Well. My letter-turned-blog entry sparked some responses. A lot of them. I’m heartened that so many people have been so overwhelmingly supportive -- but I also knew there might be some disagreement and debate. This is a normal part of any serious conversation about complex and important issues, though, and should be expected – and encouraged. By sharing my experience, I hoped to make space for this conversation, to open a dialogue, to help give voice to an issue worth speaking about. read more >
I want to assure you that I'm deeply upset about the presentation given recently at the Flashbelt Conference by Hoss Gifford. I'm disappointed in myself for allowing it to happen and I accept responsibility for it. I apologize for it.
His presentation included several offensive and misogynistic elements that I do not condone. I realize as the creator and producer of this conference I have the sole responsibility for the content presented and in this instance I have clearly failed to live up to my own standards, and the standards expected of me by the attendees, our industry and the general public. read more >
This is not a crusade against Flashbelt, an attack on Dave Schroeder or an attempt to lump all men into a tongue-waggling wolf-whistling boy's club. This isn't about anyone's delicate lady ears not being able to handle the word fuck.
This is a specific account of a presentation at an event that — sadly — is an example of behavior and attitudes toward women that are not as uncommon as you might think. read more >
Well. My letter-turned-blog entry sparked some responses. A lot of them. I’m heartened that so many people have been so overwhelmingly supportive -- but I also knew there might be some disagreement and debate. This is a normal part of any serious conversation about complex and important issues, though, and should be expected – and encouraged. By sharing my experience, I hoped to make space for this conversation, to open a dialogue, to help give voice to an issue worth speaking about.
There has been some talk about how this conversation will ruin Flashbelt, about campaigning against men, and about how I was calling the flash community a “boys’ club.” Those are not and never were my intentions. Outside this Hoss incident, I love Flashbelt, otherwise I would not have kept coming back. Over the years, Dave has continued to bring to Minneapolis some seriously talented and inspiring people and I support his efforts. And he has also taken responsibility for the Hoss booking and is very open to discourse and new, positive action. Let’s get those things clear. I also want to point out that this is also just not a “women’s issue” – it’s a community issue. I know that a lot of the men in the audience were as stunned as I was at Hoss’ keynote and felt that it was totally inappropriate in that context. All of us would have preferred to have had our imagination sparked, our minds invigorated, and our love of creative work confirmed and encouraged. Hoss stole those classic Flashbelt moments from us – and replaced them with an energy and dynamic not becoming of an intelligent, forward-thinking group of people.
This is an opportunity for us to step back and ask some important questions of ourselves: When a person or organization creates an environment that appears to foster a “boy’s club” mentality, how do we react – and make sure that it doesn’t happen again? How do we value our differences without isolating or ostracizing? How do we rise above the divisions and name-calling – and spend our energy on healthy discourse and forward-thinking actions (and the creative work we love so much)? It’s up to us to decide: what sort of dynamic do we want to create, within the Flash community and in any professional environment?
This is an opportunity for Flashbelt – and for all of us – to take this to a higher, more positive level. We don’t need to be tripped up by something like this or collapse in on ourselves. We’re smarter than that. And there are a lot of us – Dave and Flashbelt, Geek Girls, and everyone who has been touched by this incident. How can we keep this conversation from disintegrating – and, instead, transform it to good use? back to top ^
I want to assure you that I'm deeply upset about the presentation given recently at the Flashbelt Conference by Hoss Gifford. I'm disappointed in myself for allowing it to happen and I accept responsibility for it. I apologize for it.
His presentation included several offensive and misogynistic elements that I do not condone. I realize as the creator and producer of this conference I have the sole responsibility for the content presented and in this instance I have clearly failed to live up to my own standards, and the standards expected of me by the attendees, our industry and the general public.
Gender issues in general and in our industry are of great importance to me. I consider myself a feminist and don't hesitate to say it. I want our industry to be a place where all genders and races work together in a respectful, supportive fashion. That has been my M.O. since day 1 and is not just a wake up call brought on by this instance. Working together, men and women can elevate their skills, creativity and successes. The ultimate goal of Flashbelt is to aid every attendee in their desire to further their professional skills and knowledge. I want men and women to mingle, talk shop, have fun and geek out. Allowing a presentation to create an atmosphere that hinders this scenario is tragic failure on my part.
