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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: offensive ad in Byte  (maybe...)
Message-ID: <275@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-Jan-85 23:16:42 EST
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.275
Posted: Sat Jan 26 23:16:42 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Jan-85 19:14:20 EST
References: <502@hou5g.UUCP>
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 42

Paul Fox comments on a Byte ad:

> 	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.
> 	
>	...
>
> 	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.

I expect that the folks who placed the ad had the same idea in mind that
your friend saw.  However, I find it reasonable to infer the same other
points you do, particularly (1) and (2), from their presentation.  This
sort of second-order message is rampant in most advertising (if not
everywhere in our culture) and watching out for it is *most*
important.  If we accept these less-obviously presented messages then
we have essentially no chance of breaking the current pattern of
discrimination against women (or any other group, for that matter - the
patterns are fundamentally the same).

Recognizing this sort of message in an ad, or any other communication,
requires interest, some training (not formal, certainly), and a good
dose of cynicism.  One needs to look past the obvious content and
intent of the message to see what it's really saying.  If it reenforces
the status quo, even to the least degree, and that status is something
we want to change, then we must be aware of this reenforcement and work
even harder to make our changes.

I find it useful to *assume* that there is bad in advertising and try
to ferret out any good that happens to be there.  This at least helps
me to downplay any of the secondary messages.

-- 
Ed Gould		    mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146