Microsoft Hosts Party at GDC with Schoolgirls as the Entertainment

[arus2001]

We're not allowed to feel tingly in our naughty bits, so I'm sure all kinds get the thumbs down.

[Lucavi]

Are they going to ban booth girls next? What about booth girls in other industries? This whole thing seems pretty silly to me but maybe that is my male privilege.

It is.

You can go either one of two routes with this:

1) Go the equality route and have scantily-clad men AND women dancing and trying to encourage party-goers to mingle on the floor, or...

2) Ban the skimpy-clothing narrative entirely, as its a party for professionals and you know cameras are going to be rolling for this kind of stupid shit.

When you want to promote both genders equally at an event, you don't provide "entertainment" for one gender exclusively. Its common sense, especially in an age where companies are pushing (at least on the public sphere) for gender equality.

This isn't hard to understand or comprehend. You don't have to be a SJW to understand this.

Edit* There we go!

Double Edit* @Salodin: I feel that you pick one or the other. Microsoft isn't 100% male anymore. There's nothing illegal or even immoral about this (not that morality means anything), but it is tasteless and bone-headed from an equality sense.

"Lets encourage women to pursue a traditionally male-dominated field by inviting everyone to parties where scantily-clad women dance on stage largely for the exclusive benefit of said males while expecting both males and females to feel exactly the same amount of joy and no amounts of creep."

Party or not, this was a "professional" party for members of the "profession". Its not too far removed from holding a corporate unisex event at a strip joint that features 100% women and 0% men.

[NynJa]

There are plenty of women who enjoy female dancers.
Source: go to a strip club and see how many non-staff females there are.


If these girls were so offended about their job, then they wouldnt do that job. Clearly they either enjoy the job, or need it badly enough that theyre willing to do it. Its pathetic that people on the sidelines are the ones crying unfair practices...and lets be honest, its not like the girl in question is anything remotely close to eye candy. Would they prefer that MS didnt hire dancers? Thats less money for the womyn out there. Perhaps they would be happier if microsoft simply hired them as programmers full time, equality right?


Implying that women are pigeonholed into that job cause theyre desperate and need to take a demeaning job to make ends meet is fucking absurd. Do you think jim bob who works at the sewage plant shoveling shit all day long grew up saying "yeah i want to be a sewage worker when i grow up". Think that janitors dream job was cleaning up everyone elses mess?

[Karbuncle]

It is.

You can go either one of two routes with this:

1) Go the equality route and have scantily-clad men AND women dancing and trying to encourage party-goers to mingle on the floor, or...

2) Ban the skimpy-clothing narrative entirely, as its a party for professionals and you know cameras are going to be rolling for this kind of stupid shit.

When you want to promote both genders equally at an event, you don't provide "entertainment" for one gender exclusively. Its common sense, especially in an age where companies are pushing (at least on the public sphere) for gender equality.

This isn't hard to understand or comprehend. You don't have to be a SJW to understand this.

Edit* There we go!

Double Edit* @Salodin: I feel that you pick one or the other. Microsoft isn't 100% male anymore. There's nothing illegal or even immoral about this (not that morality means anything), but it is tasteless and bone-headed from an equality sense.

"Lets encourage women to pursue a traditionally male-dominated field by inviting everyone to parties where scantily-clad women dance on stage largely for the exclusive benefit of said males while expecting both males and females to feel exactly the same amount of joy and no amounts of creep."

Party or not, this was a "professional" party for members of the "profession". Its not too far removed from holding a corporate unisex event at a strip joint that features 100% women and 0% men.

While I disagree with the idea of needing everything to be "50/50 split down the gender line or remove it!", I appreciate the time you took to write a nice post for your reasoning and your view on this. Sadly, I can't see eye to eye with you on this, unfortunately, for many reasons, not the least of which is that I know if this was a women event and it was a bunch of male dancers, not a single fuck would be given by anyone. The only reason its news is because its men and its video game industry = Misogyarchy.

We could argue if this is professional or not, because It could be seen as unprofessional without context and I don't know much about GoGo dancers or whatever, but I imagine they don't strip or get naked and are more just there to rouse others? so I don't see it being an apt comparison to a strip club outing, "Muh slippery slope" or not. As for moral It'd be lost to me as I don't stand by typical puritanical views on sex or the use sexual appeal or the acceptance of ones own sexuality.

I will say I would agree, strictly from a "PR Control" point of view, they should have had some males there doing the dancing too... especially with the current climate.

[Andalusian girls]

2) Ban the skimpy-clothing narrative entirely, as its a party for professionals and you know cameras are going to be rolling for this kind of stupid shit.

this basically. why they felt the need to sexualize a professional networking event with gogo dancers (in the guise of a common heterosexual male fetish or not) is beyond me, it's like an episode of Mad Men

[Churchill]

i'm glad regular people don't care about stuff like this

[Salodin]

i'm glad regular people don't care about stuff like this

Which only raises the point of why do it. You either don't care about these dancers, in which case why hire them, or care about the message they send, in which case why hire them.

It's just a terrible decision all around. Some ones getting demoted.

[dasva]

I'd hire them just to rustle jimmies. Because if they get rustled over this you deserve it

[Salodin]

Maybe if your company was at a point where this kind of negative publicity wouldn't tangibly hurt sales, but let's be honest, you wouldn't be here if it was.

[NynJa]

Its microsoft
No ones going to boycott microsoft

If people bought xbox ones after hearing about their bullshit "phone home" system that basically kills lending games or buying used games (even if they ultimately didnt go through with it), theyre not boycotting microsoft

And good luck getting your average and above average joe running linux in an effort to boycott microsoft...I know Mac's are also an option, but Macs cost like 3x as much as a PC equivalent.

[Xno Kappa]

I thought this was going to be an outrage about actual underage school children at the party.

This shit is beyond silly and the type of nonsense that drives people to vote trump lol.