socialmedian: Tech World's Redoubts of Sexism and Xenophobia

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Tech World's Redoubts of Sexism and Xenophobia

Source: Valleywag

Sep 24, 2009

Summary

Concentrate engineers and tech executives in one conference hall, and the ensuing sausagefest is bound to produce some moments truly offensive to women and foreigners. Just ask the organizers of TechCrunch 50 and Demo about their recent low points.

Reveling in over-concentration of males in Silicon Valley tech companies, TechCrunch's startup conference kicked off earlier this month with talk about strippers. Penn Jilette regaled the crowd with the story about how one made a ton of money off his magic app, and is set to publish a "Stripper's Guide" to the software, which helped her increase her tips. Twitter groaned. Then came the booth babes, despite organizers' advice against using the scantily-clad female models as a promotional gimmick.

Conference co-host Jason Calacanis also has to admonish attendees not to mock the accents of some presenters, whom he makes a point of culling from around the world. In response to our email, he wrote,

I've asked folks to be tolerant about language issues for three years because 15-year olds in chat rooms can say so horrible t

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