By Bailey Shoemaker Richards

I love the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Reading about it gets me pumped up and talkative; it’s an exciting thing. But the Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street blog on Tumblr is a different story entirely. When I first saw it, my stomach dropped. “Really?” I thought. “Really?” The problems with this blog are manifold, so let’s start by listing a few of them, beginning with the name.

Problem One: Hot. These women are hot. Not smart. Not dedicated. Not working hard alongside their allies. They have, in one word, already been reduced to a status of worth based on how attractive they are to two young straight men.

Problem Two: Chicks. They are not women, not ladies, not allies or friends. Chicks. “Chick” is dismissive. Chick says, “These are not equals deserving of respect, these are objects for us to look at and look down on.” Plenty of people have worked hard on reclaiming the word chick, but when it’s attached to this type of project, the meaning is pretty clear.

Problem Three: These men don’t care what these women are there for. Just in the name of the blog, these two men have made it very obvious where they’re coming from and what their intentions are. They don’t care that these women are working alongside men and boys and trans and gender-queer protesters and girls and other women who don’t fit their “hot chick” label (which looks to be primarily white, slender, and, based on the photographs and video, focused on their chests). The work done by these women is secondary to whether they make these men want to go to Occupy Wall Street and “pitch a tent” (their words).

Problem Four: Many of these pictures appear to have been taken without the women’s awareness, and presumably therefore without their permission. This adds a whole new level of creepiness to the thing. Not only are these men taking pictures of women with the sole intent of judging them by a narrow standard of physical beauty, they’re doing it without asking many of them if they’re okay with being photographed in the first place, let alone for this purpose.

Problem Five: The late-in-the-day not-pology edit added to the “Why?” section of the blog, protesting that, “to be honest, any excuse is a good excuse to bring up women’s rights” and that the intention of the blog was not to be sexist. I’m sure it wasn’t intended to be sexist, but it is. And saying that it’s not sexist because it’s not intended to be just hung a big neon sign over the whole blog that declares how utterly unaware of your own privilege you are. And then claiming that the purpose of the blog is now to “create constructive discussions” is not only disingenuous; it makes you look like an even bigger ignoramus.

Was this really the best way to create discussion around the rights of women? By objectifying them for a blog for your own personal use? Do you honestly think you’re fooling anyone?

This blog was never about the rights of women to be involved in public and political action without being photographed in some juvenile “hot or not at Occupy Wall Street” fashion. It was about taking pictures of women you think are physically attractive and displaying them on the Internet for everyone else to look at, too.

I’m glad the bloggers think the women they met are honorable and inspiring. It’s too bad the only honorable and inspiring women they chose to photograph are the ones whose bodies they thought were nice to look at first. As fellow Tumblr Ghnfennn says, “Boy embarks on honorable journey to Wall Street to check out the hot alternative chicks, discovers women are real people who can talk and do things, thinks he’s made some groundbreaking discovery.”

Guys, next time you decide to visit a major event and take pictures of “hot chicks,” maybe think twice about your reasoning and whether that’s a valid reason to photograph a bunch of women without asking. Ask yourself if you’re really okay with adding to the cultural message that a woman’s worth is first her body, and then what she contributes through her efforts, her imagination, her passion, and her intelligence. And if you decide to go ahead and post your new crop of pictures online, don’t be surprised when we get angry.