Okay, I’m going to put on my man-pants and step onto the chauvinist pig soapbox for a moment and get something very important off of my chest.
Some Women can be WAY too overly sensitive.
I can get away with saying that, because I’m writing this from a secret bunker full of women repelling artifacts, like D&D books, clip on sunglass covers for my specticles, my big flabby belly and an oppressive aroma of mom’s basement. Add into that the fact that nobody in the world is actually going to bother reading this, and you’ve got a pretty good amount of safety from being torn apart by hordes of angry women. Of course, if all of my precautions fail me, there are many worse deaths that I can think of.
I won’t share them with you today. I don’t want to give you ideas.
Now, perhaps you’ve decided to give me the benefit of the doubt. Chances are you’ve read a bit of my blog before and you realize that I have a jaded and dark path when it comes to the level of crazy that women around me tend to exhibit. I do seem to give off some sort of aura of insanity that has a super strong effect on humans lacking a Y-Chromosome, but that actually has nothing to do with it today. Today, I’m actually baffled by something completely unrelated to my own bad decision making and ability to drive people insane.
I’m talking about Asus Computers, E3 and booth babes.
Basically, some guy in control of the Asus twitter account made the following comment:
The rear looks pretty nice, and so does the new Transformer AIO.
He linked it to a picture of a woman standing next to the Asus display at E3.
Every would be feminist in the country screamed, shouted, and eventually the poor guy was dragged into the street and eaten alive by a mob of insane womynists. That’s right, they spell women with a Y so that it isn’t just “Wo-Man.” It’s a thing they do. Who am I to judge. My spelling is bad enough as it is.
I want to make a few things very clear now:
1 – I do not believe myself to be particularly sexist. I am aware that it is pretty much impossible not to be. There is a certain level of DNA engrained prejudiced in every person on the planet. I just think myself to be a bit better about judging people based on their merits than on their physical traits than the average knuckle-dragging dude.
2 – I don’t think this particular issue is all that sexist.
3 – I think anyone that gets angry over reading that last statement has some serious personal issues that they probably need to examine with the help of a trained professional. Seriously, get help. If you comment angry comments here, I’m probably just going to assume that I’ve driven you as insane as other people in my life and suggest the name of a mental hospital near you.
Here’s why that statement wasn’t sexist statement, regardless of whether it was crude, inappropriate and lacking in professionalism. Yes, it is objectifying the woman in question, which is her job. She’s what people in the exp scene call a “Booth Bait.” That is to say that she’s a woman that gets paid to be hot and stand next to product display. It’s an old profession, and one that pays fairly well from what I’ve heard. I don’t know, no body would hire me despite my sending a resume in to like, 50 companies. I’ve got perky man-breasts, dang it. I could fill a bikini.
As demeaning as her job might seem, it isn’t any different than being a model of any other kind, and at Comicon and Boat Shows are a lot more demeaning. I suppose it might be a little sexist that very few companies employ man-meat to stand next to their products and shimmy themselves. Actually, with the amazing growth of women in the tech industry, I’m sure it is only a matter of time before Fabio comes out of retirement for it. Maybe then I’ll get that booth bait call. Dream career for this guy.
So is it sleazy? Heck yea! It’s horrible that people get treated like that, but perhaps that was their life choice, and we should respect that.
Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t focus on it in the media, though. Especially not when real issues of sexism are being buried by the story.
Of course, it’s not just women that are upset by this. It’s pretty much the entire internet. The Cyber-community of twitter is bustling and bumping in angry communion. There’s nothing like a dog-and-pony show to get everyone in the hivemind buzzing and preaching, is there.
But, what do I know? I’m just some guy from the midwest that’s only good at picking lint from his belly button and watching Ninja Warrior.
Well, that and eating chicken wings. Man, I’m suddenly very hungry for chicken wings.