cupcakes and wimmen: come on down!
First, before we get to the oddity, how to survive in inclement weather as a fashionable goth. That article amused me greatly.
But this next one's just odd. So...I'm not a big-time coder, I know one programming language imperfectly, and two more I've been trying to learn for over five years with no success. A coder is not me. I get that.
But there are women who do, and men who do, and events have started to be organized on the ground called "hackathons". The name may be an unfortunate choice, because what's going on is more tech hacking, not group hacking with identified targets, but the name's stuck for this type of event--usually heavy on coders networking, with breaks for food and gaming, and some industry types lurking about to shop new talent.
Well, Sqoot wanted to do things a little differently. They wanted an event that catered to coders. They wanted an event that wouldn't have headhunters, just people on the ground, doing what they do. And so they planned their API jam, and...got into one.
Immediately many of their sponsors--who have female coders, or were launched by female coders--pulled out in protest over the wording of the flyer. But as a friend's pointed out, that's not the biggest problem. While he and I disagree over the wording of the flyer (he doesn't find it that offensive, I do), he says it's not the wording that's the problem. Having given this some thought this morning, I think he's right. While the wording is utter fail (and their apology didn't help damn much), it's just phrasing. At the end of the day, as he pointed out, there's not a lot of difference between
Women: Need another beer? Let one of our friendly (female) event staff get that for you
and
Staff: Need another beer? Let one of our friendly event staff get that for you.
Even more important to the problem, is that they likely still have an all-female staff, and are thinking it's just the wording that was the failure. They tried to play the humor card, it didn't go well, now they're trying to salvage the wreckage and still push through with their event...that still has an all-female staff on hand to offer alcohol and massages.
Like this is some big Vegas business convention with cognac and hookers 24/7 on call.
But then, seriously, are we that surprised? At this point there's a concerted effort to paint any woman who's competent at her job, living independently, and taking on adult responsibilities and relationships (at least in the US), as either a prostitute that needs to be repressed, or an actual, no-holds-barred food animal, and wau, that way lies abuse and Dolcett, and this is happening on the ground now, this very moment.
I think the bigger problem that Sqoot is facing is not that they went with the jovial "boy's coding club" language. It's that--as my friend pointed out--they really think just the language is the problem. And no. It's not. We have far larger problems we're contending with; the language is just the tip of the iceberg.
And unfortunately, women in the US? We've all been herded into the Titanic. And no amount of sponsorships falling through--for one tech event--is going to change that.
Not when the attitude of Congress currently seems to be reflecting that sometimes, bitches just need to be slapped down, and at the end of the day, that's the bigger problem--not some tech geeks who wanted to be cute and have women offer guys beer at a coding event.
(And seriously, this doesn't go far enough as a protest effort. Come on, people.)
But this next one's just odd. So...I'm not a big-time coder, I know one programming language imperfectly, and two more I've been trying to learn for over five years with no success. A coder is not me. I get that.
But there are women who do, and men who do, and events have started to be organized on the ground called "hackathons". The name may be an unfortunate choice, because what's going on is more tech hacking, not group hacking with identified targets, but the name's stuck for this type of event--usually heavy on coders networking, with breaks for food and gaming, and some industry types lurking about to shop new talent.
Well, Sqoot wanted to do things a little differently. They wanted an event that catered to coders. They wanted an event that wouldn't have headhunters, just people on the ground, doing what they do. And so they planned their API jam, and...got into one.
Immediately many of their sponsors--who have female coders, or were launched by female coders--pulled out in protest over the wording of the flyer. But as a friend's pointed out, that's not the biggest problem. While he and I disagree over the wording of the flyer (he doesn't find it that offensive, I do), he says it's not the wording that's the problem. Having given this some thought this morning, I think he's right. While the wording is utter fail (and their apology didn't help damn much), it's just phrasing. At the end of the day, as he pointed out, there's not a lot of difference between
Women: Need another beer? Let one of our friendly (female) event staff get that for you
and
Staff: Need another beer? Let one of our friendly event staff get that for you.
Even more important to the problem, is that they likely still have an all-female staff, and are thinking it's just the wording that was the failure. They tried to play the humor card, it didn't go well, now they're trying to salvage the wreckage and still push through with their event...that still has an all-female staff on hand to offer alcohol and massages.
Like this is some big Vegas business convention with cognac and hookers 24/7 on call.
But then, seriously, are we that surprised? At this point there's a concerted effort to paint any woman who's competent at her job, living independently, and taking on adult responsibilities and relationships (at least in the US), as either a prostitute that needs to be repressed, or an actual, no-holds-barred food animal, and wau, that way lies abuse and Dolcett, and this is happening on the ground now, this very moment.
I think the bigger problem that Sqoot is facing is not that they went with the jovial "boy's coding club" language. It's that--as my friend pointed out--they really think just the language is the problem. And no. It's not. We have far larger problems we're contending with; the language is just the tip of the iceberg.
And unfortunately, women in the US? We've all been herded into the Titanic. And no amount of sponsorships falling through--for one tech event--is going to change that.
Not when the attitude of Congress currently seems to be reflecting that sometimes, bitches just need to be slapped down, and at the end of the day, that's the bigger problem--not some tech geeks who wanted to be cute and have women offer guys beer at a coding event.
(And seriously, this doesn't go far enough as a protest effort. Come on, people.)