Slashdot Mirror
Sexism Is Still a Thing At Microsoft's GDC Party (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes from an article on TechCrunch: Microsoft hired a bunch of women wearing very little clothing to dance and socialize with people at the company's official Game Developers Conference after-party last night in San Francisco, Business Insider reports. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, said in a statement to TechCrunch. "At Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was not consistent or aligned to our values. It was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. I know we disappointed many people and I'm personally committed to holding ourselves to higher standards. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion are central to our everyday business and core values. We will do better in the future." What's problematic is that Microsoft chose to throw a party that clearly caters to heterosexual men by hiring women as objects of sex.
I see nothing whatsoever wrong about this arrangement.
Okay, I get it. It's a good idea to cater to as many possible audiences as possible.
This isn't always possible. Especially with the combative nature of several audiences nowadays.
But why is it okay to clearly cater to heterosexual females, or homosexual men, or homosexual females? But, cater to heterosexual men nowadays and YOU ARE WRONG AND BAD!
I'm sorry but fuck that noise. Every product and every promotion isn't going to appeal to every demographic. DEAL WITH IT!
Seriously, it's gotten to such an idiotic point that it's okay to be anything BUT a heterosexual male nowadays.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Humans are sexy, and there's a time and place for sexy. But unless you're arguing that their only fault was not appealing to all sexual orientations, and that scantily clad men or t-girls should also have been included, then maybe we can save the strippers for events where the main topic actually is people's genitals.
Dear whiplash
With all the improvements that are being made to this wonderful site one of the biggest flaws brought in big part by the previous owners (DICE) was the overly politicised topics that not even tangentially touches the historical major focus of this site: technology and its applications.
It is my belief that, for the original audience of this site, some here since before the 9/11, some even from when http colon slash slash was actually pronounced when reading URLs out loud, the main drive to come and read the front page is to catch up with the latest of the technology and its applications.
This kind of politicised subject (the same going for the U.S. elections, ISIS, the refugee crisis and general gossip) already abounds in the mainstream media and for more than a decade this used to be the place to run away from all that, to read about the subjects that are our jobs and our passions and to welcome our robotic overlords.
Unicode, https, burying videos, all that would be secondary if this kind of article continues to be propped up in here.
It is time for some transparency here: did this article even passed through the firehose? People actually voted for it? Maybe times changed and people here are voting for this kind of article to the front page but, otherwise, it would be a great update, maybe the greatest, to go back to the roots of "News for Nerds, stuff that matter".
Either that or at least inform the audience that Slashdot is OK with this kind of articles, that the desired audience is a new audience with a different profile and give us the alternative to go look for an alternative.
These are exactly the kinds of incidents that can happen when one doesn't strictly adhere to the Rust Code of Conduct. I've started using the Rust Code of Conduct for everything I do in my life, online and offline. Before I make any sort of a decision or take any sort of an action, I whip out my copy of the Rust Code of Conduct and confirm that my actions will not violate it in any way. I have printed out a copy of the Rust Code of Conduct and I keep it on my person at all times. I have another copy in my car, one at my desk, and several placed around my home in easily accessible locations. The last thing I want is to be somewhere without my Rust Code of Conduct! Some people say that it's dumb or that it wastes too much time, but I think they're wrong. Complying with the Rust Code of Conduct all of the time is something that I think is critical to living life in our modern age.
No, I would not.
Heterosexual male here. No, of course not. How immature and insecure do you have to be to somehow feel offended by the mere sight of something that doesn't interest you? How about you just pay attention to something else, instead of trying to ram your offence down everybody else's throat?
I do think the event should have had male dancers for the ladies and gay males, if they were going to go down this road. Go down it all the way, or not at all - those are the best choices. (I HAVE seen such parties with both male and female dancers, btw!)
I honestly thing it's pretty tasteless to hire strippers for any sort of party, especially one on the corporate bankroll. That's one of those classic ways to get fired - use a company credit card to hire a stripper for ANY reason.
So you wouldn't have a problem with scantily clad men dancing around. After all, it's only sexuality, and the dancers get paid.
I'm straight, but no, I wouldn't care. I don't feel threatened by buff guys dancing or gyrating or whatever.
In fact, I tend to think it's actually discriminatory not to hire male dancers- hasn't the hue and cry for the last decade been all about "equality" and "equal opportunity"? Why should only women get a chance to make money by being employed as eye-candy at the trade show booths?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Where does one draw the line?
Cisco's recent Cisco Live! event had a stadium full of attendees watch Aerosmith for two hours. Aerosmith has nothing to do with Cisco, or networking, or computers, or technology outside of what of it they use when the produce music. Should this thing, irrelevant to any topic of Cisco's, be dropped as part of the festivities?
Large events are part informative, part marketing, part celebration, and part entertainment. Maybe these tech companies need to be more inclusive if they're going to use sex for part celebration and part entertainment, but on the other hand, without knowing the demographics of the even I couldn't tell you if their choices were balanced against the attendees or not.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Where does one draw the line?
With Aerosmith? Easy: You draw the line at 1995.
Even that low patch between '79 and '82 is probably okay given that it's Cisco we're talking about.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
I really think a lot of people are missing the point here. It's not that scantily clad sexy women are sexist per se, it's that this was a party that employees of a company were presumably encouraged to attend as well as an event showcasing the company's public face. In that environment, everyone should feel comfortable. If one wants to go to a strip club or club where there are go-go dancers, etc., that is their business and they can make that choice.
I wouldn't be watching it, but I certainly wouldn't be out there making the claim that this party was sexist because it's 'clearly intended for heterosexual females'.
See how stupid that last part sounds? Do you?
Fuck Microsoft for caving and apologizing. Fuck the media for continuing to amplify the voices of a minority who always take offense to everything in a never ending pursuit of fostering controversy and whoring attention for hits and views.
Just because you object to something doesn't grant you the right to ruin it for others who disagree with you.
I, for one, appreciate that you took the time to write your thoughtful response on a real typewriter. Very classy.