9 ms·

Yes, this practice of models at parties brings back memories. In 2000, a very well-known enterprise software company (Northeast not Silicon Valley) hosted a co

• throwawayjava 9y ago
  IDK. My logical brain says "it's not 1950 anymore; the PR blow-black has the potential to be truly brutal." My emotional brain says "This is horridly objectifying and super awkward."
  • AdeptusAquinas 9y ago
    Both ways too. When I see this sort of thing at a conference party or vendor thing, I think 'what do the organisers think we are, just rabid animals?' Its demeaning for all concerned
    • deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    • notyourday 9y ago
      Oh you mean booth bunnies? It works all every time it is tried if a booth bunny knows what she is doing. That's why it keeps happening. When my wife shows up as a part of the sales team the company always sells out of the product that they bring.
  • User23 9y ago
    Why should these women be denied the opportunity to do this job, supposing they want to do it?
    • jerf 9y ago
      That's not the problem anyone is having with this.
      • teirce 9y ago
        Then what is?
        • jerf 9y ago
          This may help you understand what people are saying about this and why they're upset: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15872605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15872605
      • ImSkeptical 9y ago
        It seems like you're suggesting women should be free to do this, but men should be shamed for asking women to do it - which seems like a weird position to hold. I can imagine some harm comes from this - e.g. an employee is mistaken for a model, or perhaps an employee is never mistaken for a model, but the magnitude of the harm doesn't seem so severe, and seems comparable to the benefit - the party is more fun. I know why people have an intuitive dislike for this, it calls to mind paying for sex, sounds pathetic, and feels possibly misogynistic, but logically, I can't defend any of those positions myself.
        • heartbreak 9y ago
          Nope. S/He’s saying women are free to work as models at a party, but employers shouldn’t hire women to be models at company events.
          • ImSkeptical 9y ago
  • jasode 9y ago
    >"it's not 1950 anymore; the PR blow-black has the potential to be truly brutal." For that particular party, there definitely wasn't blowback because the next morning, everybody talked about how amazing it was. I think it caught everyone off guard because it was unexpected and it gave attendees happy memories. (Yes, maybe the attendees should have been morally outraged but I can only report how they actually responded and at that time, they thought it was a huge hit.) It's been 17 years so maybe that company doesn't hire party models anymore. >"This is horridly objectifying and super awkward." That's a valid opinion but just to paint the picture better, the women were not dressed up as "Playboy bunnies". They were wearing regular shorts and a themed tshirt showing no cleavage. The interactions with the models would be similar to a kid interacting with Mickey Mouse at Disney. Also, there probably were male models on roller skates as well but I don't remember them for obvious reasons.
    • twobyfour 9y ago
      Everyone? I take it there were no women on your team?
    • soufron 9y ago
      Probably, but SV engineers are not kids, and these women are not entertaining children in mickey costumes. Seeing so many people defending this practice is really worrisome with regards to the lack of morals in SV.
    • goldenkey 9y ago
      Sounds amazing. Wish my company treated us to this kind of delight!
    • throwawayjava 9y ago
      >>"it's not 1950 anymore; the PR blow-black has the potential to be truly brutal." > For that particular party, there definitely wasn't blowback PR is bigger than just internal opinion. Witness: this article. > The interactions with the models would be similar to a kid interacting with Mickey Mouse at Disney Oy > the women were not dressed up as "Playboy bunnies". They were wearing regular shorts and a themed tshirt showing no cleavage... Also, there probably were male models on roller skates as well but I don't remember them for obvious reasons. At least we all eventually agree that the obvious is obvious.
  • Helmet 9y ago
    My logical brain goes: I bet these women are getting paid a pretty penny to go to some stupid party and mingle with the patrons. Probably get drinks and food on the house too. Lucky bastards!
    • subway 9y ago
      Say what now? Why would you think they're being paid a pretty penny? Odds are they're doing it to scrape by, and would much prefer having the evening to spend with their friends and family rather than having to put on a charade.
      • Helmet 9y ago
        No one is forcing them to do it. Anyone would much prefer to have an evening with their friends or family. But if they need the money, then it's a job. And it's probably a better job than most jobs.
        • lotsofcows 9y ago
          Ahhh, the American Dream! "No one is forcing them to do it." There's a plethora of well paid jobs out there that they could be doing instead but, for reasons unknown, they prefer to be under-dressed roller skating companions.
      • notyourday 9y ago
        Well, on a low end they are making about $25/hour after agency fees. On a high end they are walking away with a few thousand dollars. On a really high end they just made your yearly salary in a day - there was if I recall correctly a bank in Russia that flew a dozen of currently reasonably well known models for its New Year's party.
    • Mountain_Skies 9y ago
      There seems to be a fine line between slut shaming women for not conforming to some moral majority code of behavior and actual concern about objectification. Some seem to straddle the line trying to do both while claiming to only be standing on the good side.
  • firstplacelast 9y ago
    It’s kind of sexist too. I would like pretty male models to look at please.
