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Microsoft Publishes Sexist Letter To Help Dudes Convince Women To Buy Xbox One

13 points by hackhackhack 13y ago

DigitalSea 13y ago
How is this sexist? Typical Techcrunch making a big deal about nothing because they know the whole "women in tech" thing is hot property right now. It's just a lame attempt on Microsoft's part to be funny, the title made the letter seem so much worse than it was. If Apple did this Techcrunch would probably have spun the article saying how revolutionary Apple's marketing tactics are and that email campaigns like this are the future of product marketing. The bias of Techcrunch writers is so obvious, I am surprised people still visit the site, they are the Fox News of tech journalism. It's not like the letter said the following: "Hey woman, I know you're busy making my breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the last thing you want to hear is me talking about the new fangled gaming console coming out, especially considering you're probably tired from cleaning up after me and ironing all of my business shirts. Think of all of the fun we can have together. While you're making me a sandwich, I can yell things like; get me another beer woman and pass the mead wench, while I am yelling obscenities at 13 year old kids in Call of Duty. I can then show you a character I created in a game of a woman with large breasts & mini skirt and then make you feel so insecure about how you look that you develop an eating disorder and get breast implants. It'll be a win-win situation." Now that's what a sexist letter would look like, but you know what? The original letter implies the person sending it has a girlfriend or wife who doesn't like playing games (my girlfriend sure doesn't like playing games, I'd probably send it to her and she would laugh). The tech industry has become so obsessed with the whole women in tech issue that they will distort anything they can to cause controversy and get ad impressions. Techcrunch is a sinking ship, they haven't been the same since Arrington left and The Verge hit the scene, anything for a story it would seem. I posted this as a comment on the story as well
- pisarzp 13y ago
  Totally agree, typical TC linkbait. Examples picked by TechCrunch are not even default ones, so they crafted the letter to sound sexist and than complain about it...
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - codeka 13y ago
    I think those words were there, but according to TC's update, Microsoft have "slightly edited the letter" -- my guess is they removed all the defaults. It still says "click the text in green to customize your perfect letter" even though there's no green text anymore. It looks like they removed some options as well, since "knit" isn't even available as one of the options.
randyrand 13y ago
Satirical email is satirical. Settle down techcrunch. Also, small detail, the email is gender neutral.

13 points by hackhackhack 13y ago

How is this sexist? Typical Techcrunch making a big deal about nothing because they know the whole "women in tech" thing is hot property right now. It's just a lame attempt on Microsoft's part to be funny, the title made the letter seem so much worse than it was. If Apple did this Techcrunch would probably have spun the article saying how revolutionary Apple's marketing tactics are and that email campaigns like this are the future of product marketing. The bias of Techcrunch writers is so obvious, I am surprised people still visit the site, they are the Fox News of tech journalism. It's not like the letter said the following: "Hey woman, I know you're busy making my breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the last thing you want to hear is me talking about the new fangled gaming console coming out, especially considering you're probably tired from cleaning up after me and ironing all of my business shirts. Think of all of the fun we can have together. While you're making me a sandwich, I can yell things like; get me another beer woman and pass the mead wench, while I am yelling obscenities at 13 year old kids in Call of Duty. I can then show you a character I created in a game of a woman with large breasts & mini skirt and then make you feel so insecure about how you look that you develop an eating disorder and get breast implants. It'll be a win-win situation." Now that's what a sexist letter would look like, but you know what? The original letter implies the person sending it has a girlfriend or wife who doesn't like playing games (my girlfriend sure doesn't like playing games, I'd probably send it to her and she would laugh). The tech industry has become so obsessed with the whole women in tech issue that they will distort anything they can to cause controversy and get ad impressions. Techcrunch is a sinking ship, they haven't been the same since Arrington left and The Verge hit the scene, anything for a story it would seem. I posted this as a comment on the story as well

pisarzp 13y ago
Totally agree, typical TC linkbait. Examples picked by TechCrunch are not even default ones, so they crafted the letter to sound sexist and than complain about it...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- codeka 13y ago
  I think those words were there, but according to TC's update, Microsoft have "slightly edited the letter" -- my guess is they removed all the defaults. It still says "click the text in green to customize your perfect letter" even though there's no green text anymore. It looks like they removed some options as well, since "knit" isn't even available as one of the options.

randyrand 13y ago

Satirical email is satirical. Settle down techcrunch. Also, small detail, the email is gender neutral.