Yahoo certainly doesn't want to send the message that women are not welcome.
Not now that you noticed. But before, it seemed like a really good idea to have lap dancers at your company event.
October 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
32 comments:
Well, Yahoo Taiwan anyway. I can assure you that the PO from marketing did not break it down by line item:
1. Fresh fruit
2. Hookers
3. Grab bag of goodies
3.1 Flashlight
3.2 Condom
You know?
I am laughing, though, imagining corporate HR re-writing the rules from "socially acceptable entertainment" to "no hookers, no nude performance art, ..."
-XC
Buncha yahoos!
A 42-yr-old VP at a former employer didn't understand why the women in the group might not want to go to a (mandatory) lunch meeting at Hooter's. (Another manager had taken his group there and I heard about it from one of the women.)
"But they have good wings!" he said.
It wasn't until I asked if he wanted his second-grade daughter to grow up and work there (all the blood drained from his face at the idea) that he got it.
PS I never understood what Hooter's-type girls had to do with selling chicken processing equipment, but every time I went to the poultry show in Atlanta, there were the scantily-clad young women standing in front of the machines used to transport headless, plucked, eviscerated corpses across the factory floor.
Sounds like they have a Digital Age Tailhook tradition for the TopGuns of the internet to recieve an award that is old fashioned young female flesh rather than new fashioned digital images of it. The Chinese tried to make another Great Leap Foward and landed in the lap of traditional morality.
But they apologized, sort of:
This incident is regrettable and we apologize to anyone that we have offended.
There really should be a non-apology blog that collects all the non-apology apologies.
Thanks for the job tip, Ann.
Where do I fill out my application?
At least one of the men in the picture is wearing jeans. Bad move. Lap dancers don't like to "perform" for men wearing jeans because the material is too rough. Always wear pants made from a soft fabric when you go for a lap dance.
Peter
As a father of a young daughter whom I hope will be excited about technology, hacking, and making stuff, Yahoo's vile behavior makes me want to puke purple exclamation points.
That's "who."
I'd think, incidentally, that the message is that women are not expected.
I was once on a business trip down in Maryland with another married man. He suggested we have dinner at Hooter's. When I demurred, he said "but they have great steaks!"
How can we be sure it wasn't transgressive and sex-positive?
I thought feminists were all okay with a young women choosing to use her sexuality however she wants. As I see it Yahoo is helping these young feminist lap dancers truly take charge of the sexuality and its expression. Only a close minded women hater would not understand this very important point.
"Yahoo is helping these young feminist lap dancers truly take charge of the sexuality and its expression. Only a close minded women hater would not understand this very important point."
Here! Here! This needed to be said.
Plus ... BOOBIES!
"I'd think, incidentally, that the message is that women are not expected."
Well, they were expected to dance.
Seriously though ... here again we have a post by Althouse in which the title is clearly false.
"Yahoo sends the message that women are not welcome" could not be further from the truth.
The dancers were entirely welcome - and were clearly women.
Do these lap dancers provide a happy ending? If not I can't think of a more frustrating "entertainment."
"As a father of a young daughter..."
Guess what dude, we're not you. Not everything in life has to be planned around what you want.
Technology shows are going to cater to a largely male audience. Other events cater to a largely female audience. And contrary to the best efforts of many people, men and women have different tastes. So things that appeal to men can often turn off women and vice verse.
Does Lifetime TV sit around worrying that they not enough men enjoy their programming?
As to hiring lapdancers; it sounds unprofessional, but I find lapdancers a lot less objectionable than I do people who insist that all entertainment be G-rated.
Should we think of this ritual as a Mensa meeting with hope for a dna exchange among the bright and the beautiful? Where else could this local ritual custom of Chinese match making happen on such a short notice...but do they make sure that the brides for the night are not Polanski-bait?
What, they wouldn't let the women have lap daces too?
But before, it seemed like a really good idea to have lap dancers at your company event.
To truly respect diversity, they should have had male dancers, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APqbLb-BQE
What is the problem?
I think it's "regrettable" that some people like Cory Doctorow want to raise the unemployment rate among women! In this economy, trying to force those entrepreneurs out of business smacks of paternalistic sexism. Don't lap-dancers have just as much of a right to make a living as keyboard-tappers like Doctorow? Is wiggling your fanny on someone else's lap any less moral than what passes for journalism these days? At least the lap-dancers are honest about what they are doing!
Is wiggling your fanny on someone else's lap any less moral than what passes for journalism these days? At least the lap-dancers are honest about what they are doing!
Exactly. I would say that lap dancing is at least as moral as computer hacking, which this bluenose seems to be all in favor of.
Yahoo is trying to show their ethical redemption after aiding the ChiComs in sending dissidents to prison.
Fail.
“It is better to decline a lap-dance and be thought a total loser, than it is to accept one and remove all doubt.”
-- Babraham Lincoln
"...I find lapdancers a lot less objectionable than I do people who insist that all entertainment be G-rated."
You'll pry Salamandyr's lapdancers from his cold, dead fingers!
Seriously, I don't object to lapdancers et al on the basis of how much they offend; what worries me more is the way they add to the tendency of modern society to turn sex into yet another light, meaningless entertainment. And then we wonder why marriages founder, people have difficulties finding "fulfilling relationships" (the phrase itself a love-and-sex killer), men and women seem to hate each other more than ever, and so on.
Here is a reasonable take on the lap dances
Cory Doctorow is really becoming tiresome, you know what I mean?
Now hold on Althouse! The New Feminism (at least the kind I've known of for the last decade) says that all women are bi-sexual, love threesomes with other girls and enjoy going to see exotic dancers. It's liberating and proves that women cannot be held down by a right-wing, patriarchal construct.
ou'll pry Salamandyr's lapdancers from his cold, dead fingers!
Now come on! Everybody knows you're not allowed to touch the lapdancer.
It would be so cool if they hired male dancers. Now, that would be some entertaining geek watching.
If they hired both male and female, would the issue go away?
Boingboing is as much a anthropology exploration in a really curious subculture as it is a website of interesting stuff. Over the years I've increasingly become intrigued by the people involved, which became a lot more interesting study when they opened up comments. My guess is a big part of the comment culture there is non-American, which makes it more interesting. I don't at all think this is a predominant picture of current interests and views, but it's certainly an interesting study of libertarian geeks--who do in fact have a fair bit of influence in the direction of culture and society. Makes for a fascinating amalgamation of technology, avante-garde art, and, of course, the obligatory semi-porn that masks itself in some cultural mode but is really there to get the audience a-tittering.
Which is why I thought this comment by George57 over at boingboing so apt:
"I don't disagree with Cory in general on this but ... (and I'm just saying) this is posted by the same guy who thinks cartoons of sexy nubile nude male magazine fantasy type girlies are ok because they were in the context Alice in Wonderland. They were all MUCH older than Alice - seems Alice was purely an excuse for some old-fashioned male sex fantasy, Cory. It had NOTHING to do with Alice in Wonderland as a literary or artistic work, at all. Keep your morals and principles consistent please."
I've worked as an engineer for 21+ years. In all that time, I've worked with about a dozen female engineers (most of whom were good to excellent engineers, a few were dreadful.) This is in the US. How many female engineers are there in Taiwan? I'll bet fewer than there are gay engineers, but I don't hear you complaining that gays aren't welcome.
The real problem here is that the whole is just so damn tacky. (On the other hand, there may have been concern on the part of management that several of their employees hadn't yet touched a non-relative female. Yeah right--I'm pretty sure the people in charge got the prostitutes.)
Post a Comment