Nobody Puts Baby in a Lampshade...

Well... except at Black Hat apparently.

Yes, it's NOT FRIDAY. But, I AM a FEMINIST. So... We're back with another ? FEMINISM FRIDAY ? , shedding light on an issue that has been all over our LinkedIn feeds recently.... LAMPGATE...

I'm going to caveat this whole post by saying that I do actually know some of the team at Palo Alto and I have spoken at a Women in Cyber event in their London offices... and they were very welcoming, very inclusive, and absolutely lovely so I do think this is out of character for the company that I know...

However, I think it highlights an important topic, hence the mid-week ramblings...So, here are my thoughts on the whole thing...

When I first saw this image on social media over the weekend I was like "wow, that lamp is so cool... I'd totally have that in my house"... AND THEN I realised it was ACTUAL WOMEN in those lampshades. That's right, real life people walking round like this. And, well, I quickly jumped to "what the fuck?!" As I'm sure most of us did.

Having discussed the incident with various colleagues, peers, and friends... (weird how these things land in my inbox all the time.. almost like I write a blog every week about feminism)... the big question a lot of us have is "what does the lampshade even represent?!"

If it had been a cloud that lit up, that would have been a) way cooler and b) made LOADS more sense. You know with them being a cloud-based company... 'get your head in the clouds' kinda vibes would have worked well. ??

What DOESN'T work well is it being two women, wearing bodycon dresses showing their cleavage and thighs. Cause that kinda looks to me like objectification of the female body.

But I'm not here to bash this particular incident... I want to point out the wider issues with the use of promo girls in general. And yes, it is a wider issue.. because (sadly) this certainly isn't the first time I've seen a similar use of women's bodies at tech conferences.

Story Time...

Last year, at a conference in London, I was surprised to walk the vendor exhibition area and see precisely zero women had come along to represent their organisations in a sales capacity. Zero. Like, actually no women were there.

Striking up conversation with one of the vendors, I pointed out they could probably make themselves stand out by bringing a woman along to the event. I know that I usually chat to women at conferences when I find them, and I'm sure other people feel more comfortable doing the same. So, I was mega surprised to hear one of the sales guys turn round and ask me "well, wouldn't that be the same as bringing a woman in a bikini with us?"

Now, I don't know about you... but when I go to a tech conference, I'm usually wearing jeans, a pair of Birkenstocks or Docs, and a white shirt. I've never once thought about donning my swimming costume for a trek round the ExCeL. Each to their own though, I guess?!

When I questioned the guy on his thinking, asking whether he thought that the saleswomen in his team would only be good at wearing a bikini instead of, you know, actually talking to customers about their services and generating some business, he doubled down on it. I did point out that I'm a woman in cyber who wears jeans and a shirt but apparently, it was inconceivable for him to consider his own team in the same light. Weird, right?

These are the attitudes we have within the industry though. And yes, it's not all men. And yes, we shouldn't be bringing women to conferences just to wheel them out for the public so we look diverse. But the point is, it shouldn't be that hard to find a woman in your team who might wanna come to a work event... there should be an equal amount of men and women... you check?

An Image Problem

Every year, without fail, we see images on LinkedIn of companies using "booth girls" to promote their wares at big conferences. And every year, I shake my head. Yes, it's quite possible that these companies are using external marketing agencies to organise their events. And if it is that, then what does that tell us about the image problem that we have in cyber?!

From where I'm standing, it tells us that outsiders looking in see us as a male dominated industry. If you think using the female body will help you to attract clients... it sounds like you're looking for heterosexual males in your target audience. And that's extremely damaging to ongoing diversity initiatives.

Typical, stereotypical...

All we're doing by objectifying women like this is reinforcing gender stereotypes...

Women are outsiders. We are there to look pretty. Not for our brains. We should conform to male expectations of us. Be supportive. Decorative. Be furniture in the corner. And don't you dare actively contribute to or (dare I say it) lead the conversation.

And this rhetoric isn't just damaging for women... it's also creating a negative narrative about men. Are they so consumed by sexual desire that they'll be attracted to your stand simply because you have a beautiful woman standing there? Can they not control their urges? Cause the guys I like to hang round with aren't like that...

I could wax lyrical on this one for ages. How it makes women feel unwelcome. How it undermines female contributions to tech. How it undermines the vendors and their products because it's basically saying they can't get clients to talk to them without a woman showing some cleavage. How it undermines their clientele and how they're perceived by vendors...

But I'll save that for another day.

?? ?? ??