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    Leslie Jones' bizarre Wikipedia photo
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    Leslie Jones’ bizarre Wikipedia photo


    As an avid Wikipedia deep diver, whenever Leslie Jones is mentioned I think of this bizarre and (slightly?) offensive photo. There is noo damn way there isnt a more dignified public domain photo of her.

    Edit: And mind you this photo has been there for a WHILE, I feel I first saw it atleast a year and a half ago. Probably been up longer.

    Edit 2: This is in no way an attack on Wikipedia editors who go out of their way to provide public free information. Your work is admirable and makes the world a better place. I wanted to call attention to something that I thought i was reading too much into, and wanted to see if people felt the same way.

    Posted by aphidius_enjoyer

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    41 Comments

    3. itsyaboy_boyboy on

      I think white people should call out racism when they see it, especially when its blatantly obvious!

    4. ebbtideisalive on

      This is the type of photo my husband would take if I ask him to take a picture for me. She deserves better! Is there anyway to change it?

    5. PreferenceOk1525 on

      White people are especially the ones that should call out racism, show some solidarity

    6. theladytoots on

      If I remember correctly, Wikipedia sources their celebrity portraits from non trademarked pictures so they’re often unflattering and candid. It’s happened to many people.

    8. Potential-Thing7255 on

      i got told wikipedia is always taking the first picture from „google picture“ as source

    10. Sensitive-Warning956 on

      Anyone can change her profile picture just ensure the file has the correct licensing for Wikipedia

    12. adularia- on

      She just did an interview about how it’s frustrating being typecast as the angry Black woman too

    13. Smooth_Cod4600 on

      Also an avid wiki surfer, they have to use photos that aren’t contractually owned by other people. Wiki is a free source and they have to use photos that don’t cost them any money. That’s literally all it is.

    15. theegodmother1999 on

      i agree that it’s a bit insane that this is the photo used – but i do assume it has something to do with the fact that wikipedia can’t use photos that are publically available, like it can’t be any professional photo because they don’t have the rights to use the photo. THAT BEING SAID there are definitely photos of this woman that exist that are much more humane and flattering of her than whatever this is lol

    17. ProfessionalShop9051 on

      If anyone here has taken a photo of Leslie Jones (that is obviously of better photographic quality than this one), upload it to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons liscense and theres a good chance an editor will use it to replace the current one on her Wikipedia page

    19. hyoies on

      i just checked wikimedia commons and that’s just the only image of her they have available. if anyone who owns copyright for a better one can upload it that would be great. it’s not the wikipedia editors’ fault – it can be really surprisingly hard to find public domain pics of celebs

    21. figure8888 on

      Photographers usually want money for the good photos (because that is their job), but they put the not-so-good ones up for public use.

      It’s always stunning to me when people don’t realize Wiki is run almost entirely by volunteers. They also donate heavily to education in underprivileged communities and they actually specifically collaborate with PoC artists to improve representation on Wikipedia pages for black public figures. Basically, an artist would paint a portrait of someone like Leslie and donate it to Wiki. Really anyone is free to do so.

      But every time you see Wiki “begging” for money and you ignore it, the majority of the donations get funneled into their charity work. So what you’re really turning down is education programs for underprivileged youth. They just use the big scary “Wikipedia is dying!” Because they’ve tried other things and no one cares.

    23. Between-usernames on

      Kind of like how most reviews and surveys are skewed negative, people with strong feelings and complaints are way more likely to respond than someone with a good experience. So, my guess is someone intentionally found an unflattering one and no one else has been motivated enough to change it.
      For example, if someone like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé had an unflattering image on any website anywhere, their fan base is significant enough to have several folks that would want to do something about it. Hope that makes sense. 

    24. Duosion on

      Licensing issues aside, if they can’t source a decent picture yet they might as well just… not have one at all.

    26. VelvetAsteria on

      Jones at the Stress Factory” is not just a caption, it’s a spiritual state of being.

    27. Kayvanian on

      Wikipedia generally uses only public domain or freely licensed photos when possible. Many of the photos you see on Wikipedia are taken by everyday people who are willing to release their pics. But that’s also why so many Wikipedia biographies have missing or absurdly bad photos (to the point where I think no photo is sometimes better than what’s available…). The bad bio photos are sometimes coming from situations like a person in a crowd taking a 5x zoomed-in photo on their phone in terrible lighting, and that being the only freely licensed photo of a person out there. You generally need to have media access to an event for the opportunity to take good photos of people at-scale.

      Myself and a few others co-founded [WikiPortraits](https://www.wikiportraits.org/), where we help volunteer photographers get credentialed at events (film fests, concerts, conference, etc.) to take better photos of people for Wikipedia (and we’re always looking for more help!). But we unfortunately haven’t photographed Leslie yet.

      The other way to try to fix this is seeing if a photographer out there who has a nice photo of Leslie would be willing to freely license it (can sometimes do this via Flickr), but it’s ofc hit-or-miss to find people who are willing and able to give their work away for free. Other option is reaching out to Leslie (or her publicist) and seeing if they have a photo they own the copyright to, that they could freely license. Often easier said than done because bureaucracy and getting into legal territory.

    28. deftly_lefty on

      Part of me wonders if she thinks it’s hilarious or is a running gag among her and her team. Has anyone asked her (X, IG, etc.)?

    29. frogger1121 on

      This is unrelated but Leslie Jones on instagram recapping House of the Dragon is some of the funniest/fascinating content online. She is so fun to listen to and I look forward to her recaps almost as much as the episode itself 😂

    31. Emotional_Garage_950 on

      speaking of odd wikipedia photos, look at Neil Breen’s page if you wanna see an odd one

    33. whereisbeezy on

      It’s a bad photo. And people generally use a bad photo when they want others to feel a certain way.

    36. JuiceAlternative4633 on

      People like to put unflattering photos of celebs on Wikipedia someone did it to Amelia Dimoldenberg . Her sister changed it to a more flattering pic)

    37. snapekillshansolo on

      I have noticed this as well. I also tend to see that google will not list black actors near the top despite the significance of their role.

    38. lomuto on

      Leslie Jones is a celebrity. She probably has assistants and a manager and a publicist and headshots. If she wants to, she can fix this with the snap of her fingers.

      That’d be great.