Do They Really Not See It?

As advertisements continue to use the image of women to promote their products, feminist or also known as genderist to some, continue to urge equality between the sexes in all settings.





"OOOOH IT'S A FEMALE!" This is what one team member stated when he noticed he was playing against Jenny Haniver's team on Call of Duty: Ghost Protocol. As I was reading through this blog post, I could not believe someone can actually point out something so ridiculous. Yes, it is a girl. Yes, there are other guys in the lobby as well so why does it matter that there is a "female" gamer? One of the other gamers on the same team later noted "I just knew you'd point out that there's a chick in the lobby, and now ChubbyBunny's going to be all awkward." Why will the guy feel awkward? I curiously started to read the other blog posts by Jenny Haniver and began to see a pattern.

I saw many sexual and sexists comments coming from guy gamers. While Jenny was talking to one of the players on her team about the match they had recently played, one of the male gamers randomly stated, "Wow, you sound hot, babe." This was only one of the many comments male gamers were stating while playing with Jenny. Others stated more vulgar statements which referred to Jenny as a whore, bitch, slut, and other derogatory words. All this lead me to ask myself one question: why do male gamers feel "awkward" or react differently when playing with female gamers?

Microsoft recently showed a commercial promoting there new Windows "All in One" which portrays three women interacting around a tablet. Later the main women states that the tablet "is more affordable, looks great, and is perfect for planning my wedding." At first look, this advertisement seems to be just an average commercial from a corporation trying to show why their product is more efficient. Although Microsoft's main idea of the commercial focuses on the product itself, portraying women as barely capable of checking their social media is unfair. In fact, when looking at a similar ad Microsoft posted using a man, you can see a huge difference in how Microsoft portrayed the male character.

In the ad, the man takes a business-like position.  Microsoft portrays him as a busy, hardworking individual that needs a portable tablet to help him finish up with work. The interesting part of this is when Microsoft shows how these men can casually use there tablets for fun when he's not focused and hardworking.

In the video, the male narrator said can check out Xbox videos or browse through the flipboard application. Could it be that Microsoft used these examples to show that men are associated with video games? Was Microsoft trying to show that men are intelligent by associating them with a cite that allows people to share articles, and blogs?

We don't see blatant sexist advertisements such as the one listed on the right of Del Monte's ketchup ad, but companies like Microsoft continue to ignorantly and carelessly promote their products to women. Microsoft promotes the idea that most women will use technology to do things like "plan a wedding" or "check Pinterest".  Yes, women do go on Pinterest and plan weddings but let me note that men can and do both things listed in this commercial. In fact a study done by Mintel back in 2013 found that 19 percent of men were mostly responsible or involved in choosing the wedding dress.

I am not trying to say that Microsoft is the only company portraying women in a negative way, but they are not first time offenders. Back in November 2013 they posted an alterable letter of a husband stating why the Xbox One would be great for both him and his wife. This letter could be edited and shared with others via social networking and what sparked controversy was how the default setting of one the sentences was "I know, I know. You'd rather knit than watch me slay zombies, but hear me out on this." Again this shows Microsoft's ignorant views, but in there defense, Microsoft later apologized and quickly worked to change the sentence from "You'd rater knit" to "You'd rather do your taxes early." I guess it was nice that they at least apologized and changed their ad to something more appealing to everyone. Now when I read the default letter instead of seeing that women would rather knit, I see that they can and would rather do math

After seeing these advertisements I immediately asked myself what can cause people, especially in big companies, to have these views and openly share them as if no one will get offended. I started by looking into who were the people in charge of the company and how many of them were women. An article posted by huffington post listed that out of nine of the board members, only two were women. This can definitely skew the views of those portrayed in the commercial. Recently Twitter posted data that shows that 30 percent of employees are women. Out of the 30 percent only 10 percent are involved in a tech job.

All these numbers suggest that we need to work on increasing and balancing women involved in the tech industry. Studies show that women are more than capable of being in these leading positions. In some cases, women have proven to show better results than men. Women entrepreneurs who began with 12 percent the funding of male counterparts in return have shown to make 12 percent higher in revenue.

Women are no stranger to technology so why do companies like Microsoft continue to completely ignore how involved women are in technology? Do they really need to relate to women as confused wives that need technology to help them plan a wedding. 41 percent of computer science majors in Harvard are women and women such as Jenny Haniver are involved with technology in ways that do not involve planning a wedding or going on social media. There needs to be more women in leadership roles in tech jobs. Women have done more than enough to prove that they have the ability to do what men can do. I understand it's a process so I suppose I can start by suggesting this to Microsoft and other companies who demean women's abilities: please post more accurate portrayal of women. Post advertisements that exemplify women as capable and intelligent individuals. People should not have the idea that women shouldn't be involved in places men are involved. As Jenny Haniver shows in her blog, Not in the Kitchen Anymore, women can be part of the same areas men are involved if only people can change their views and learn to welcome everyone, including women. Don't label women as others that shouldn't belong.