Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals

Technical suitability of the Lena image

• Many argue the image is technically obsolete: low resolution, poor color, line noise, print-screen artifacts, and not representative of modern digital cameras.
• Specific criticisms: ~250k pixels, scanned from halftone print, unsuitable as a serious modern benchmark.
• Some note it still has useful characteristics (textures, edges, gradients, skin tones, contrast) and that finding a single replacement with all these properties is surprisingly hard.
• Others suggest moving away from a single “canonical” image toward curated image suites and large corpora for both quantitative and qualitative evaluation.

Ethics, pornography, and professional context

• A recurring concern: the image’s origin in a soft‑porn magazine and the field-wide in‑joke about that context, which some say creates an unprofessional or exclusionary atmosphere, especially for women.
• Counter-argument: the cropped image is “just a pretty face,” and being offended is seen by some as hypersensitivity or puritanism.
• Several distinguish between private consumption of porn and bringing porn-derived material into professional/academic settings.

Consent and the model’s wishes

• It’s repeatedly stated that the model has asked for the image to be retired.
• Some say that alone is sufficient reason to stop using it; ignoring this is seen as disrespectful.
• Others argue she was fine with it for decades and only changed her mind under activist pressure; they question how much weight that should carry.

Alternatives and replacement proposals

• Suggested replacements include male models (e.g., a famous male glamour shot), artist-created analogues, Wikimedia “Picture of the Year” photos, test images with color charts, or entirely synthetic/CGI scenes.
• Some propose AI-generated or stock-photo-based images; others insist on real photos for realism.
• A few note that multiple specialized images (e.g., for skin tones, dynamic range, fine texture) may be better than one “perfect” image.

Policy, bans, and “culture war” framing

• Debate over IEEE’s ban:
  • Supporters see it as a minor, sensible policy aligning with modern ethics and technical reality.
  • Critics frame it as ideological “cancel culture” or a symbolic win for “moral crusaders,” not a technically motivated change.
• Some lament needing formal rules instead of organic community evolution; others say rules are necessary because individuals feel unable to buck entrenched norms alone.