Tough Questions
Objectifying women to promote sales is an age old technique. But is it right to blame a company for showing what (many) people obviously want to see? Is it even fair to expect a company to follow a code of morality that many of us want but is not even close to reality? Microsoft, a company I don’t exactly like, is the trigger for these questions. At the 2016 Game Developers Conference , writes TC Sottek : “Attendees of Microsoft's GDC party were greeted by women dancing on platforms — a choice made not by the venue but by Microsoft. ” (In case you’re wondering, this wasn’t a Windows or Office launch! It was a forum to show the latest from Microsoft’s video/computer games division. Such games appeal to a mostly male audience, hence…). Many of us can agree with Sottek’s lament: “Conferences like CES and E3 were notorious for many years for using "booth babes" to promote their brands and products by baiting the male gaze .” But is Microsoft (or any other ga...