Off color jokes and boys' clubs exist in the workplace and it's not cool. These things can add up to create an environment in which women feel like outsiders, or on unequal footing with their male co-workers. As for suggestions along the lines of growing a thicker skin, or leaving if you don't like it, I don't accept that rationale. It's flawed. I know many women that do this in order to cope, but it's not a solution. Inappropriate behavior needs to be addressed by everyone in the room. And in my opinion, it's not all that hard to just be a good person and get out of your old ways. I think some men have a tendency to default to poor behavior because it's what they've known, and provides and easier way to connect with other males. It's low hanging fruit. You don't have to be that clever to be a "guy's guy". On the flip side, I know several women who can swear like truckers with the best of 'em, and who will whoop your booty in a game of agency dodge ball. There's really a lot more common ground between men and women than we sometimes see. So I encourage you to take minute and assess how you fit into this issue, what you believe and how others around you carry themselves. I've been very fortunate to work with great teams of men and women over the years and when those teams operate in a respectful, supportive way, they really rock the block. And it's more fun for everyone. I should add that I know a lot of men in this industry who feel the same way as I do about this. In fact, I would suggest that the majority of them do. If you follow the social media buzz you'll see several of these men commenting on this issue. It's one of the reasons I love my job and this field. There really is a great cross section of creative and interesting people around us doing great things, in respectful ways.
I started the Flashbelt conference 6 years ago in Minneapolis with a mission statement: The mission of Flashbelt is to bring together new media designers, developers and enthusiasts to share knowledge, inspiration and build community. Since the first event I have been the sole organizer and producer of the event. I've been able to gather together some of the most exciting minds in the field and present them to my attendees. I call them my attendees because I think of them as my responsibility, and my friends. I pride myself on the presentations I'm able to arrange and beam in the encouraging feedback I get every year from them. This event is my baby. I pour myself into it. In Minneapolis I've arranged 14 workshops and over 180 presentations. Nothing like this has happened before. This is a blip -- a big blip that I will not soon forget. And again, it's one that I take full responsibility for. But I hope that my overall track record can serve as better indicator of my ambitions and agenda for the Flashbelt conference.
I want to personally thank Courtney Remes for her blog post and having the strength to address this issue. She and I know each other via the conference over the years and I would like to directly apologize to her for subjecting her to this presentation. We've been speaking and I'm saddened to hear about the effect the session has had on her, as well as some of the follow up comments coming out online. She's a cool person and I commend her for speaking out. This is a subject that requires further conversation and hopefully this can be a point of ignition that results in some progress around this issue. (By the way, she mentioned to me that's she not thrilled to be in the spotlight because of this and I encourage you keep that in mind. She's rightfully, genuinely concerned and not just putting stuff out there to rant or see how many hits she can get. She's good people.)
Courtney along with Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker of the GeekGirlsGuide.com and I had a meeting on June 12th to discuss things and I can safely say that we are all on the same page. Nancy and Meghan are nice, supportive people and I think what they're doing with the resource for women online is wonderful. I'm thankful they have been open to hearing me out and have offered to help assist me in setting the record straight, and posting this letter. They're very fair and I appreciate that. A lot of energy and buzz has been brought on by this event. We will be working together to guide that energy in a pro-active direction.
Attendees. I certainly owe every attendee at Flashbelt this year and over years an apology for this as well. They’ve been a wonderful group of people and I failed you by delivering conference content well below the level you've grown to expect and deserve. I will be messaging all 2009 attendees directly with this same apology. For those male and female attendees who have sent notes of support I appreciate it. I encourage you all to get involved with this discussion. You are very important to me.
Sponsors. I also apologize to the companies and individuals that have sponsored and marketed at Flashbelt over the years. They expect to be associated with a good event that enhances your image and visibility and benefits your customers. I failed to deliver that this year. In no way should anyone hold these sponsors responsible for this situation. They have been great partners over the years and their involvement allows Flashbelt to be the great event that it is. I value their support and regret that my judgment has failed them in this instance. Thank you for your continued support.
Speakers. It greatly saddens me that the big buzz about Flashbelt this year is focused on one individual when I know that the other 39 speakers delivered excellent presentations. They put countless hours in to preparing for their talks. They're brilliant and I'm very fortunate to have them participate in my little event. I encourage everyone to search twitter @flashbelt for tweets that took place between June 7th and 10th to get sense of what attendees had to say about the other sessions they we're witnessing at Flashbelt. These speakers deserve to be in the limelight at this point for their awesome presentations. I'm sorry. You know I love you.
