenna image,” (Forsén added an extra “n” to her name in her Playboy appearance to aid pronunciation) has been used in image processing research since 1973 and has attracted criticism for making some women feel unwelcome in the field.

Lenna is a picture featuring the headshot of an attractive woman looking back with no strap over her shoulder while wearing a sun hat with purple wrapped with a purple thistle. In the background is a mirror and a wooden wall¹.

This photo has been used extensively for image processing.

Two reasons for retiring it:

1. It contributes to the lack of female representation in the field, and
2. It’s probably not the best image for the job.

Concerning female representation, while I’m doubtful it’ll do as much as people hope, women in tech have less bullshit to deal with. Like the whole master/slave whitelist/blacklist issue from the 2020 upheaval (though arguably significant), it won’t upset demographics much since that requires a multi-pronged approach. Still, bullshit like this might seem minor, but along with other irritations they compound.

So yeah, it makes sense to ban it going forward, but for the many algorithms we’ve used it for already, it makes sense to keep it around as a way to evaluate them.