is this normal?

[steph72276]

From what I read, this ''conference'' wasn''t for current employees. It was to attract third parties to come work for/with them. My guess is they only hired female dancers based on the demographics of the attendees. Most were probably men. These girls actually don''t look like strippers to me - just cheesy go-go dancers. I''ve seen worse at clubs. The only lesson learned was to not post pictures. Believe me, this is tame compared to some of the things I''ve seen. A client once insisted that I go to a strip club with him.


I think it''s a reflection of the world we live in. Young women and girls are just so exploited and sexualized. They''re encouraged to wear the shortest skirts and smallest tops they can, they''re encouraged to flash their boobs for beads at Mardi Gras or just because guys want to see them, they''re encouraged to be sexual objects at a young age, high school girls are encouraged to be sexual with each other to please boys, etc, etc. Why doesn''t society teach them to respect themselves?

I agree. And if women in the business world don''t take a stand on things like this, it will only continue. The attitude of "oh well, it is just what has always gone on" will never bring about change. If I worked for Yahoo, I would be making some noise to higher ups as to the message this sends to female employees as well as the message it sends out to the public about the company as a whole.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Oh god, my brother is a techie for Yahoo and could very well have been at this meeting. Do I dare look at this???

Okay phew, that's not my brother!

 

[FrekeChild]

Uh, they don''t look like strippers to me.

Go go dancers and strippers are not equal.

I don''t think I''d want male go go dancers around, personally...

 

[TooPatient]

Date: 10/21/2009 12:33:05 PM
Author: steph72276

From what I read, this ''conference'' wasn''t for current employees. It was to attract third parties to come work for/with them. My guess is they only hired female dancers based on the demographics of the attendees. Most were probably men. These girls actually don''t look like strippers to me - just cheesy go-go dancers. I''ve seen worse at clubs. The only lesson learned was to not post pictures. Believe me, this is tame compared to some of the things I''ve seen. A client once insisted that I go to a strip club with him.


I think it''s a reflection of the world we live in. Young women and girls are just so exploited and sexualized. They''re encouraged to wear the shortest skirts and smallest tops they can, they''re encouraged to flash their boobs for beads at Mardi Gras or just because guys want to see them, they''re encouraged to be sexual objects at a young age, high school girls are encouraged to be sexual with each other to please boys, etc, etc. Why doesn''t society teach them to respect themselves?


[/quote]

I agree. And if women in the business world don''t take a stand on things like this, it will only continue. The attitude of ''oh well, it is just what has always gone on'' will never bring about change. If I worked for Yahoo, I would be making some noise to higher ups as to the message this sends to female employees as well as the message it sends out to the public about the company as a whole.





This is my biggest objection to it. (I don''t agree with scantilly clad dancers of any variety & think this was WAY out of line for a "business" event BUT those are tiny issues compared to this one)

The technology industry is largly male. They are supposedly interested in getting more women involved in the field. (I am going to be in that field) This is not a good way to make women feel welcome.

No matter where you place the blame (women for allowing themselves to be seen as objects, men for looking at women as objects, the management for arranging it, the women at the conference for not complaining immediately, the men for not leaving the "brainstorming session", etc.), things need to change.

(and while I would be hugely uninterested in male dancers, they should have been offered -- I bet if someone suggested it, the people who organized this would have wrinkled their noses and skipped all of the dancers)

 

[Shoopy]

Date: 10/21/2009 12:33:05 PM
Author: steph72276

I agree. And if women in the business world don''t take a stand on things like this, it will only continue. The attitude of ''oh well, it is just what has always gone on'' will never bring about change. If I worked for Yahoo, I would be making some noise to higher ups as to the message this sends to female employees as well as the message it sends out to the public about the company as a whole.

I agree also.

However, most corporations have a clearly defined "culture" and hire people accordingly. My guess is that most of the women at Yahoo either understand and appreciate the culture OR understand but are too afraid to speak up against the culture of the company.

 

[brightlight]

Date: 10/21/2009 12:09:31 PM
Author: brightlight

From what I read, this ''conference'' wasn''t for current employees. It was to attract third parties to come work for/with them. My guess is they only hired female dancers based on the demographics of the attendees. Most were probably men. These girls actually don''t look like strippers to me - just cheesy go-go dancers. I''ve seen worse at clubs. The only lesson learned was to not post pictures. Believe me, this is tame compared to some of the things I''ve seen. A client once insisted that I go to a strip club with him.

I think it''s a reflection of the world we live in. Young women and girls are just so exploited and sexualized. They''re encouraged to wear the shortest skirts and smallest tops they can, they''re encouraged to flash their boobs for beads at Mardi Gras or just because guys want to see them, they''re encouraged to be sexual objects at a young age, high school girls are encouraged to be sexual with each other to please boys, etc, etc. Why doesn''t society teach them to respect themselves?

Just want to add that this is why I really can''t stand celebs like Jessica Simpson. She became successful through objectifying herself by being scantly clad and stupid. She and her father purposely pushed this image of her as this sexy, stupid girl. Honestly, I don''t know if it''s worse if she really is that stupid or she just pretends to be that stupid. As soon as she put on a few pounds, the media made fun of her, which was wrong. However, I couldn''t understand why she was so surprised by this when she objectified herself and based her fame on being a sex object and being dumb. She and the Paris Hiltons of the world are teaching young girls that they should be dumb and wear short skirts to be popular. I feel like we''re raising a generation of people who feel it''s not important to do anything or be anything but good-looking. They watch shows like The Hillls and aspire to have their own reality show and be famous for doing nothing.

 

[MonkeyPie]

As much as I agree that "objectifying women" is wrong, I don''t think that judging the whole of this industry Yahoo is involved in is the way to go about it.

 

[brightlight]

Date: 10/21/2009 3:05:07 PM
Author: MonkeyPie
As much as I agree that ''objectifying women'' is wrong, I don''t think that judging the whole of this industry Yahoo is involved in is the way to go about it.

The problem is that this isn''t an isolated incident. It''s extremely common.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 10/21/2009 3:10:18 PM
Author: brightlight

Date: 10/21/2009 3:05:07 PM

Author: MonkeyPie

As much as I agree that ''objectifying women'' is wrong, I don''t think that judging the whole of this industry Yahoo is involved in is the way to go about it.

The problem is that this isn''t an isolated incident. It''s extremely common.

For where you worked, sure.

And I have no idea what Jessica Simpson has to do with this.

 

[brightlight]

Date: 10/21/2009 3:22:19 PM
Author: MonkeyPie

Date: 10/21/2009 3:10:18 PM
Author: brightlight

Date: 10/21/2009 3:05:07 PM

Author: MonkeyPie

As much as I agree that 'objectifying women' is wrong, I don't think that judging the whole of this industry Yahoo is involved in is the way to go about it.

The problem is that this isn't an isolated incident. It's extremely common.

For where you worked, sure.

And I have no idea what Jessica Simpson has to do with this.

It has to do with my post earlier which I quoted re: how young women in general are exploited.

If you work in the tech industry and haven't been exposed to this type of behavior, good for you.

We should both agree to disagree and move on.