How did this happen? There is no long exhaustive answer. I made a terrible error in judgment. I knew there was potential for this to occur and I blew it. And for that I deserve to on the hot seat for this. Hot seat accepted. Which I think raises a good point about the gender issues addressed above. Even a guy like me, who knows what is appropriate and what is inappropriate can be lazy at times, or even appear to be in a mild coma when inappropriate behavior occurs. It's important keep your own values close and online all the time. I'll certainly be working to improve this aspect of myself.
Hoss Gifford. I feel that I have failed Hoss, too, by not addressing some of his inappropriate behaviors. This is another piece of the puzzle. Sometimes we let people we like get away with doing or saying things we don’t like, but eventually that hurts everyone. So it’s good to speak up when you see anyone going down the wrong path. That is respectful as well. Hoss is a person like all of us, and all of us can change if we want to, and can learn to see things differently. If he’s open to it, I will certainly take time to work with him on these things. Abuse him if you must, but keep in mind that there is a heart and soul there as well. I’m not defending his presentation; I’m just saying that his presentation is a part of him, not all of him. I believe that it’s better to help people change their ways than to push them farther back into a corner and if he's open to talking about that, I’ll participate.
Now What? What's done is done and we can't go back in time. How I wish I could. We can only move forward and attempt to use this event to make some change. I will personally work out a more formal way to vet and qualify speakers and their content. This egregious error on my part will not be repeated. There are a lot of good brains out there following this and I am open to your suggestions as well.
Moving Forward. In an attempt to take advantage of the energy that has arisen around this issue, with assistance from Courtney, Nancy and Meghan, I will be organizing and sponsoring a meeting event focused on gender issues in our field. Hopefully this will occur within the next few weeks. Please stay tuned and get involved.
Once again, I am deeply saddened by what has transpired. I take this very seriously. I accept complete responsibility. I will work tirelessly to make Flashbelt the event that people have come to expect. And it will not be an event that in anyway condones behavior that is inappropriate. I will not let you down again. Please accept my apology. back to top ^
This is not a crusade against Flashbelt, an attack on Dave Schroeder or an attempt to lump all men into a tongue-waggling wolf-whistling boy's club. This isn't about anyone's delicate lady ears not being able to handle the word fuck.
This is a specific account of a presentation at an event that -- sadly -- is an example of behavior and attitudes toward women that are not as uncommon as you might think.
Does it happen overtly every single day? No.
Does it happen more than it should? Yes.
Should it stop? Yes.
Are there men who aren't anything like this? YES! And many of them -- including Dave -- have expressed their dismay at what happened.
Are there plenty of successful, geeky women who don't let things like this slow them down, or stop them? YES! We consider ourselves among them. We know for damn sure Courtney is one of them. We love our jobs. We love our industry. We love our geeky male peers who treat us as equals and who agree that crap like this is not okay! But the expectation that we should not be angry over this is offensive. Using words like "lynching" or "jihad" or "crusade" doesn't move the conversation forward in any way. There is no point to anger without action.
We're saddened that the discussion has, for some, devolved into inflammatory exchanges. That's the nature of social media and things have taken on a life of their own. But, we're not sorry that we said something about it. Accepting things with silence and a smile is not okay.
Our hope in posting Courtney's experience was that professional women and men would rally against this sort of behavior, just like they have done.
We couldn't very well have the discussion without calling out the event and the event's producer. We do not apologize for that. But we do admire and appreciate Dave's courage in being willing to step up and work with us to move the conversation in a positive direction.
To his credit, Dave responded quickly to this and admitted making a big mistake. Everyone needs to recognize that it is difficult to publicly admit to a mistake and we know he feels lousy. We are standing up with him here to talk about how to channel this energy into something positive.
If you are angry about what happened, great. So are we. But, please turn those feelings into some positive action or all of this will have been for naught.
Dave offered to host a panel discussion about this in Minneapolis. Later today, we're going to try to launch a separate page on this site for people to submit additional ideas to this discussion.
Where else can we go from here? Here are a few ideas; pick one of these, or come up with your own!
- Dave offered to host a panel discussion about this in Minneapolis. Think about attending or speaking.
- Support organizations that encourage girls and women to get into -- and to stay in -- technology careers.
- If you are a woman with an established career in this industry, reach out to those who are younger than you and pull the next one up. Embrace your expertise and submit yourself for consideration to speak at events.
- If you are a man, don't tolerate this kind of behavior from your peers. Speak up in defense of your female peers, whether they are in the room or not.
We started the conversation, but we can't control it. The situation has raised a rat's nest of complex issues, which we can't solve in 140 characters or less. But talking about them can hopefully increase understanding on both sides and make things better for the next generation of little geeks coming up in the world -- girls and boys alike.
