Comments on: Female tech influencers and their ... hairstyles?‎

Female tech influencers and their ... hairstyles?‎

ericb — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:28:03 -0800

"The most notable women in technology probably don't spend all day thinking about hairstyles and dinner parties. But according to a bright pink infographic making its way around the web, you can tell a lot about some of the world's most tech-savvy women based on their hairdos and extracurriculars. In hopes of inspiring people, Wpromote ... created "Which Female Tech Influencer Are You?" -- an infographic reminiscent of a teen magazine quiz."*

The infographic was created in response to the lack of female representation in last year's 'The Evolution of the Geek.'

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:28:27 -0800

Some early reaction:

The Saddest Pink Infographic About Women In Tech You'll Ever See. Are You A Tech Influencer, Porn Star Or Sarah Palin? Pink Infographic Attempts To 'Represent' Women In Tech. Cutesy Pink Infographic Patronizes Women In Tech (Yet Again).

By: maudlin

maudlin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:30:09 -0800

Is that intense pink in front of my eyes merely a bad aesthetic choice or the colour of my blinding rage?

By: rtha

rtha — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:35:23 -0800

The stupid, it burns!

By: lydhre

lydhre — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:36:33 -0800

OFFS. Wpromote, you are neither funny, nor cute, nor actually helpful in anyway. You are sexist and condescending, though, so I guess you fit right in with the rest of society. Congratulations.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:38:47 -0800

Is a tech influencer anything like a horse whisperer? I have a mental picture of someone making quiet beeping noises to a broken iPad.

By: madred

madred — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:40:01 -0800

Where are all the tips on how to drive my man wild in bed? There isn't one explanation as to how to find a frenulum in that so called "info"graphic.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:41:58 -0800

Aw, man, I'm "Error establishing a database connection."

By: St. Alia of the Bunnies

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:45:06 -0800

By: ChuraChura

ChuraChura — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:45:44 -0800

Hm, I tried to open the main link and got a Network Error. That's a problem with my connection rather than with the premise of the link, but it made me snicker.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:45:58 -0800

"MUST CONTROL FIST OF DEATH." wait... no I don't. RELEASE THE FIST OF DEATH. ALSO, THE KRAKEN.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:52:53 -0800

If you can't access the link above the break, the first link below has the same graphic, mostly legible. (And isn't it mostly purple, with pink text boxes, or is it just me?)

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:01:28 -0800

Also, what What the hell is a "tech influence"? This PR Sarah Evans (not to be confused with the Country Singer) is actually in public relations. I think the confusion here is between "Tech" and "Social Media" Social media is similar to the media of old, just more democratic. The same kinds of people attracted to jobs in old media (i.e. the popular kids) are now interested in "Tech" and worse, calling themselves "geeks" in the process. As far as I know, only a single person on this list is actually a technical person, Marissa Mayer. Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook actually comes from the world of politics. One is a fashion person, one is a journalist, and one is as mentioned a PR person. Ugh.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:06:00 -0800

Wpromote, you are neither funny, nor cute, nor actually helpful in anyway.

But they are getting a shitload of traffic.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:07:32 -0800

Error establishing a database connection Whichever one it is it clearly isn't one who is a DBA.

By: gen

gen — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:13:17 -0800

* face palm *

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:18:50 -0800

I couldn't get beyond the word "influencer". It's almost as bad as "thought leader".

By: oddman

oddman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:23:56 -0800

I just lost some braincells.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:29:08 -0800

We are all Xeni Jarden.

By: spinifex23

spinifex23 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:32:46 -0800

I have a mental picture of someone making quiet beeping noises to a broken iPad. I pet my test machines and call them 'kitten' in a little baby voice when software I'm working on throws an exception error or crashes SQL. Does that count? -spinifex23, Official Woman in Tech.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:38:20 -0800

gah! You're coddling them! Bad machines must be beaten and sworn at!

By: olinerd

olinerd — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:40:46 -0800

As a woman in tech, I wasn't so much offended by the pink as I was some of the questions. Seriously? You think someone in tech reads a magazine?

By: No-sword

No-sword — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:45:44 -0800

I don't have time to read all that tiny white-on-pink text. Can someone please summarize it for me in webinar format?

