Can we talk about tech things instead of gender politics please? I'm just here for rampart, err, technical things.
Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
51–60 of 227 posts
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just hired a split of both genders for the booth of a client at an event next week. Not sure if it's a coincidence that no-one else around me thinks of doing that and that I'm gay, or not..
How could you not know if that's a coincidence? You're the one who did the hiring. Attractiveness either was a factor in your selection of booth people or was not .
I made the decision to get a mix, I didn't personally pick out faces. I also won't be spending any time on the booth other than taking a look at it. So attractiveness wasn't relevant. But that doesn't mean my sexuality wasn't relevant to the decision to include men.
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#53Seems like a hard problem to solve. Sending people to do product promotional is perfectly legitimate depending on the type of event. Even if you weren't deliberately targeting a male audience with attractive females (although I'm sure that was the case), odds are that if you were recruiting for that kind of work 90% would be outgoing and attractive young women. Just like recruiting programmers will get you 90% geeky…
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Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#54I hope this is a short term pain point to getting a real sol'n to a better gender equalibrium among developers.
Face it, the only real sol'n is to have really technical women working in our field because we can't go back. GDC has progressed, but as an industry it needs to keep progressing.
Maybe we can highlight booths that go above and beyond for the sake of the GDC? Like a best booth award selected based a set of criteria that includes having technical women available and knowledgeable. Then give them 5 mins to make a presentation.
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#55Maybe a compromise: instead of extremes like latex bikinis or just plain-clothes why don't use a subtle corporate uniform? That way is not sexist nor something that a non-employee might be wearing.
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#56Holy cow! I had never thought of this before. Thank you so much for sharing!
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#57Wait, I don't get it. I'm at GDC. A very large portion (maybe even a majority) of either gender is non-technical. It's an industry event so there are lots of salespeople, hr, biz-dev, etc. I wouldn't assume a man I met here was a developer. There are some pretty obvious booth babes (the energy drink girls, ones with swords, etc.) There are women who, while perhaps non-technical, legitimately work for the companies th…
I think the problem I have with your comments is that you haven't put yourself in her shoes. You've simply related how you see things and drawn your conclusion from that alone. Her point was that women engineers seem to have a hard time at GDC -- so yeah, as a male engineer, it's not shocking that things seemed fine to you. She took the time to put up a sincere blog post about her experience; she's probably not doing…
Well, her point was that she felt more uncomfortable at GDC than other conventions because there are female employees. I put myself in her shoes as much as I can, but I just can't imagine why GDC having female employees working in booths in biz dev is a bad thing for other females. I don't think she's trolling either but it's just a strange sentiment.
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#58Wait, I don't get it. I'm at GDC. A very large portion (maybe even a majority) of either gender is non-technical. It's an industry event so there are lots of salespeople, hr, biz-dev, etc. I wouldn't assume a man I met here was a developer. There are some pretty obvious booth babes (the energy drink girls, ones with swords, etc.) There are women who, while perhaps non-technical, legitimately work for the companies th…
> It's an industry event so there are lots of salespeople, hr, biz-dev, etc. I would assume those people are technical until evidence to the contrary presents itself.
Why? I'd assume neither and then find out.
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#59I can't imagine how frustrating that must be. But I hate the concept of giving up fighting for yourself. Why not put a few people in their place? If that's just not in your nature, fair enough; but I say make a few guys feel like idiots by stepping up to the plate with your expertise. If they don't like it, that's their problem. And if that fails, I like davidrobert's idea as well -- maybe wear a shirt that has a rea…
People who want to do their work don't want to spend time "putting people in their place." And once you do, you haven't gained much - there's still many other interactions throughout the day, and are you going to put them all in their place? That's the point, and the frustration: she wants to spend her effort talking about technical things.
Sorry, putting people in their place is probably a bit strong for what I'm trying to say. What I ultimately mean is, it doesn't take long to prove you know what you're talking about in a conversation. Sure, it sucks that she has to do that at all, but I would personally think it's worth it versus the alternative options of just staying silent or playing the role of "just along for the ride with my technical boyfriend."
Re: Booth Babes, Street Clothes, and GDC: Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who want to do their work don't want to spend time "putting people in their place." And once you do, you haven't gained much - there's still many other interactions throughout the day, and are you going to put them all in their place? That's the point, and the frustration: she wants to spend her effort talking about technical things.
Sorry, putting people in their place is probably a bit strong for what I'm trying to say. What I ultimately mean is, it doesn't take long to prove you know what you're talking about in a conversation. Sure, it sucks that she has to do that at all, but I would personally think it's worth it versus the alternative options of just staying silent or playing the role of "just along for the ride with my technical boyfriend…
I feel like you're really missing the point. She did that, and it became tiresome. Then she wished she didn't have to do that, and wrote this post explaining why.