{"id":706,"date":"2012-02-08T18:25:25","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T02:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/?p=706"},"modified":"2012-02-08T18:56:45","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T02:56:45","slug":"cool-girls-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/08\/cool-girls-code\/","title":{"rendered":"cool girls code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cool girls code<\/a>. \u00a0It’s one of the awesome t-shirts that VMware is handing out at college recruitment fairs right now. \u00a0It can be hard to get credibility as a female software engineer, and that pink shirt is a reminder to all my fellow women in tech that we’re not alone, and that it’s pretty damn cool to be a female software engineer.<\/p>\n

Given that I’m out and actively trying to recruit more women to join my immensely geeky company, you can imagine my disappointment when I saw that Violet Blue has, yet again, made an idiotic statement about women in technology. \u00a0Actually, she made an idiotic statement about a specific woman in technology. \u00a0She attended Macworld 2012, and led off her column<\/a> with an extended commentary on what she called “the saddest booth babe in the world”. \u00a0She even included a picture, which she has since removed, of the woman sitting in a chair looking tired.<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that the woman in question actually isn’t a booth babe. \u00a0The woman is an employee of a small iOS company, not a model paid to draw in foot traffic by showing skin.<\/p>\n

It’s hard enough being a woman in tech without some uneducated blowhard, who happens to try to style herself as all about female empowerment, come along and bash a woman in tech by assuming that she’s a booth babe. \u00a0I would expect that someone who likes to pretend that she’s a tech blogger would actually know that not all women at a trade show are booth babes. \u00a0I’d even like go out on a limb and imagine that this so-called tech blogger could even imagine that a good-looking woman can also work in tech. \u00a0It’s especially galling when that very selfsame uneducated blowhard is the one who was bitching last WWDC when some guy asked what she does<\/a>, instead of assuming that Violet is a developer. \u00a0(This is, of course, ignoring the fact that Violet is not actually a developer. \u00a0Tech blogger, perhaps, but not a developer.) \u00a0At the time, she decided to play the dumb-chick card and pretend that she knows utterly nothing about computers, and then upbraided the guy in her column for falling for her little gambit.<\/p>\n

So let me get this straight: it’s bad for a guy to believe you when you say that you don’t know anything about tech, but it’s totally okay for you to call a woman a “booth babe” and complain about her hunched shoulders and “breasts that were packaged air-tight in a tight, branded t-shirt” and not even bother to talk to her? \u00a0At least the WWDC guy was trying to make conversation, and believed you when you said that you were a model in town. \u00a0Violet Blue couldn’t even be bothered to either (a) go talk to the woman, (b) go look up the development company and see whether she works there, or even (c) not start off a column with such a ridiculous anecdote that had pretty much nothing to do with the rest of her column or the event itself.<\/p>\n

I’ve worked Macworld before as a vendor. \u00a0It’s freakin’ exhausting. \u00a0You’re tired. \u00a0Your feet are sore, because you’re standing on a thin layer of carpet over concrete. \u00a0You’re quite possibly hung over, a result of having a bit too much fun at the Macworld Blast party the night before. \u00a0Your voice is cracking because you’ve been talking too much, answering questions about your application. \u00a0That’s the perspective when you’re working in one of the big booths, where you’ve got several of your colleagues around to help out. \u00a0But this woman was at one of the teensy developer kiosks, which means that she was probably either alone or maybe had another person there. \u00a0That’s also the perspective from someone who just has to drive to San Francisco from Mountain View, so there’s no concerns about jet lag or uncomfortable hotel beds or being in an unfamiliar city and not knowing anyone.<\/p>\n

The original picture, which Violet Blue has (of course) yanked, is one that I recognize and identify with. \u00a0I’m quite sure that I’ve been seen in that exact same pose at some point in my life at Macworld. \u00a0I hope that no-one out there has such an unflattering picture of me, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it were out there. \u00a0I’m lucky in that, as far as I know, no-one has chosen to post such an unflattering picture and description of me to a major tech blog. \u00a0It’s bad enough to be exhausted at Macworld, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be exhausted and<\/em> publicly ridiculed there.<\/p>\n

As if the original article weren’t bad enough, not to mention the edits done to the article so that it doesn’t look quite so appalling, is Violet’s response<\/a>. \u00a0You see, she got called on her idiocy pretty early. \u00a0People who weren’t even at the show took a look at the picture that she posted and figured out that the woman isn’t a booth babe. \u00a0Violet, instead of putting her big girl panties on and owning up to her idiocy, instead doubled down:<\/p>\n