By: Katjusa Roquette

Katjusa Roquette — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:46:53 -0800

I absolutely HATED the disinfographic!it was really hard to read and way too pink and aquamarine. The white cake handwriting font was invidible. And I would think REAL techy women would have very easy-care clothing and hair, with maybe some quirky touches. I suppose if they were rich they'd get stuff. This piece however was a disgusting bit of marshmallow and cotton cand covered fluff. It was all way too foofy for me.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:47:48 -0800

(I would also accept a summary in the form of a retweeted Jeff Jarvis quote.)

By: immlass

immlass — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:54:50 -0800

I don't understand how the lack of women in the geek evolution graphic leads to the "women influencers" infographic. I get they're trying to ride the publicity, but the theoretical connection beyond that simply does not compute.

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:09:34 -0800

condescending stereotypification.

By: perilous

perilous — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:17:07 -0800

GRAR >:(

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:17:14 -0800

I misread the post and thought the info flowchart was an alternative to shallow ones, so I happily went to take it. It was pretty confusing and depressing.

By: perilous

perilous — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:18:17 -0800

I don't have time to read all that tiny white-on-pink text. Can someone please summarize it for me in webinar format? posted by No-sword at 6:45 PM on January 27 [+] [!] Translation: LOL GIRLS DONT PLAY WOW

By: guybrush_threepwood

guybrush_threepwood — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:44:21 -0800

I always forget that "women in tech" means extremely brilliant women whose head shots have been pasted on cartoon bodies in order to make them non-threatening. -guybrush_threepwood: woman, Ruby programmer, QA engineer, Linux user

By: sciencegeek

sciencegeek — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:46:07 -0800

The format was annoying. I didn't have the patience to look at it in detail. What kind of tech female does that make me? The RTFA-failing tech female? Doesn't bad infographic/graphic design annoy tech influencers?

By: aerotive

aerotive — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:28:04 -0800

"We are all Xeni Jarden." This will all be unpublished down the memory hole?

By: mhoye

mhoye — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:29:24 -0800

Aw, man, I'm "Error establishing a database connection." She's pretty hot.

By: girih knot

girih knot — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:11:17 -0800

I don't see the problem. For one thing, the evolution of the geek thing was equally as condescending. Big whoop. I like purple, and the infographic you complain about has as much of that as the pink. And any of those women look like great work role models. The problem isn't the women portrayed. It's that to identify with them, you have to answer a bevy of questions about shoes and accessories and ♥ Who is your dream man? ♥ It's sickening hyper-gendered stereotypical tripe that's dismissive to both the specific women represented and the sex as a whole.

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:26:57 -0800

Two things ...1) Just what is wpromote promoting? 2)Are you shitting me?

By: jopreacher

jopreacher — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:47:30 -0800

/kisses guybrush_threepwood as an antidote to the infographic.

By: Phalene

Phalene — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:56:18 -0800

What the...?! I'm not even a woman in tech (just a mildly capable computer user) and my brain hurts from dealing with that.

By: casarkos

casarkos — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:09:22 -0800

I can't make it past the first block. Is Metafilter news, or social networking, or what's the interweb?

By: straight

straight — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:30:11 -0800

From The Onion Magazine: The World's 10 Most Powerful Women: We Make Them Discuss Fashion and Lindsay Lohan

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:46:29 -0800

Yeah, this is moronic. I saw this on Twitter yesterday and quickly moved on.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:38:40 -0800

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Which Female History Influencer Are You? ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ START HERE ↓ [Produce an Heir] ←What is your first task in the morning?→ [What's "decisions?"] ↓ [Defeat an Armada or Bring About a New Age] ↓ "Sex and the City" or "Desperate Housewives"?

By: porpoise

porpoise — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:54:41 -0800

The reverse bobble-head of a photo-pic of head on barbie/bratz-doll body? Designed to signal to people with two neurons to rub together that they can ignore the story.

By: ao4047

ao4047 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:06:18 -0800

Because women can't be geeks?

By: mikelieman

mikelieman — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:01:04 -0800

gah! You're coddling them! Bad machines must be beaten and sworn at! And THIS is why we lock the important machines up in the server room.

By: Summer

Summer — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:55:36 -0800

But they are getting a shitload of traffic Don't believe what the SEO people tell you, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

By: theora55

theora55 — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 09:05:35 -0800

Hahahahaha,, marketers are so cuuuute!!! By which I mean, what a bunch of sexist jackasses, and this is why I hate and despise marketing.