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Yahoo Lap Dancers the Latest in a Chorus Line of Tech Sexism Scandals
New York, 12:08 AM
Sat Dec 12
54 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/21/09
Booth babes (called "showgirls" or "SG" here. No kidding.) is what draws the local crowd to various computer-related trade shows. I've never ever heard any geek talk about any product he sees at any trade show. The trade shows are all about snapping pics of scantily clad SGs. Virtually all Taiwanese male geeks are amateur photographers and own a high-end camera because of this. Albums of SGs are everywhere after big trade shows, and young girls vie to land jobs like these. Girls who work as SGs are really proud of what they do. Having an SG girlfriend is the ultimate dream of all male geeks here.
Random evidence that I googled out with generic search terms: A recent Engadget Chinese edition news item [chinese.engadget.com]
Rough translation:
Check out if this year's IT Month guiding angels are gonna be hot enough!
While IT Month is still a couple months away, preparations are already underway, and of course SGs are the focus of the event. (We aren't gonna ignore this!) While the audience's attention is generally on the vendors' SGs, most people don't know that the event has official "guiding angel" SGs, too!
Guiding angels are primarily sweet, healthy, "refreshing" girls. (Translator's note: it's kinda hard to translate this. It's purported to mean that these are not aggressive, dangerous sexpots. Just passive sexpots who will seem to be unable to fend themselves against your manly advances.) They will tell you about the trends in tech products, teach you how to use them, play Solitaire with you on a multi-touch screen (there won't be a couch for you two to do it on though. Dream on.) It's sooooo educational!!
(What follows is a call to readers to cast votes in the official guiding angels competition. It's boring, so I'll skip on translating the rest.)
At my boyfriend's company, at their annual end-of-year employee feasts, female employees clamor to don skimpy outfits to be voted as the hottest babes of the year and the winners offer kisses to their aging male execs. (No counterpart activity for men, of course.) Hiring ultra attractive receptionists is viewed as part of the essential employee benefit package and companies compete on this front. I've had friends who decide whether to change job on how hot a given company's receptionists are. While this doesn't happen at every company, companies that have real cash and need to compete for talent generally do this.
HOWEVER, hack days usually are really all about the craft and are devoid of SGs. Taiwanese hackers go to trade shows to ogle on hot girls and hack days to meet peers. What Yahoo Taiwan did really is outside the norm. It only means that Yahoo Taiwan is naive enough about what people outside Taiwan think of such things, not that they are more sexist than average. #yahoo
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[arstechnica.com]
[www.slideshare.net]
Plus I'm sick of the whole "oh, let the poor nerd boys get some action" approach. If they want some action, they can use some of their overclocked brain power to learn basic social skills. I hear there are books for that sort of thing.
10/21/09
@CumaeanSibyl: Yet, believe it or not, this really is the closest some of them ever get to with the opposite sex, at least sexually.
Unlike American geeks, who tend to be self-selective by temperament and have interests in computers before they enter college, most of the "geeks" in Taiwan are simply tech professionals who have normal social capabilities that the society never gave them the opportunity to develop.
They spent their adolescent years on rote learning and acing both the high school and the college entrance exams and were rarely given any chance to be around girls. Most of them aced the first round of major exams and got into a good high school, which is most likely single-sex. Their idea of how girls "should" be like mostly came from Japanese porn and certain anime series, meaning it's highly unrealistic, which definitely doesn't help.
Many never had their first girlfriend until after college, and they also tend to marry their first girlfriend. The prospect of having to go through the whole dating ritual is probably more traumatic than being fired three times in a row in as many years.
Among these people, I know more 30-year-old virgins than guys who have had more than one girlfriend before 30. And guys who have had girlfriends before 30 are not infrequently still virgins by age 30. That's how dysfunctional their lives have become.
Judging from the pictures and YouTube stills and my understanding of these dudes, the event was nothing like an American frat house party -- otherwise, where is the beer?
In person, it probably looked more like the guys were being fake-raped on stage by these chicks. The fact that these gals got paid to do this to them is what salvaged their male self-esteem.
Below is definitely more information than you require.
The pathetic life of most of them went like this:
Age 12-14: Bright, promising young boys who spend all their time and energy on memorizing useless facts in order to ace the high school entrance exam. Usually have girls in their classes (no girls if it's an elite private school) but have no time to do anything more than staring. Besides, their parents are unlikely to approve of their doing useless things like having a girlfriend and a social life anyway. They're good (read: obedient) boys, so no girlfriends.
