Amayita ([info]amayita) wrote,
@ 2006-11-06 12:16:00
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Current mood: nauseated
Entry tags:sexism

Everyday Sexism


Everyday Sexism
Originally uploaded by Amayita.


Things like this make us women feel VERY welcome in IT.

This time it's EagleSoft. But I am fearing SIMO in Madrid this week. It is just a CBIT-kind of computing fair, where there are more semi-naked women that semi-naked hardware to look at.

I did not want to attend this year, but I will. Just to take pictures of how male-targetted this market is. Naked women are used to sell anything, including computers.

I am nauseated and want to run really far away, where I can no longer take part in this consumerism-sexism whirlpool, and life a simple, materialism-free life, kind of Amish-like, but with access to my email :).

Excuse the rant.


Update: As requested by Madduck, I am happy to quote Erinn: The expression "nice rack" is used as a way to compliment a woman's breasts, as she was kind enough to explain on IRC for non-native speakers.
Please also note the expression on the guy's face.
Also, there are links to more sexism in IT adverts in this entry's comments. Feel free to add your own pointers. As consumers^Wcustomers we can make the educated choice.


(17 comments) - (Post a new comment)


(Anonymous)
2006-11-06 12:11 pm UTC (link)
Please accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of my entire gender. :-(

It's not only women this alienates, but non-juvenile men. It reinforces the image of IT being populated entirely by under-socialised nerds. And for some reason, this image seems to damage free software far more than proprietary software.

John H (http://confessingevangelical.blogspot.com/)

(Reply to this) (Thread)
No need to apologize
[info]amayita
2006-11-06 01:02 pm UTC (link)
It is only their problem if they don't want to sell their racks to me. As a matter of fact, I will never buy anything from such companies, and I am entitled to make harware buying decitions on large scale deployments.

Hopefully one day they'll get a clue.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2006-11-06 03:50 pm UTC (link)
As an under-socialised nerd (I'm more geek than nerd though), I must say I totally disagree with this kind of advertising.

I enjoy technology and I'm able enough to disassociate sex from tech, basically 'cause they have nothing to do, no matter how much I like both.

Eagle people: I hope you stop thinking about sex when you are designing your products and think about job when you have sex, because at the end, the only thing that you can say about your rack is that is "nice" (slow and expensive, but nice).

(Reply to this) (Parent)
don't understand.
(Anonymous)
2006-11-06 12:12 pm UTC (link)
Is it because I'm not a native speaker of English, because I don't know what company 'Eagle' is, or because I'm a male that I don't understand what is sexist about the shown picture?

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: don't understand.
[info]amayita
2006-11-06 12:39 pm UTC (link)
Hi, I understand that you don't get this, not being a native speaker.

The expression "nice rack" is used as a way to compliment a woman's breasts.

That's where the word-game becomes not funny.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Could be worse
[info]joachim-breitner.de
2006-11-06 06:56 pm UTC (link)
Imagine Cisco following your advice and created women-targetted ads as well: “Wow! Larges Tubes ever”

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Could be worse
[info]amayita
2006-11-07 08:50 am UTC (link)
I think you are missing it completely. Being sexist both ways does not save anybody's problems.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2006-11-06 12:30 pm UTC (link)
Well, there is a difference between sexism and targetted advertisement. Naked women sell computers simply because men still vastly outnumber women in the field.

(Reply to this)


[info]pvaneynd
2006-11-06 12:42 pm UTC (link)
You should see German IT magazines. Ever serious publications like C'T are filled with worse. Opening on a random page you get this rather distracting image: .

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Would you mind to translate?
[info]amayita
2006-11-07 08:44 am UTC (link)
Because I am kind os missing it ;)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Would you mind to translate?
[info]pvaneynd
2006-11-07 09:39 am UTC (link)
Sorry, I completely forgot it was German.
"Twinhead"   "Twinhead suggests Windows XP Professional"

   "Pure lightness (as in weight)" 
   "Big performance in 
    the smallest space"

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2006-11-06 07:40 pm UTC (link)
I don't see the big deal. Maybe I'm just insensitive but it takes a lot more than a little partial-nudity or bad joke to offend me and letting a company's advertising overrule a technical decision on whether or not to use their product seems pretty stupid to me.

Advertising is meant to get your attention and nothing more, whether you thought it was funny or not is irrelevant because you're still taking about it and passing their name on, I had never heard of Eagle until now so they're doing something right it would seem.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Yes you are insensitive
[info]amayita
2006-11-07 08:49 am UTC (link)
But what you are misssing out is that my goal is to make IT more inclusive, which this kind of marketing does not help at.

I am not offended by "a little partial-nudity or bad joke". I think at my age it takes a little bit more to offend me.

I am just nauseated that women will never be attracted to this wonderful field of knowledge, and I will always be considered the tomboy, probably by people like you, who don't see a problem, just because I am technical and lack a penis.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Yes you are insensitive
(Anonymous)
2006-11-22 12:03 am UTC (link)
My (modest) opinion, is that it's not about sexism. Let's generarize. You (women) are a minory in this market. It's about monirities and marketing. Marketing people just don't worry beacuse it just doesn't woth, in market terms. Nothing more. In fact, there are pleny of women in marketing. A girl could author that ad.

I've come to your web from a page (planeta hispalinux) where you were the only girl among 40 guys, justo to plot some data. I felt curious about you (typical male behaviour, sorry ;)

The ad in the photo may be inaproppiate, but the problem is not sexism, it's "minorytism" or whatever it cold be said... The solution to this problem is completely unknown to me. It may be related to the "critical mass" concept?

Nice site,

CArlos

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Yes you are insensitive
[info]amayita
2006-11-22 12:36 pm UTC (link)
Hispalinux is dead

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]nou
2006-11-06 09:56 pm UTC (link)
[info]rjw1 pointed me here. I recently posted about something related to this; it's friends-locked, but I've added you so you can see it.

(Reply to this)


[info]adultfriend
2006-12-20 01:03 pm UTC (link)
I understand your feelings and I can't say that I want to put anything to against it. But mercantile interests play the more important role than morality.

(Reply to this)

(17 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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