Flatbush Girl Launches Modest Proposal: #FrumWomenHaveFaces
It started with an emoji laughing so hard it cried — or crying so hard that it laughed?
Adina Miles, the Orthodox Jewish comedian behind the popular social media brand Flatbush Girl, took out a full page ad in the Flatbush Jewish Journal thanking a local city councilman for his service to the Jewish community.
But when she went to place the ad, she was told neither her face nor the word “girl” could appear in the ad — the paper, like many Orthodox publications, does not print pictures of women for modesty reasons.
In an act of defiance, Miles solved the problem by placing the aforementioned emoji over her face and replacing the word boy with girl. The irony was apparently lost on the publishers.
On July 10, Miles took to Instagram with a unique idea to fight back, encouraging men and women to post photos of religious women with the hashtag #FrumWomenHaveFaces
“What kind of message are we sending our daughters & sons when they look through a magazine & there are no female faces to be seen?” Miles wrote on Instagram. “We can’t allow the fear of nuances to drive us towards extremism,” she added.
Laura E. Adkins is the Forward’s contributing network editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @Laura_E_Adkins
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