Christian SieversMar 10
Aline Blankertz

My demand for 8/3: Scrap that anti-feminist propaganda machine called genAI! It generates misogynist slop even in the hands of those declaring to want the opposite.

The German ministry for research @bmftr_bund just published a paper depicting female researchers in history who have been distorted to conform to gender norms - even with explicit prompts for smiles and dancing. But even without such prompts genAI reproduces and reinforces female oppression.

Publicly funded.

1/2

Mar 8 at 7:09amWeb
Show threadAline BlankertzMar 8

The whole set of images is here: https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/2025/begleitheft-versaeumte-bilder.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3

The professor who prompted the images declared that “surprisingly, there was little resistance” to them:
https://www.gender-blog.de/beitrag/versaeumte-bilder-frauen-wissenschaft

Check out @bildoperationen for more on how AI serves to distort history such that it strengthens an anti-feminist present.

It is just one of many sufficient reasons to resist AI. But still worth saying today:

If we want to fight for a feminist future, AI must not be part of it.

2/2

Show threadDietmar KammererMar 8
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen I fail to understand how prompting an AI to generate photorealistic images, and even going so far as to replicate the style of the decade the image supposedly dates from, is aligned with the claim to "break with the usual habits of seeing" and "unconventional ways of visualization" (Source: https://bilderinstitut.de/uber-das-institut)
Bilderinstitut - Wissenschaft sichtbar machen | Experimentelle Visualisierung — Bilderinstitut

Entdecken Sie das Bilderinstitut und seine innovative Herangehensweise an die Visualisierung von wissenschaftlichen Inhalten. Mit einem erfahrenen Team und einem breiten Netzwerk bieten wir maßgeschneiderte Lösungen für Ihre visuellen Anforderungen. Erfahren Sie mehr!

Bilderinstitut
Show threadDietmar KammererMar 8
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen Also, I can't help but think how this project would have played out before AI: Your aim is to make the unseen visible? Show that something is missing or wong. Put it 'sous rature', under erasure. Don't gloss it over. Show the wound. But it ain't the 1990s anymore and who still reads Derrida...
Show threadJohn MackayMar 8
@alineblankertz I agree that we must resist the current trajectory of AI under corporate control. But to say AI cannot be part of a feminist future is to abandon the field. A feminist future shouldn't reject powerful tools; it should seize them. It should demand diverse training data, fund women and non-binary people in AI research, and build open-source models that reflect a pluralistic world. The question isn't if AI is part of our future, but whose AI and what future it will help build.
Show threadClaudiusMar 8

@johnmackay @alineblankertz If the goal is to produce as much bullshit as possible, yes.

But that is not the goal.

Show threadRRBMar 8
@claudius @johnmackay @alineblankertz AI is solving the BS penury problem. Remember, a few years ago, everyone saying: "If only I had more low quality BS, my life would be better"
Show threadMalte EngelerMar 8
@johnmackay @alineblankertz It is a powerful tool for extraction, oppression and homogenisation. There is nothing to abandon but a socio-technological monster.
Show threadBogdan BuduroiuMar 8
@johnmackay you're speaking to the wrong crowd unfortunately, but you're right, just right too early.
Show threadErebusMar 8
@johnmackay @alineblankertz And then, you will be fighting an endless fight you can't win, using forces you don't have to hopefully reach something you will never reach, because to reach gender equality and the goals of the feminist agenda, you have to fight against the system to change all the rotness that lies below, and in that new world, present commercial gen AI has no place because in the end, it is an instrument for the enemy, not a tool for us. It's part of the problem, not the solution.
Show threadJayMar 8

@johnmackay @alineblankertz No. I reject this framing that demands AI be a part of the future because of its power. That type of thinking is antithetical to feminist movements because it prioritizes, centers, and justifies power, not equality or equity.

You don’t make a feminist future by having more female CEOs. We’ve already had more women in power: we just called them part of the nobility.

Show threadSepia FanMar 8

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen

The point is, they try to heal historical mistakes with fakes. You can't use these artificial images in any serious context, w/o a lengthy explanation - regarding the images, not the structural historical mistake.

So, what's their intention? Doing something modern, techy with AI … and women … 🚩 that sounds odd … 🚩 promotes creating images of women via AI … 🚩 covers up a historical mistake, to be reminded as a fact - with fakes … anyway, here you go ✨

Show threadSepia FanMar 8

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen

The quality of the images is quite questionable too: Fingers? Backgrounds? Texts?

If you compare the generated images with the prompts, you see that often the images don't follow the instructions: Did they give up, saying "Close enough"? 🥴

Show threadJoan of Contention 😷Mar 8

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen Hang on, wtf is this?? I'm struggling to understand: @bmftr_bund *already had* photos of these women, so what was the motivation for this entire project?

Were these women in these photos not acceptable as they were?

It's giving extreme male gaze vibes, and the absolute ick.

I'm getting flashbacks of street harassment from men shouting things like, "Give us a smile, love, it might never happen."

Show threadcanleaf08✅ 加拿大葉子 🏳️‍🌈⚧️🇪🇺🍁Mar 8
@clickhere @alineblankertz @bildoperationen @bmftr_bund Likewise people have been traveled and had the best shots in the video and STILL use AI. It makes THEM look like fools. They look like caricatures in these. We have photos and still people prompt public memory and their brains away.
Show threadJoan of Contention 😷Mar 8

@canleaf It's bizarre! Incomprehensible. And, frankly, insulting to these women and their accomplishments.