Age 15-17: Aced the highly competitive high school entrance exam and got into a good high school, which is most likely single-sex. Continue to expend all time and energy on rote learning in order to ace the college entrance exam. Let off pent-up sex drive by watching Japanese porn (rape fantasies yay) and imagine that they are individuals with a life to chart by watching anime and reading manga. Many become rabid Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion fans at this stage. Still no time for real life girls.
Age 18-21: Aced the highly competitive college entrance exam and got into a good college. Because Mommy and Daddy and everyone in society say that the tech industry is where the money is (stock options hellooooooo!), so they major in computer programming.
Finally some opportunities to get close to real girls, but, um, there aren't that many in their classes, and because they see themselves as some kind of higher beings -- they ACED both the high school and college entrance exams after all and are MEN, you know -- and never had any chance to experience "real" society, they have a pretty delusional idea of what's "possible" for them. They want nothing less than goddess-perfect: Sexy, hot, and obedient, like what they see in all those J porns and animes.
Many begin avidly collecting figurines (euphemistically called "models," a word that implies some work is required to put them together, which they usually don't) and related merchs of anime "goddesses" at this stage.
"Goddess" figurine samples:
[item.rakuten.co.jp]
These are characters from the "Neon Genesis Evangelion," or "EVA," series. EVA is supposed to be some sci-fi saga, but in actuality... I'll let the official merch speaks for itself.
Age 22 and beyond: Graduated from college and maybe went to grad school or went directly into mandatory military service (for men only.) Got into a good company with promising financial future. Work overtime on both weekdays and weekends. Since they never had any opportunity to develop extracurricular interests and have no girlfriends anyway, work is the only thing they know now.
If they are lucky, they get into a company with enough cash to hire sexually confident girls to fake fuck them on stage, so they don't have to worry about either never getting almost fucked or having to find some way to get themselves almost fucked.... After all, lap dancing joints are dangerous places, the nests of prancing Black Widows that these timid little virgin boy-man rats don't have the guts to venture into.
Despite their sexist attitude, many actually prefer sexually confident girls, because they have no practical know-how in this field, and the more realistic ones know that they need someone who knows to really get them fucked.
(Gawd, the dirt I have got on the sex lives of some prominent hackers here is phenomenal. Gawker is gonna get so hacked over if I spill LOL.)
EDIT: No way to remove the appended image? I was just testing the function. :(
10/20/09
10/20/09
There's a conflict when respecting other's culture may mean disrepecting certain people. If Saudi Arabia had a vast tech scene, then had some huge conference, would people complain if all the women that attended had to wear head scarves? #yahoo
10/20/09
Strippers wearing head scarves? Now that's what we call innovation in the tech world! #yahoo
10/21/09
You know why I became an internet fanatic the first time I got online? Because, online, nobody knows I'm a woman!
You can't imagine how stunned Taiwanese men are every time they find out that someone who talks intelligently and reads real books is a woman. You might think that that discovery might change their attitude towards women, but no. Their former respect for me evaporates the instant they find out I'm female. I'm the abnormality, the abomination that should not be.
I've been online for 13 years, and I can count with one hand the grand total of Taiwanese men who didn't try to retract their formerly respectful attitude and compliments when they discover that I'm not male and continue to respect me as much as they would a man.
Try imagine the life offline.
I cannot afford not to look attractive, because a woman who isn't attractive has no value. I cannot afford to be attractive, because babes are dumb or at least should act dumb. I don't get respected either way.
In the Taiwanese hacker circle, there's a grand total of ONE female hacker who's respected for her technical skills, and even she is semi-closeted about her being female. She dresses and speaks like a man but is entirely heterosexual. She has to look like a man and be easily mistaken for a man to gain that respect. And you can't imagine the anonymous attack blogs that emerged when she first came to fame. They were entirely filled with sexual insults.
In recent years, two hackers who've been famous since their teen years underwent gender reassignment operations and became formerly male. Both made the news public post-op. Even THEY are somewhat better respected than the woman hacker who was born female.
The cultural relativism you seem to believe in imagines cultures to have an "original," "pristine," "unpolluted" state, which there never was. Cultures always exchange and mutually influence. The values of a society are decided by its members, but that doesn't mean you can't have your opinions of that society's values. You just don't have the right to think that they should take your opinions as their own, but you have every right to criticize.
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Long live "La Mei".... #yahoo
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In any case, as stated by the article, this kind of male-centric sexual atmosphere has been routine at tech industry events, not just in this one instance. Cultural difference and sensitivity have absolutely zero to do with this, so you can stop beating that horse.