No doubt, next year's Flashbelt conference will be richer, and more rewarding, because of the dialogue we're having today. back to top ^
30 Previous comments:
A Good outcome, all the best.
Congratulations to all of you for such an enlightened, informed response to a really shitty situation. It makes me extraordinarily proud to be a part of this community.
I'm really impressed with how the four of you are moving the conversation. You are all discourse and community leaders and it is important that you set the direction for discourse on this and I think you are moving in the perfect direction. Adversity is always an opportunity to evolve, and this conversation is definitely and evolution.
One of the many reasons why it is so important for you to steer the direction is exactly as Nancy & Meghan say, with social networks things can take a life of their own. And that life is sometimes not pretty. When controversy goes viral, you get the whole spectrum from sincere movers of discourse and consciousness to vigelantist opportunists who would high-jack discourse for motives that are far from altruistic. Like it or not, you four are now among the default leadership for an ethics of inclusiveness in our industry. I look forward to future conversation.
I have been very vocal about this topic, largely in the effort to help support an understanding that this episode is not typical of Flashbelt, and that Dave Schroeder is sincere. Believe me, I have read hundreds of tweets that condemn Flashbelt as a whole, and that question Dave's sincerity, and those two facts are very motivating for me because those are wrong perspectives, period.
One last note. I have been one of the people who have publicly expressed concern over this potentially doing irreparable harm to Flashbelt. There is a comment in this chain re: the "harbinger of doom". I am not sure if that related to me, but it related to a concern I expressed. Just to clarify, it is not unreasonable to imagine that sponsors could withdraw support when negative press is passing across tens of thousands of screens, and when people are saying "Shame on you [sponsor name here]". The corporate world is very fear based, and withdrawal would be a conceivable response. But I feel much more at ease now, because you all are working toward resolution.
Today, I am even prouder of my community because of how you are handling this social explosion.
Here come the case-studies.
I feel that this is a mistake. There needs to be a clear signal to others that such behavior is not acceptable. I do not think that the presentation calls for the speaker to be worked with more. Those who attempt to behave this way should not be worked with to make their message more acceptable.
I give Dave respect and credit for not just slapping on the Bandaid and I hope that this will just make Flashbelt an even better event. Hopefully this debate won't die out and we can hear what ideas are suggested to improve this situation (both for Flashbelt for others)!
I trust that the market will shuffle him off to (deserved) oblivion
I missed the part, in all the apologetic discourse, about a refund of the conference fee to the "little lady who complained."
Talk is cheap.
It's good to hear you say this - women are not the only ones who can help to solve this problem. Like Robin above, I was wondering why Dave didn't interfere during the speech. I guess there is a lot of social pressure to not do so, and perhaps that is part of why he is apologizing.
John Kim: I took it for granted that Gifford would not be invited back. I really liked it that Dave said he'd be willing to help Gifford learn - to me that is more important than just ostracizing him.
However, seeing this year's promotional site for the same (http://www.flashonthebeach.com/) I am not at all convinced that they have *really* committed to becoming better community members. The web site portrays the attitude of boys' club or at least an add aimed at adolescent (or those who never grew out of it) socially inept nerds (not geeks) that need to be repeatedly told that what they do is "cooool" and those other kids that make fun of them are "just jealous". The boys that cannot meet a real girl that is why they have o take their porn to a more interactive level with their "cool tech skills". In an attempt to show just how cool the previous gatherings have bee there is a video excerpt from Gifford's presentation that shows - wait for it - no, not even a shred of exciting technical innovation. It shows the infamous "Orgasm bit".
How disappointing. I have lost my respect for the members of the Flash community that think that "Spanking the monkey" using ugly graphics and action script 3 is the best way to show off the capabilities of the new technology.
Everyone makes mistakes; what sets people apart is their ability to take responsibility for them instead of telling everyone else to chill out.
Here Dave's owned up and has engaged the community to help improve it for everyone.
Hoss -- has not.
I've heard others say, in defense of Hoss, that by inciting this movement in the first place, he has, as an "artist," won.
First, in order for an artist to 'win' by way of incitement I'd argue that the art in contention must have been crafted with intent. I sincerely don't believe Hoss' intent with this presentation was gender equity.
Second, if this was his intent, then why hasn't he stepped up post-facto to continue the conversation?
So to Dave, good show.
To Hoss- where are you?
