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From: pgf@hou5g.UUCP (Paul Fox)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: offensive ad in Byte  (maybe...)
Message-ID: <502@hou5g.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Jan-85 11:48:40 EST
Article-I.D.: hou5g.502
Posted: Tue Jan 22 11:48:40 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jan-85 05:51:57 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 41

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