Yahoo Offered Lap Dances At Hack Event

Fotograf writes "Yahoo's latest embarrassment seems like a sign that the company is just trying too hard to be cool. The latest debacle is earning the company some additional publicity. After Yahoo hosted Taiwan Open Hack Day, a special event for engineers and developers that was held last weekend, a series of photos found their way onto the internet — as ill-thought out decisions often do. Yahoo offered lap dances to the attendees of the hack event. Since the pictures have come out the company has decided to apologize."

Comments

that's feminism circa 1960s

[circletimessquare]

the new feminism is about self-empowerment

such that grad students who work in strip clubs are seen as feminist icons: its all about exploiting silly weak men for lots of their cash by doing nothing but shimmying around

and no, that doesn't mean the new feminism is the same as pre-feminism. because the feminist who strips is CHOOSING to strip for fun and titillation (pun intended), rather than being FORCED to do it for economic difficulties

not that women aren't forced into exploitation for economic difficulties anymore, i'm not describing reality. i'm describing philosophical trends in feminist thinking. in feminist thinking, porn actresses are the new pioneers

Re:as they would say on FARK..

[Crudely_Indecent]

Forget the feminist wing, I'm looking forward to the lesbian wing showing up! I don't need a lap dance, I just want to watch.

On that note, did anybody see Gretchen kiss Claire on Heroes? HOT!

Dexter has been replaced by Heroes as my favorite TV show!

Re:Wonder why women are so uncomfortable...

[that IT girl]

Heck, I'm a woman and I think it's kind of funny, albeit inappropriate. Not necessarily an event I'd want to be at while this was going on--simply because lap dances and this kind of sexually charged thing is generally considered part of one's personal life, and this was a business/professional event. Some women and and even more privately-minded men would feel uncomfortable. If a man wants to go to a strip club, that's his business and I personally have zero problem with that. It's just not really appropriate for this event, in the same way that overt sexual advances, talking at length about one's sex life, etc are not appropriate for the professional office.

Re:Where's the problem?

[amplt1337]

Had the cheerleaders for an NFL team been there in tight shirts and tiny skirts waving pompoms nobody would have said a word.

Um, no.

Women (try talking to one sometime) are very widely offended at the whole phenomenon of Booth Babes, scantily clad spokesmodels, etc. The difference with this is that because it was lapdances, it actually makes the news.
It's just as hostile to the women who want to be treated as colleagues (instead of sex objects) to have micro-bikini models hanging around, but that won't make the papers.

blame Taiwanese culture

[pikine]

If I were Yahoo's management, I'd reassign or fire whomever was responsible for it. They shouldn't be calling shots for events.

I too think the lap dancing is distasteful, but this is a fine example how corporate culture is heavily distorted by the country's own culture as well. I think Yahoo! Taiwan organized the event autonomously without any collaboration with the US head quarter, and that the US head quarter really has nothing to do with this.

In Taiwan, hiring scanty show girls for any event like trade show, religious celebration, new year, and funeral is very common. You even see that in weddings (especially in the country-side). Imagine how the bride feels about that!

Re:as they would say on FARK..

[TheCarp]

In fact, it was a feminist that I know who prosed this question to me:

If you have a person who actually enjoys doing housework, or even go so far as to say enjoys being dominated and kept as a slave. These people exist, they are not that hard to find.

Now lets say that person is a woman. Hell lets say she is black, and her chosen mate is a white man.

It may make people feel weird, but if the values that we hold dear are liberation, and choice. Then why can't a black woman be submissive to a white man? Because she is a woman? Because she is black? Because we think she should want something different?

I think the real problem is that labels seldom apply well to people. One group of people calling themselves feminists make a few outrageous statements about all men being rapists, and next thing you know, every feminist is seen as a man hating battle axe.

Frankly, I take maybe a pessimistic view. However, I don't really think talk of ideals changes people for the most part. Asking people to change their behavior seldom does much. However, economics kind of required women to go to work, and once they did, it was hard to argue that they couldn't do the job anymore.

Essentially, realities change, then people accept them, seldom the other way around.

-Steve

Re:as they would say on FARK..

[electrons_are_brave]

As I female, I've been to a work-thing where the club we had drinks at turned out to have strippers. It was difficult for me to know what to do. Sit an smile and risk looking like I'm comfortable sitting next to my collegues who are gawping at strippers? Leave and miss out on the networking? Insist we go somewhere else and look like a sour old bag? It was awkward - for most of us, male or female. The worst thing was that one of the men who was himself offended - for religious rather than feminist reasons - insisted on bringing me into it when he complained ("She looked really embarrassed"). So it ended up looking like I was on-side with the office wowser.

It's always going to end up embarrassing or offending or excluding someone, so best keep it out of work functions.