Although I'll admit to friendly ears that as a male I still have a lot to learn I consider myself less sexist than most men (and many women) around me, almost as little as a man raised in a male-driven society can claim to be. I'm raising a daughter, whom I love and respect dearly and her godmother, my sister, is a feminist and an long term activist of women rights whom I've entrusted with an important part of my child's mentorhsip, as befits the role of a godmother in my culture. For these reasons, among others, it pains me to do anything that would be construed as sexist, intolerant or insensitive and I've had to look very hard at myself in order to see what I need to own of my part in this mess.
When I called some posts sexist I was referring to all the posts immediately following Hoss' preso which were in direct reference to him swearing with ladies in the audience (and nothing else). This to me is a part of that mentality that perpetuates the notion that women need men's help to function in society, they need the doors opened, their chairs pushed back. These are all harmless enough practices – I'm not against politeness or good manners, but the cult to these ideas reinforce the sexist notion that women are weaker, need to be protected by men and are ultimately a prized possession like a car or a house. This to me is women objectification. I want my daughter to grow up and marry only if she finds someone with whom she wants to spend her life, not because its one of her better options for a sheltered future. The notion that those men that follow these rules then get rewarded with the dame's phone number is something I find downright revolting. So I reacted strongly to this and did not take it with a smile.
My second, more unfortunate comment was about people being prudish. I realize now I shouldn't have said that. At the time I was just reading comments along the lines of “he's drawing cocks” which in my head sounded very much like grade school expressions in the style of “OMG, he said 'ass'” so I mentioned that too, and that did not help – well, it did help get the hash tag for twitter, that's for sure. I'm truly sorry that this was misunderstood the way it was.
I'm from Europe and in my country of origin we have quite different points of view when it comes to reacting to people's opinions. We are taught to be open to almost all forms of expression including those we find in poor taste. We are very cautious about fostering censorship which we feel can sometimes lead to hide, not solve, the problem at hand. We draw the line in slightly different places, for example, crass violence will be considered more pornographic than nudity. On arriving to this country I was shocked to see that women breasts where blurred on TV while a realistic depiction of a head with an ax across its face was openly displayed in front of children of all ages during Halloween. With time I learned not to judge people too harshly because of this and that perfectly nice people completely missed what to me was an obscenity (and vice versa, certain things that appeared normal to me shocked a lot of people here, and I learned to live with that as well). So I'll openly admit I did not understand the magnitude of the offense and how it made many of you feel until I read all of the posts that followed; and so, if my words were construed as something promoting a disregard for women in particular or disrespect to the community in general I would like to offer here my most heartfelt apology.
One point of respectful disagreement though is the comment regarding my references to a lynch mob. What's fair is fair and even though this forum is trying to do the right thing there's plenty of people out there just looking for blood and that is simply not ok either. If we're out to call out wrongs then lets include this one too.
Flashbelt is one of the best things that has happened to the Twin Cities during this decade. The rest of the conference was fantastic. It would be a shame to lose this a melting pot of ideas and talent.
You should definitely speak up if you feel wronged, but it's important that in doing so we listen to the other parties if we are to learn anything from our mistakes. I have listened hard and sincerely hope that the result is helping. If you've made it this far I thank you for your time 'listening' to me. Sorry for the long post but these thoughts are difficult to express.
Peace
I love my line of work and being with the boys. I am heterosexual and am not a tomboy. I have had the opportunity to work at major agencies and as part of an in-house design group. My experiences in both of these environments formulate my opinion that no one has addressed here about the "girls club" that I think people are over-looking. I hope that your group will address the cattiness of women in the work place. The hush-hush gossip, looks, tone of voice and attitude. And let's not forget about the office attire. Half the time I felt that I was at the club rather than at work. I love to hootch it up on a night out, but I don't really want to watch Sally-the-single-designer on the prowl strutting her stuff around the office and having to listen to her ranting on about how great so-and-so was last night in the next cube.
What I have found is that many of these women who behave in such a way have low self-esteem and are insecure. They team up together and crusade against people they don't care for.
I work and live in the Twin Cities. I've lived here for 10 years now. What I have learned through the years is that Minnesota nice is a bunch of BS. Rather than being outwardly vocal, people just bash each other behind their backs and serve it up with a fake smile to each other. I finally had enough of the office politics and work for myself. I have been doing so for over 8 years now, have a great reputation, made a name for myself speaking at conferences, and I make better money now than ever before. The only people I need to worry about impressing are my clients.
