Egregiously OT: Sexism (was Re: [Gllug] Whinge)

[jim]

On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, Xander D Harkness wrote:
> It is true that there are a larger proportion of males in computing (a 
> great shame that it is not even).

I'm sure that the great majority of us on this list would agree with you
there. I know that I do.

> Associating attractive women with any product seems to entice ment to
> purchase said product.  If we had an equal balance I am sure that we
> would see advertising targeted towards males and females separately
> (just as we see with cars at present). 

Images of women tend to dominate in advertising, even in the marketing of 
products which are aimed at women (the implied message in this case being 
"buy this product and you could be like her" rather than "buy this
product and you could have her"). This is not so much down to sexism on
the part of advertisers or society (though I do not deny that such things
exist) as down to differences in sexual psychology between men and women:
visual images of men have far less impact on women than visual images of
women do on men (most advertising seems implicitly aimed at heterosexuals,
though I really don't want to open THAT can of worms). We're just sad that
way, I guess.

I wonder if, if we wander far enough off-topic, the natural curvature of
the universe will bring us back on again?

Cheers, jim
-- 
http://madeira.physiol.ucl.ac.uk/people/jim/
"... I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the
 loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained."
                                - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet"


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