There is a lot of protest and opposition registered on the digital media against religious publications that omit pictures of women. [In addition to the general anti Rabbinic sentiment].
I TOTALLY get it. Women want to be seen and not erased. I have researched this topic and reached the inescapable conclusion that INDEED, women DO have faces!!!👩
But there is another side [or "facet" if I may be punny] to the story.
First - a lot of women prefer it that way. They don't need to see pictures of women as they already know what a woman looks like. They also prefer that their husbands and sons not see pictures of women. There are many such women. They are just not vocal because people generally get vocal when they disagree but are passive when they agree. There are also men who don't want to see pictures of women. Why are their [both the men and women who don't want there to be pictures of women] feelings less significant than those who feel differently?
Second - It takes ONE FIFTH OF A SECOND for a man to determine whether a woman is attractive or not [this has been scientifically studied - If our mind worked that fast for Gemara we'd all know Shas.] When a man sees a woman that is what first registers. When a man sees a man he doesn't think "whatta GREAT looking guy". But when he sees a woman that is PRECISELY what he thinks [substitute "woman" for "guy"]. He is also very often attracted to her. Do we want Jewish men to be unnecessarily attracted to women? Not if we care about purity.
Now, most men interact with women daily but that is unavoidable. We must earn a living and we must go to the supermarket. And to shul and to bring our kids to school and to the doctor etc. etc. Every time we go out we have a nisayon to guard our eyes and thoughts. So when reading Jewish publications we want to be spared that test.
Third - There are actually opinions in halacha that men may not look at a woman at all. Now almost nobody keeps this but why not keep it when possible? Why have a picture of good looking woman on one's wall? What would one's wife say about that? "Who is that honey?" "Oh, just a lady I saw today on the street. I wanted to remember her so I took a picture and put it up on my wall". Hmmmm. When reading a magazine and there is a shaitel ad and very attractive women are featured, it is not good for the soul to look.
Fourth - Sometimes a man sees an attractive women and he thinks about her for days - sometimes her image sticks in his mind for years. This is not holy. So of course we have to live in society and to interact with women but that doesn't mean we should look unnecessarily.
Five - It is a chumra in tzniyus. Some consider it going overboard but maybe it brings home the point how careful we must be. Sometimes going to one extreme helps people balance out [Rambam]. We live in a world where the standards of modesty have dipped so incredibly low, maybe this is good?
But again - I totally understand that women are offended by this. This is 2019 when women appear unabashedly in front of millions of people wearing next to nothing - so this picture ban even on modestly dressed women seems extreme . But it would be best if they would go to Torah authorities and ask them what the halachic and hashkafic attitude is towards this instead of just combating it with articles and websites.
We should be guided by eternal values and not our feelings.
