pgf@hou5g.UUCP (Paul Fox) (01/22/85)
a On pages 62 and 63 of the current (Jan. 85) issue of Byte Magazine there is an advertisement for a magnetic tape backup system for the IBM PC. It pictures a smartly dressed woman intently studying her computer screen. The large character caption (and the beginning of the small text) read as follows: "SHE'S TEMPORARY. THE DAMAGE IS PERMANENT. One wrong key. The slightest slip. And your accounts receivable are accounts irretrievable... ...If you employ people and computers, you're vulnerable." Do other people out there find this offensive? To me, the ad has three messages: 1) Women who use computers are probably temporary secretaries. 2) Women who are temporary secretaries are probably incompetent. 3) Corollary to 2), those who aren't temporary secretaries probably don't make mistakes. Granted, human error is probably not usually considered among the reasons for doing backups on your micro. Power failures and system crashes are probably thought of more often. But this seems a fairly rude way of emphasizing the possibility. I was surprised that a feminist friend of mine, a programmer who once had a job as a secretary, didn't find the ad as offensive as I did. She mentioned that temporary clerks are often expected to do very complex tasks with little or no training, and human error is probable and expectable. (She didn't, however, like the insinuation that nobody else makes mistakes.) Anyone else have any feelings about this? -- Paul Fox, AT&T Information Systems, Holmdel NJ. [ihnp4|vax135]!hou5g!pgf (201)834-3740
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (Jerry Hollombe) (01/25/85)
>From: pgf@hou5g.UUCP (Paul Fox) >Subject: offensive ad in Byte (maybe...) >Message-ID: <502@hou5g.UUCP> > > One wrong key. > The slightest slip. > And your accounts receivable > are accounts irretrievable... > ...If you employ people and > computers, you're vulnerable." > > Do other people out there find this offensive? If I were the publisher of the software in question I'd be very offended. No good software package is that fragile. Anyone who keeps critical data on a system that fragile and doesn't keep backups deserves what they get, no matter who was using it at the time. -- ============================================================================== The Polymath (Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI If thy CRT offend thee, pluck 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. it out and cast it from thee. Santa Monica, California 90405 (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) (01/27/85)
Paul Fox comments on a Byte ad: > Do other people out there find this offensive? To me, the ad has > three messages: > 1) Women who use computers are probably temporary secretaries. > 2) Women who are temporary secretaries are probably incompetent. > 3) Corollary to 2), those who aren't temporary secretaries > probably don't make mistakes. > > ... > > I was surprised that a feminist friend of mine, a programmer who > once had a job as a secretary, didn't find the ad as offensive as > I did. She mentioned that temporary clerks are often expected to > do very complex tasks with little or no training, and human error > is probable and expectable. I expect that the folks who placed the ad had the same idea in mind that your friend saw. However, I find it reasonable to infer the same other points you do, particularly (1) and (2), from their presentation. This sort of second-order message is rampant in most advertising (if not everywhere in our culture) and watching out for it is *most* important. If we accept these less-obviously presented messages then we have essentially no chance of breaking the current pattern of discrimination against women (or any other group, for that matter - the patterns are fundamentally the same). Recognizing this sort of message in an ad, or any other communication, requires interest, some training (not formal, certainly), and a good dose of cynicism. One needs to look past the obvious content and intent of the message to see what it's really saying. If it reenforces the status quo, even to the least degree, and that status is something we want to change, then we must be aware of this reenforcement and work even harder to make our changes. I find it useful to *assume* that there is bad in advertising and try to ferret out any good that happens to be there. This at least helps me to downplay any of the secondary messages. -- Ed Gould mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed +1 415 644 0146