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So it would be fine if the scarcely dressed participants in the show were of the same gender as the main characters? Furthermore, I don’t think that the ‘passi

So it would be fine if the scarcely dressed participants in the show were of the same gender as the main characters? Furthermore, I don’t think that the ‘passive objects’ were chosen based on gender, but rather on appeal to the assumed audience, possibly complementing the main presenters as to offer likeable elements to every member of the audience. Or are you saying that the visitors of this show are sexist because they only like women (assuming that this is true)?

jhonovich 14y ago
The 'passive objects' were chosen to be women because 90%+ of the attendees are men. The organizers know that this will appeal to them.
sp332 14y ago
I think the main problem is that women are already a minority. So when they look around, the women they are most likely to see are the ones who are not being taken seriously. This will discourage women from participating, and continue to ensure that the audience in future events is mostly male. A larger issue is that attendees will stop taking all women at the event seriously. It's like a spam filter for the brain: if you want to talk seriously about a product, find a man. Please note that even women attendees do this to each other. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2963733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2963733 especially the comments
- claudius 14y ago
  So clearly if the general population was less heterosexual[0] and/or more women in tech[1], this wouldn’t be a problem. However, it is rather difficult for me to understand that an action (employing scarcely dressed women) can be sexist depending on external factors such as the percentage of people interested in women/men. [0] Such that more men would be interested in men and hence scarcely dressed men were around as well. [1] So that the link female ⇔ booth babe breaks down.
  - sp332 14y ago
    Mostly, yes. Of course inviting only scantily-clad women makes women attendees feel a little less welcomed/catered to/pandered to than the men.
paranormal 14y ago
> So it would be fine if the scarcely dressed participants in the show were of the same gender as the main characters? It would be less sexist, but it would remain stupid. Anyway, let's return to the main point of the argument: employing "party girls" to sell services and software at trade shows is a practice that reinforces a particular culture of discrimination that is actively creating difficulties for professional women in our field. Do you disagree?

jhonovich 14y ago

The 'passive objects' were chosen to be women because 90%+ of the attendees are men. The organizers know that this will appeal to them.

sp332 14y ago

I think the main problem is that women are already a minority. So when they look around, the women they are most likely to see are the ones who are not being taken seriously. This will discourage women from participating, and continue to ensure that the audience in future events is mostly male. A larger issue is that attendees will stop taking all women at the event seriously. It's like a spam filter for the brain: if you want to talk seriously about a product, find a man. Please note that even women attendees do this to each other. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2963733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2963733 especially the comments

claudius 14y ago
So clearly if the general population was less heterosexual[0] and/or more women in tech[1], this wouldn’t be a problem. However, it is rather difficult for me to understand that an action (employing scarcely dressed women) can be sexist depending on external factors such as the percentage of people interested in women/men. [0] Such that more men would be interested in men and hence scarcely dressed men were around as well. [1] So that the link female ⇔ booth babe breaks down.
- sp332 14y ago
  Mostly, yes. Of course inviting only scantily-clad women makes women attendees feel a little less welcomed/catered to/pandered to than the men.

paranormal 14y ago

> So it would be fine if the scarcely dressed participants in the show were of the same gender as the main characters? It would be less sexist, but it would remain stupid. Anyway, let's return to the main point of the argument: employing "party girls" to sell services and software at trade shows is a practice that reinforces a particular culture of discrimination that is actively creating difficulties for professional women in our field. Do you disagree?