I recently saw a story online that says “Broadway plays written by women earn on average 18% more than those written by men.” It was a nice, short informative piece, and it raised the question of why aren’t more women playwrights produced on Broadway.

However, right before the story starts, there’s a stock photo of a woman looking at money. A woman in a jacket. A women with no shirt underneath that jacket. Take a look:

Of all the stock images out there in the world, why choose the one that features a shirtless female? It’s distracting. And yes, maybe it’s distracting because I’m a male. Still, to write a story about gender inequality and then post a picture that plays right into that is thoughtless.

Then again, maybe it was done on purpose, because sex sells. Either way, I found the dichotomy between the story and the image amusing, and a great reminder that when choosing photos, make sure they fit the theme of the story.