In regard to the presentation, I had a well-deserved laugh on numerous occasions. I left the session feeling creatively inspired and happy. It was a cloudy dreary week. Our economy sucks. People are strapped for cash. Friends are getting laid off. Many people's jobs are on the line. It was just what I needed to end my day on an up-beat note.
So here is some food for thought:
A) Would there have been such an apparent outrage if this conference was held in LA, New York, or Amsterdam? I personally believe there would have been a different response. I've been to numerous Flash conferences through out the years, as well as GDC and E3 and I don't think that this session was shocking.
B) Instead of worrying about the boys club, sexism, offensiveness and so forth, how about encouraging all of us - men, women, races, sexual preferences, etc. to just be good people instead? To treat one another with respect and avoid gossip and other hurtful behavior. And how about promoting positive behavior from women in the workplace and encourage attitudes to be checked at the door?
C) In the fine art world, there are artists who depict offensive material. In the media, there is offensive material. Some people may be offended and others may not. Would any of the women been offended if it was a guy at the end of the session rather than a woman coming to a hypothetical orgasm? Were people offended by Brandon Hall's presentation on the work he built for the Jackass crew? I wasn't because I was looking at it from what he built rather the context of the message. It doesn't matter if Jackass asked Brandon Hall to do the work and if Hoss Gifford did the work on his own. The guy made a couple of neat pieces of Flash. I separate the gossip from the functionality and respect him as a developer.
Let's encourage all people to be good - non-stealing, non-violence, truthfulness (non-violence), compassion, honesty, etc. Labels and judgment that we pass on each other stop when we take the initiative to stop judging and stereotyping first.
On TV we have all kinds of people bashing Christians,lesbians and gays and unfortunately we accept this as the norm under the banner of comedy. Comedy seems to be able to for some reason walk the line of political incorrectness and get away with it.
I am sure that Hoss's intention was purely humor, and at this point he is probably just as bothered and embarrassed about it as anyone else. What was supposed to be funny for many turned out to be inappropriate. There were a lot of women in the audience too that were laughing very hard so no harm no foul.
It probably shouldn't have been done at Flashbelt but what's done is done. Nobody died, and we can all move on.
Tom M
I don't think the "no harm, no foul" folks quite "get it." We who are really pretty color-blind, gender-blind, open-minded and accepting, forget that there truly is sexism and racism and all manner of ignorant boorishness out there. Would you show this presentation to a woman who was just denied a promotion because she wouldn't sleep with the boss? Political correctness has gone overboard, but general consideration for other folks has to accept the fact that some religions ban such images, some men and women are uncomfortable with nudity, and some women feel or are objectified, even in a skilled profession. If your daughter/wife/sister/mother felt like her career projectory was constantly hinking and jinking around sexist roadblocks, would you want her to be subjected to a presentation like this?
I am a female by birth, a human by design. I am childless and fairly clueless about female culture. But I have still been told - to my face - that I will not be hired because a company tried a woman, once, and it didn't work out. I would be leading the protest brigade if a female-owned tech firm told a man "we tried a man, once, and it didn't work out." Sexism is not okay, racism is not okay, and being a minority sexist/racist doesn't make it okay. But you well-evolved modern men may not realize that us broads are STILL dealing with overt and downright insane sexism. So, sure, maybe some of us are oversensitive, but with good reason. If you irritate something often enough, it does tend to be a hair over-sensitive. You men are surrounded by women, you know what we look like, you know that most women with average self-esteem don't have enormous breast implants, we don't go around flashing see-through panties in public, and most of us would not go down on Hoss. Yet those are the images of women that you so very, terribly often, choose to present. Have you ever thought about why you choose those images? Because over here, hidden behind the C-cups, I have thought about why you choose those images, and I have thought about why I continue in the tech field when so many employers/coworkers are hostile to females, and I enjoy a good fart joke and South Park and some really inappropriate humor on occasion, yet, when the card count really, really matters - when my family could go hungry and my soul is on the line - far too often, the only man within 30 miles is the one who only likes women with huge boobs and see-through panties, and all I am is a broad with mad tech skills, normal boobs, and none of your gol-danged business what kind of panties.
Has been interesting to see such diverse views, and especially enjoyed the post by Tracy, which was witty but firm and something of a lesson for guys - there's a time and a place for fun and ribald humour, and the workplace/conference ain't it!
On the other hand, I'm very glad Tali Krakowsky was a presenter. I think she has the potential to make eveyone raise the bar on presentations. It certainly wasn't about programming, but it was beautiful and compelling.
Everyone else was well prepared and had many great things to say. I think this was a splendid conference, they have only gotten better since the beginning.