It’s really reaching to brand me a misogynist because I put the woman in a social category based on the environment she was in. I was not the only one to do so. It was not obvious that the woman in the booth was not a booth babe<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was pretty obvious that she wasn’t a booth babe. \u00a0Let me count the ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. She wasn’t dressed as a booth babe. \u00a0She was in pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and a short-sleeved t-shirt over that. \u00a0Now that I think about it, this is an exact description of what I wore today. \u00a0The woman in the booth wasn’t displaying cleavage, she wasn’t wearing platform heels, she didn’t have a skirt cut up to her hip. \u00a0There was no skin showing. \u00a0Her t-shirt might have been a bit tight, although honestly every t-shirt looks tight when you’re tired and thus not sitting up straight. \u00a0But it certainly wasn’t booth-babe tight. \u00a0It was just normal.<\/li>\n
  2. She wasn’t at a booth that would have gotten a booth babe. \u00a0Yes, there were some booth babes at Macworld, but it’s not every booth that gets a babe. \u00a0The natural habitat for a booth babe is one of the big flashy booths that are crawling with company representatives, and it’s the booth babe’s job to get people to come to the booth and talk to one of those representatives. \u00a0This woman was at one of the little developer kiosks. \u00a0They barely have space for two people to be at the booth at the same time. \u00a0They certainly don’t have the space for a booth babe, and I bet they don’t have the budget for it either.<\/li>\n
  3. Booth babes are never left in the booth alone. \u00a0Booth babes are there to get conference attendees into the booth, but then it’s someone else’s job to actually talk to them.<\/li>\n
  4. Speaking with her would have made it clear that she wasn’t a booth babe. \u00a0Usually, a booth babe can perhaps answer some very high-level questions about the product(s) at hand, like how much it costs and when it will be released. \u00a0That’s it: they generally can’t answer deeper questions, and since they’re trying to get lots of people to come to the booth, they’re mostly interested in handing you off to someone else so that they can continue to do the job that they’re there for.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But wait, there’s more! \u00a0Then Violet outdoes herself with this:<\/p>\n

    If you want to know how I really feel about booth babes (though I’m sure you won’t because the drive-by is always better) – get some context for booth babes in my column by reading this:<\/p>\n

    The CES Booth Babe Problem<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/blog\/violetblue\/the-ces-2012-booth-babe-problem\/963<\/a><\/p>\n

    And you will see that Ms. Szurmai-Palotai is exactly the kind of “booth babe” I am referring to – women devs, women hackers. Not the kind some of you seem to instantly think I mean.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This is completely and utterly ridiculous. \u00a0There’s only one definition of booth babe, and Violet’s own CES article is talking about exactly that kind of booth babe: a scantily-clad woman who doesn’t know anything about the technology at hand, but is only there to drive traffic. \u00a0No-one has ever seriously tried to refer to “women devs, women hackers” as booth babes. \u00a0The term is a pejorative, and we all know it. \u00a0Don’t try to pretend that it’s neutral or even positive.<\/p>\n

    Amusingly, Violet tries to blame the backlash on an “attack” from Daring Fireball, and paints anyone who has criticised her as being a fanboy. \u00a0Not so: she had already been called on her idiocy quite some time before Daring Fireball linked to it. \u00a0And Daring Fireball’s commentary cannot, in any way, be construed as an attack:<\/p>\n

    But as Shawn King points out in the comments under\u00a0the photo<\/a>, the woman in question doesn\u2019t look anything at all like a \u201cbooth babe\u201d \u2014 she simply looks like a developer who happens to be a woman manning her booth. And according to subsequent comments by Tim Breen, that\u2019s exactly what she is<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Violet says in her comment that she should have been given a chance to do something:<\/p>\n

    A simple correction would have sufficed, and then you could have seen what I did with it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The simple correction came swiftly. \u00a0And we saw what you did with it, Violet: you did absolutely nothing. \u00a0You let your nasty little column stay exactly like that for a day. \u00a0It was only after apparently you’d gotten enough comments calling you on your idiocy that you finally edited the column to note that the woman is a developer, and you replaced the original photo of the “sad booth babe” with one of a lineup of iPhone cases.<\/p>\n

    Strangely enough, Violet’s column about booth babes at CES does get one thing exactly right:<\/p>\n

    Present an inappropriate female stereotype and – no surprise – you\u2019ll create an environment of inappropriate and stereotypical behavior.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s not the booth babes, it\u2019s the reductive booth babe mentality that\u2019s the real problem here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Yes, it is the reductive booth babe mentality that’s the real problem here. \u00a0Now, Violet, take some responsibility for being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Cool girls code. \u00a0It’s one of the awesome t-shirts that VMware is handing out at college recruitment fairs right now. \u00a0It can be hard to get credibility as a female software engineer, and that pink shirt is a reminder to all my fellow women in tech that we’re not alone, and that it’s pretty damn … Continue reading cool girls code<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-nadyne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}