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Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

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Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#131

Post by twobyfour »

jasode wrote: post #8

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 conference for customers and had a night party for the attendees. The most memorable thing I remember was the group of extremely pretty women on roller skates mingling with the crowd. E.g. they'd skate up and ask random attendees, "Hey where are you from? Are you…

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.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#132

Post by notyourday »

AdeptusAquinas wrote: post #30
throwawayjava wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

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

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.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#133

Post by notyourday »

bdcravens wrote: post #27
davidu wrote: post #7

Pathetic. The whole point is to celebrate with the employees and their families and recognize the hard work everyone has put in over the year. A stranger not connected to an employee would take away from that value. If you want more women at the event, hire more women at the company and create a culture that encourages that.

> If you want more women at the event This has nothing to do with equality. They aren't hiring these models as equals, but for the misogynistic dynamic (while removing the organic nature of opposite-sex interaction)

> while removing the organic nature of opposite-sex interaction

One needs to be absolutely insane to organically interact with a co-worker of opposite sex at a company social events considering the popularity of all kinds of sexual harassment claims.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#134

Post by [deleted] »

Jach wrote: post #117
bdamm wrote: post #107

When I first saw this the headline was shrunk to "Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into..." and I assumed "the workplace" to be the logical conclusion of this. People paid to look pretty and sit at a desk and pretend like they work to adjust the workplace ambiance? Seems like a logical direction for this to go in.

Similar things have already been happening in Asian countries for years... e.g. https://kotaku.com/in-china-women-hired-to-motivate-computer...

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#135

Post by jsmthrowaway »

huac wrote: post #29

> For a typical party, scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 8, Cre8 Agency LLC is sending 25 women and 5 men, all good-looking, to hang out with “pretty much all men” who work for a large gaming company in San Francisco Who is it?

Educated guess, based on "large gaming company," "San Francisco," the number of models hired, hand selecting those models and giving them backstories, and the disregard for opinion in doing something like this: Kixeye. Honestly, that smells a hell of a lot like something Kixeye would do. Maybe EA or Zynga, but I doubt it.

As soon as I finished the paragraph, Kixeye popped into my head automatically. I will caveat that I'm very possibly wrong, but I'm just sharing my guess.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#136

Post by xj9 »

radiorental wrote: post #23
matte_black wrote: post #4

Nothing new, this has been happening for a long time. They are called atmosphere models.

We have atmosphere models that show carbon emissions are warming the planet. Should we continue to just gawk at those models too? Or do something about it? It's 2017, not an episode of Mad Men.

ya well i'm starting my own company with blackjack and hookers. i (a woman) happen to enjoy pretty men and women, why wouldn't i want to have some atmosphere models at my event?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#137

Post by [deleted] »

jordigh wrote: post #56
throwaway0255 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They aren't hiring these models as equals, but for the misogynistic dynamic Interesting, my mind goes straight to this being incredibly demeaning toward the legitimate male attendees of the party. Didn't even occur to me that somebody would have the opposite interpretation. That'd be my only thought at the party. "They had to pay this good-looking person to pretend to talk to me." I don't see how this is misogynist…

It's misogynistic because it commodifies women. Having a woman to talk to is something that you can just buy, like a car or a nice meal. They're not treated as people, just as consummables.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#138

Post by CodeMage »

jasode wrote: post #8

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 conference for customers and had a night party for the attendees. The most memorable thing I remember was the group of extremely pretty women on roller skates mingling with the crowd. E.g. they'd skate up and ask random attendees, "Hey where are you from? Are you…

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".

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#139

Post by omegaham »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #95
heedlessly2 wrote: post #45

Its kind of funny. These Silicon Valley types make $150k, but still can't get a girlfriend

It might be different in SV but my experience in IT has been that the vast majority of employees over 25 are in stable marriages and either have or are planning on having kids. Of course the Valley is its own special bubble but doubt singledom is going to be the path most end up on into middle age.

I'll anecdotally confirm this. As much as people love shitting on the awkwardness of nerds, most people get it together enough to find love by age 25.

People learn enough social niceties to get by, even if they never become the life of the party. Women start caring less about how cool the guy is and and start caring more about "Do I actually get along with this person?" Somewhere in the middle of those lowered expectations for coolness and increased social competence, nerds do just fine.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties

#140

Post by pwinnski »

ardit33 wrote: post #57
davidu wrote: post #7

Pathetic. The whole point is to celebrate with the employees and their families and recognize the hard work everyone has put in over the year. A stranger not connected to an employee would take away from that value. If you want more women at the event, hire more women at the company and create a culture that encourages that.

"If you want more women at the event, hire more women at the company and create a culture that encourages that." -- Yes, some magic wand will solve it? If they are tech companies and engineers are the primary value drivers, and only 16% of CS grads are female, what kind of rock will they find balanced workforce? Companies hire because they need people to feel a role, (eg. engineers, marketing, sales, hr... etc). If t…

Does your company have 16% or more women in software roles?
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