How techs rampant misogyny was exposed by a tawdry awards ceremony

[demmiblue]

The recent Digital Entrepreneur Awards featured women in corsets and dated sexist jokes. It was a stark reminder of how women are viewed in the industry

Source: The Guardian

When you think of the words “high-profile tech event”, chances are you have a pretty clear idea of what that might look like. Glitzy product announcements, probably; warehouse-tall HD screens presenting groundbreaking pieces of technology or paradigm-shifting ways to communicate. On the less hyperbolic end of the scale, you might assume that most attendees would be fully clothed.

That’s not always the case, however, as the debacle that was the Digital Entrepreneur Awards (DEA) neatly illustrates. No high-tech displays or feats of ingenuity here: instead, guests were greeted by corset-wearing showgirls and regaled with offensive jokes from Love Island voiceover star Iain Stirling. Apple keynote this was not.

A team from the University of Bradford has even handed back the prize it was awarded for most innovative use of video. The director of external affairs at the university, Mark Garratt, told the Times that attending the event was like “going back to the days of Bernard Manning”. Digital comms agency Lab – DEA’s agency of the year – described the event as “like seeing toxic waste being dumped on a beautiful beach”.

A friend of mine was also there. “The show basically revolved around ‘jokes’ about wives giving blowjobs to their husbands,” she told me. “They had an opportunity to challenge the stereotypes of working in tech and they failed. They failed massively.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/30/misogyny-tech-ceremony-women-digital-entrepreneur-awards?CMP=twt_gu

[marble falls]

1. Remember when tech was going to equalize us and lift us?