How Casual Sexism Put Sqoot in the Hotseat

"Brake" for "Break." "Strick" for "Strict."

And yes, it's sexist as all hell.

And I just noticed "A thing of the paste." That sounds like a Teabagger sign.

I'm an old fart and may have missed the humor.

of putting in writing what they had been doing all along...

I go to tech conferences all the time... IT being probably 75% male or more the "booth babe" is a common occurrence at our conferences... I have never had a problem respecting the women in my field due to this... and booth hunks (male promotional models) have been gaining in popularity as the mix of IT staff has shifted...

next we should get upset the the casinos drink staff wear such skimpy outfits... boycott... boycott

...which a person in that field, male or female, needs to attend in order network and keep up with the latest developments. What people do in their spare time is their business (so long as everyone involved is a consenting adult); what I have to put up with in a work setting is a different story. You may not have a problem respecting women in your field due to the presence of other women offered as a commodity (and the attitude that this is acceptable), but others almost certainly do, and I can tell you as a woman it is going to impact my own comfort level to be surrounded by that. I can avoid a casino with no consequences; a professional conference in my field, not so much.

I've been to conferences for Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and others and while not as overt as the Models at car shows I can assure you that many if not most of the pretty faces (male and female) out front and center are not the techies... they're either models hired for the event or people working in the marketing department (people working in marketing, male and female, are almost universally attractive - no idea why). After handing you a flyer they bring you to the geekie techie working the center of the booth... at my first conference many years ago I thought it was funny... now I look right over the people in front as I would rather speak with the techie in the back...

now that is the trade show floor... tech sessions tend to be filled with geekie techie types... the only difference I have noticed is at conferences that cover education products, which have a greater number of women attending, the presenters dress nicer (suites vs semi-business casual)... never seen anyone present in a bathrobe or kilt (on a raised stage... avoid the front row) at any of those conferences...

like I said they broke the un-written rule and put it in writing... had they not and had the exact same conference there'd be no outrage...

At the beginning of my career I enjoyed conferences but now I actually loath them. They're a waste of time and a left over from a bygone era. Little happens there that could not be done online. The wasted money spent on these things could be put to much better use. I go because attendance is part of our performance program. Would prefer not to...

The ad in question specifically lists the women (not any attractive men) who will be serving beer as a primary "perk" of the conference. That isn't hiring an incidentally attractive marketing person/spokesmodel for their promotional talents; it is setting up and promoting an event with specifically female (not male) commodification and subservience as a key element. And while this may be common, it is not uncontroversial. The "booth babes" phenomenon has been receiving a good deal of attention from people in the tech industry who are uncomfortable with it. To some degree, I think you're proving the point of the people who are sick of it; you say A) these conferences themselves are outdated and unnecessary; B) the spokesmodels are an ineffective gimmick; yet C) there is some compulsion for tech professionals, even those who would prefer not to, to attend these conferences--including female tech professionals. They cannot just avoid them without consequences to their careers. I'm not a model or a marketing person (though I have served beer on occasion); I don't feel required to put up with sexism on the job.

What's sexist about telling women that they will have female staff serve beer to them?
Is it appealing to lesbianism or something?

... I think it was a bullet point, as in "(We'll have) women." But yes, in isolation, it can be read as a bit ... well ... different.

Sorry, the complainers don't pass muster on this one. It's like spinning records backwards and claiming to hear Satanic messages.

If you look at the image, the word "Women" is in bold as a bulletpoint on the list of perks.

will be there to serve the men. The obvious conclusion is that the ONLY women who will be there will be the servers. They are clearly advertising only to men, thereby making it an event a woman would not feel welcomed to attend (unless they are part of the wait staff).

This isn't an ad for a bachelor party, but it sounds like one. It's not like playing records backwards looking for messages. It's very obvious sexism. That's why their sponsors are dropping them.

Hey, I'm one of the co-founders of Sqoot. We're a small startup trying to do big things. Sometimes we trip and fall. This is one of those times. In hindsight, our language was reckless & immature. Please accept our apology:

http://blog.sqoot.com/we-can-do-better-an-apology-from-sqoot

"Take a brake?" Take my car brakes? Brake your car? Or do you mean take a BREAK from your busy life? Spell check can only go so far.

Language problems

Believe it or not, Sqootsters, people over the age of 25 can contribute something, such as proper spelling and good grammar. The sexist wording of one of your bullet points is a minor consideration compared to much of the rest of the offenses in your event announcement.

When mysoginy costs them economically they start paying attention.