--- title: The Family Christmas Picture that Sets Back Women’s Rights description: Showing women bound and silenced isn’t funny—it’s harmful canonical: https://time.com/4155381/christmas-picture-womens-rights/ author: Darlena Cunha article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-18T20:27:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:47.101Z article:section: Ideas og:title: This Christmas Picture Sets Back Women’s Rights og:description: Showing women bound and silenced isn’t funny—it’s harmful og:url: https://time.com/4155381/christmas-picture-womens-rights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Christmas Picture Sets Back Women’s Rights twitter:description: Showing women bound and silenced isn’t funny—it’s harmful twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Christmas Picture Sets Back Women’s Rights > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Emma Watson - He For She - Speech [Watch (HLS stream): Emma Watson - He For She - Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0clamGjK.m3u8) (0:23)  _Published 2014-09-22. Emma Watson -He For She- Speech_ by [Darlena Cunha](https://time.com/author/darlena-cunha/) ## Darlena Cunha Dec 18, 2015 8:27 PM UTC by [Darlena Cunha](https://time.com/author/darlena-cunha/) ## Darlena Cunha Dec 18, 2015 8:27 PM UTC Sometimes we think we have a [really amazing idea](https://www.facebook.com/hannahhawkesphotography/photos/a.1656931574563939.1073741828.1656459284611168/1675012082755888/?type=3&theater) for a Christmas picture that everyone will just love. Sometimes we post that idea publicly. And sometimes that’s a really bad idea. Hannah Hawkes Photography, a business in Louisiana, found that out the hard way when it posted to Facebook a family picture showing a wife and her two daughters bound by Christmas lights with bright green tape over their mouths, while a man sits contentedly above them, displaying a sign that reads “Peace on Earth.” On the other side, their son is standing, smiling widely and giving the camera a big thumbs-up. Showing the women in your family bound and gagged may seem to some like a cute and funny play on the old stereotype of women chattering too much and nagging the men in their families, particularly around the holidays. It’s something many of us have grown up with. But it’s wrong. And knowing it’s wrong and thinking it’s funny in any way is a problem. It reinforces a negative framing of women to our children. The fact that more people do not find the photo to be demeaning and derogatory shows how very far women’s rights still need to come. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this one says the subjugation of women is hilarious. This family agreed to the photo-shoot, and the woman photographer agreed to take the photo. The wife and daughters are obviously not meant to depict hostages. But to many women who have undergone abuse either inside or out of the home, this image could bring back horrific memories. And it furthers the subconscious negativity toward women in our society by perpetuating the idea that women need to be shushed. Who decides that women talk too much? Men. How would this joke go over if the women had bound and gagged the men? It wouldn’t go over at all because it wouldn’t be funny that way. The reason people like this photo is because they think they are in on the societal joke. But a joke like that isn’t funny; it primes the next generation to continue to hold archaic views. We live in a society where [rape victims are not believed](http://www.etonline.com/news/154160%5Ftimeline%5Fof%5Fbill%5Fcosby%5Fsexual%5Fassault%5Fallegations/), where [catcalls](http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/11/catcalls-and-street-harassment) and [subsequent threats](http://observer.com/2015/10/guys-heres-what-its-actually-like-to-be-a-woman/) by strange men to women they don’t know are considered to be compliments or simply inconvenient, where [rejection of a man’s advances could easily lead to death](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/24/elliot-rodgers-california-shooting-mental-health-misogyny), where a [man can “fall” into a woman’s vagina](http://jezebel.com/man-who-claimed-he-fell-and-penetrated-teen-is-cleared-1748294505) and be cleared of charges of sexual assault. So, no, this joke is not funny . We cannot ignore images like this Christmas one. We need to talk about them. We need to say the very opposite of what this picture implies. 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