Let Me Ask You Something...

Dek, LA Times [Aug 27, 2013]:
"Wilma Subra, a diminutive grandmother, has long challenged the corporate polluters in one of the nation's most toxic regions."

So now you think the dear little thing is holding a bake sale, right? Subra may be a grandmother, she may be many other things as well, maybe she bakes, maybe she fixes cars, maybe she writes verse; but what's important to this article is that she's a chemist. And an activist.

Let me ask you:

If you were to read an article about an environmental activist, a chemist who won the MacArthur Genius Grant, then spent years going toe-to-toe with the big players in the chemical manufacturing arena, and later faced physical danger when publishing those findings; if this article were about a man, would the Dek read: "Tiny grandfather takes on corporate polluters"?

I think not.