    • Bob2019 9y ago
      There are good biological reasons why there isn't a popular Playgirl magazine. That is similar.
    • teirce 9y ago
      From the article: > At this year’s holiday parties, however, there’ll be a surprising influx of attractive women, and a few pretty men, mingling with the engineers. They’re being paid to.
• leggomylibro 9y ago
  I don't enjoy it; it already feels like nobody ever smiles at or talks to me when they aren't getting paid to, why would I ever want that feeling to extend to social events? Talk about a nightmare.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• igorgue 9y ago
  Ugh... I find it disgusting...
• alexasmyths 9y ago
  This is fine. (I mean gender issues aside). Because they are on 'roller skates' they are differentiated, and basically identifiable as 'hosts/hostesses'. There's nothing wrong with hiring hosts for a party. It's when they are mixed-in as guests it's cheezball.
• notyourday 9y ago
  The article is rubbish: This happens in every industry where people make serious money. During the finance boom it happened in finance. Right the biotech boom it happened in biotech. Right now it is a tech boom, so it is happening in tech. In this specific case the "models" are not the likes of Karolina Kurkova or the woman in the photo. At best they would be commercial models i.e. the ones that pose in clothes inside J.C. Penny during the holiday season. It is also extremely unfortunate that the author of the piece allowed the agency owner to get away with a total puff piece - owners do not reject bookings from existing reasonably vetted clients because the clients request short skirts or plunging necklines ( of course it would be rejected if the client is hookers-and-blow.com ). If a legitimate company wanted two dwarfs to wrestle in jello for a holiday party, they would be found -- it just a matter of price. The price now is just higher. Most of the 'low-rent' market is in China (all over) where they are booked daily for nightclub appearances, 'high rent' in mostly in Moscow, RU. P.S. Do notice that the agency CEO has a Russian name. [Edit after the downvotes]: Here, let me google this for you: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/34811/1/my-life-modelling-shanghai-nightclubs-china-fashion http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/34811/1/my-life-... http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-luxury/article/2120857/how-foreign-fashion-models-are-exploited-china-insider http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-luxury/article/2120857... https://www.thespec.com/news-story/7741206-questions-anger-after-young-russian-model-dies-in-china/ https://www.thespec.com/news-story/7741206-questions-anger-a... http://modelingwisdom.com/what-is-commercial-modeling http://modelingwisdom.com/what-is-commercial-modeling http://moscowdoesntbelieveintears.blogspot.com/ http://moscowdoesntbelieveintears.blogspot.com/
• twobyfour 9y ago
  That's great for the (straight) men. But it's extremely uncomfortable for the female employees at the events, who are now not only spending the evening outnumbered by male colleagues at an alcohol-lubricated event, they're now spending the evening outnumbered by male colleagues who are ogling other women who are there explicitly as objects of sexual attraction (even if it's deflected into "engaging them in conversation", that's clearly the angle they're intended to appeal to, or there wouldn't be a requirement that they be young and attractive). It's one step short of holding your holiday party at a strip club. Not quite as crass, but uncomfortable and marginalizing for the women for similar reasons.
  • juicyfroot 9y ago
    Those "models" are human beings and are employed for work. Don't you think the same models are saying, about people like you: "Yuck, now I have a gig to go to a holiday party and the women there will be whiny about my presence" In both cases you and the model are employed by the company. You are free to start your own company and create jobs for other people and alao pay more taxes for the betterment. Women may complain that men look at them as sex objects. But men complain that women look at them as work/providee objects
  • jasode 9y ago
    >, they're now spending the evening outnumbered by male colleagues who are ogling other women who are there explicitly as objects of sexual attraction Unfortunately, it was my limited recollection of the event that's prompted some replies about it marginalizing female employees. To clarify, it was a vendor conference and not a company party. Employees from different companies would attend. (Think of it like Google I/O or Apple WWDC Developers Conference). There were very likely male models there as well for the female attendees to interact with. I just happened to be standing with a group of all males so understandably, the only models that skated up to us were female. My single-gender sample set distorts what I remember and how I tell the story which then gives you, the reader, the wrong impression that it was quasi strip club event. I'd have to seek out some female colleagues who went to the same 2000 conference and ask them what they thought of it. I'm curious if they'd reply that they were disgusted and outraged by the male models there. I really don't know. (Or similarly, we can ask today's female employees at SV companies what they thought of male models at recent corporate parties.)
• CodeMage 9y ago
  This is one of those aspects of American culture that make me shake my head. If you're not enjoying the party with your co-workers, then it's either because the party is not good or you don't have a sense of community with your co-workers (or a combination of both). If the majority of people who attend the party feel that way, then your company has a problem: either they don't know how to throw a party or there's no community at the office (or, again, a combination of both). You can't really solve that with "Disney World effect".
  • JBlue42 9y ago
    At my last company, I tended to avoid all company-designated events but would still every couple months arrange a Friday after work drinking get-together at some local bar. Work parties felt like (unpaid) work or requisite to fit in with the 'company culture' vs after work drinks where you could blow off some steam without consequences and actually bond.