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen @bmftr_bund

Show threadAntonio PatriarcaMar 8
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen What is this document about? I cannot read German, so it really makes no sense to me. Why use GenAI? Why should I care about these fake images? The prompts already look anti-feminist to me, so it does not surprise me that the generated images are too. If this is meant to celebrate these women, generating bad, fake photos does not seem like a good way to do so. Independent of the way these images were generated.
Show threadMatthias KrämerMar 8
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen Seems to be a trend in the "history" of science field. That feels very strange for historians.
https://dis-le.de/display/50619573-c446e9be-4b20a6bd459f2525
Buten un binnen|Inoffiziell

Frauen sind seit jeher Teil der Polarforschung, auf alten Bildern aber kaum sichtbar. Pünktlich zum Weltfrauentag zeigt das AWI in Bremerhaven Porträts mit...

Show threadTodos LocosMar 9
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen ping @Freelens
Show threadTodos LocosMar 9

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen Compare the discussion surrounding photographer Boris #Eldagsen's AI-generated work, which won him the #Sony World Photography #Award 2023, only for him to reject the prize:

https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/boris-eldagsen-foto-preis-fuer-mit-ki-erzeugtes-werk-a-5a942d19-f229-432b-a879-d196e7dce361

Show threadLorena Jaume-PalasíMar 9
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen peak white feminism "Die Schader Stiftung hat einen Open Call gestartet und wissenschaftliche Institute in der Umgebung eingeladen, eigene Frauen vorzuschlagen, die sie für übergangen hielten. Ab diesem Moment wurde das Projekt *partizipativ* , was ein wichtiger Schritt war."
Show threadifrikMar 9

@alineblankertz @bildoperationen

Also relevant in this context: The decision whether to smile is not only personal, but also cultural. https://medium.com/@socialcreature/ai-and-the-american-smile-76d23a0fbfaf

So forcing these specific women to smile is wrong on even more levels.

AI and the American Smile

How AI misrepresents culture through a facial expression.

Medium
Show threadBen CarverMar 9
@alineblankertz @bildoperationen This AI image has clearly been working with the "women with great hair in front of haunted castles" genre of pulp novel cover art.
Show threadJennifer Moore 😷Mar 8

@alineblankertz

Ick. That seems alienating and horrible to me. I wouldn't like it if, after my death, someone made up fake photos of something I never did.

Show threadToni AittoniemiMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund What the fuck is this AI religion. Everybody just retreating into a comfortable fake reality, and proud of it??!!
Show threadDétours AnachroniquesMar 8
@gimulnautti @alineblankertz @bmftr_bund (ironically) *Amen* to that, comrade!
Show threadHeinzensteinMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund
A, the famous "THEXIICKIXTA" ...
Show threadSepia FanMar 8

@Heinzenstein

Exactly 🥲
https://mstdn.social/@stekopf/116193029160937985

@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund

Sepia Fan (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] The quality of the images is quite questionable too: Fingers? Backgrounds? Texts? If you compare the generated images with the prompts, you see that often the images don't follow the instructions: Did they give up, saying "Close enough"? 🥴

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadElisaMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund
"But look they're so happy!!1!"
Show threadAlejandro_PMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund that's some f-ing bs
Why the obsession with "woman must smile" shit
Show threadcanleaf08✅ 加拿大葉子 🏳️‍🌈⚧️🇪🇺🍁Mar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund AI will destory public memory, history and lessons learned. Way to go Germany. AI wird öffentliches Gedächtnis, Geschichte und Lehren zerstören. Nur so weiter Deutschland.
Show threadSonja LemkeMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund yes. they send me the calender. I especially hate the picture of Lise Meitner with Emo Make-Up an cigarette Finger.
Show threadSonja LemkeMar 8
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund und ich hasse wie die es "versäumte Bilder" nennen, wo es von fast allen Frauen der serie echte Fotos gibt. Hatte mal überlegt n Thread dazu zu machen, was alles daran problematisch ist, bin aber nicht zu gekommen.
Show threadForse (he/him)Mar 9

@sonjalemke @alineblankertz @bmftr_bund What the...
Why.
WHYYYYYYY!?

This is so wrong.

Show threadKeywan TonekaboniMar 8

@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund There is only one image ("photo") with this prompt. I assume it has a background, which I don't know. All other AI generated photos have other styles, although a few look like a Hollywood-version compared to the original photos (e.g. Mathilde Vaerting).

I agree with your criticism, but your example and the way you prented it, is in my view a bit misleading.

Show threadAline BlankertzMar 9

@keywan @bmftr_bund
I disagree. Using an example rather than a comprehensive description is not misleading, it is what using an example means.

Many of the prompts include “smiling” and other highly misogynist elements; various of them include “in the style of” specifications to imitate real artists and devalue their work; besides, the outputs exhibit toxic beauty norms not explicitly prompted. And there are many more specific criticisms, feel free to expand.

Show threadAline BlankertzMar 9

@keywan

And btw, I suggest calling “AI” slop image or visual output. Calling them photo suggests that they are a snapshot of a real place in a real moment in time which is obviously misleading.

Show threadLorena Jaume-PalasíMar 9
@alineblankertz @bmftr_bund This is beyond shameful. Specially considering all the exploited women data workers behind these softwares and the open, public misogyny of the creators of these tools.