Asus Comment on Twitter Sparks A Controversy; Is There Rampant Sexism in Tech?

[dgstorm]

Asus is in hot water with the public for a Tweet they made recently regarding one of their new devices, the Transformer AiO. The Twitter comment, which you can see above said, "The rear looks pretty nice. So does the new Transformer AIO." It was in reference to a picture of one of their booth-babes demonstrating the new product at Computex 2012. The Twitter-verse was suddenly on fire with charges of sexism.

One tweeter, Corinne Marasco, said, "Wow @ASUS, coming right on the heels of that awful NYT article where "Men invented the Internet." OK, I'll take my disposable $$ elsewhere." Another, Alexander Horré, fired off with, "Looks like @asus just committed social media suicide." A third, Leigh Honeywell, said, "@ASUS hey Asus, do you not want women as customers or something? Not cool." From there it snowballed. The comment was quickly taken down, but not before it was captured by the unstoppable permanency of internet captured moments.

Since then Asus apologized for the matter. They issed the following statement,

First of all, please accept our sincere apologies for causing offence to many of Twitter’s users – it was never ASUS’ intention to offend anyone, let alone be sexist.

We have spent some time investigating this since it came to our attention and, due to the hectic schedule around Computex and the fact a number of third parties had access to our social media accounts during this period, we realize that someone has made a deeply regrettable mistake. We have taken steps to ensure that this does not happen again.

They also Tweeted the following, shown in a pic:

This massive marketing faux pas on the part of Asus seems to bring into stark clarity that the world of technology may be too skewed toward a sexist mentality. In fact, it even makes one wonder what the purpose of the "booth babes" is to begin with... More than likely, they are a "hand-me-down" concept from car & gun shows, which tend to be fairly male-dominated. Does it really need to be there anymore?

The number of women in the world that enjoy technology is growing constantly. They have every right to be treated with respect as anyone else.

Also, please make no mistake, I am not jumping on a high and mighty soapbox of self-righteousness. I am calling myself out for this behavior too. I admit that I initially thought the Tweet was funny, but writing this piece has put me in a self-reflective mindset. It's easy to bash on Asus for this mistake, but perhaps the problem with this prevalent sexism in the world of technology can only be fixed by looking in the mirror. Where does any type of prejudice begin, and, more importantly, where does it end?

To paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare, from his play, Julius Ceasar, "The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Source: Yahoo

 

[kodiak799]

Whomever tweeted that should get a RAISE. This will attract all kinds of attention to their products because Asus is still not widely known to the mainstream. The potential buyers this turns-off will be small in comparison.

 

[johnomaz]

Every woman at those shows know they are there because they are pretty and sexy. You think someone is going to put a 300 pound woman up there to hold their product, no, they aren't. The comment wasn't vulgar or anything either. Everyone was thinking it, one person finally said it in a public way. I personally do thing that is a very nice rear too.

 

[94lt1]

Marketing genius, and they're right, she does have a nice rearend.

While true the girls at those shows are models, just like the ones at a car show, does it really give anyone the right to exploit them or make comments like that? Not really...

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[kodiak799]

And let's be bluntly honest....The 3-in-1 transformer is cutting edge - what % of early adopters will be women?

Just saying sometimes these incidents are unintentional, other times they are carefully orchestrated.

 

[94lt1]

Idk about that. When this drops, my wife said I had better get her one on release day lol.

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[liftedplane]

Marketing genius, and they're right, she does have a nice rearend.

While true the girls at those shows are models, just like the ones at a car show, does it really give anyone the right to exploit them or make comments like that? Not really...

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

making a comment is exploiting them, I'm so tired of this politically correct garbage everyone keeps spouting, She is attractive, someone said something, get over it.

if anything I think it was genius

 

[Dave12308]

I've seen similar comments in car magazines based on photos of the girls at the automotive trade shows, and no one complains. This was one of those comments that was purposely posted because it could be taken both ways. Not only is the view of the woman's (very nice) rear, so is the view of the device.

Most tech ads are sexist and targeted towards hormonal males. I've seen much worse to be honest, this comment is rather tame.

 

[mithunc]

They chose to have a beautiful model show off the computer rather than just any old person. Then they make a comment about what they did? We're looking in the wrong place if there's something to get upset about, no pun intended.

 

[94lt1]

making a comment is exploiting them, I'm so tired of this politically correct garbage everyone keeps spouting, She has is attractive, someone said something, get over it.

if anything I think it was genius

Something you need to be aware of, many people are in a state of hyper sensitivity. In this day and age you can practically be sued for anything.

Yes she has a very nice rearend. But does that make it alright to tweet about it? I already said its genius because even negative publicity is publicity. And in marketing that's worth its weight in gold.
There are two sides to every coin. What if she was your wife or daughter or girlfriend? Would you want some guy putting comments like that on twitter?? Or would you want to make him apologize for disrespecting her??? Or worse in some peoples cases, but we won't go I to that.

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[mysticalmalissa]

Got to give him credit for being honest!

 

[brad92]

What everybody is forgetting is, SHE'S A MODEL! She gets paid for being physically attractive and wearing clothing to make people notice her!

People these days are so messed up. This is an example of over politically correctness and idiots out there. Its life, if you've got thick skin, you're gonna be in for a shock.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[94lt1]

No, its obvious that she's a model, but for the sake of debate, I've taken the stance that its not right to make comments like this about a person, regardless of their looks. We all know that sex sells. Einstein isn't needed to figure that one out lol.

On the flip of the same coin, what if she wasn't so attractive??

Well for one she wouldn't be there to begin with. For two, if they had an unattractive woman there, and had said something like, our rearend looks A LOT BETTER than hers, Asus would be coming under even more fire. But people wouldn't be so quick to jump in and say, that's life.... why??? Because it's against the law to call someone fat. YES ITS TRUE its considered a hate crime. Why?? Because saying things like what a fat _____ is hurtful. Well not knowing the mental state of anyone, how do we know that it doesn't hurt this woman to be thought of as a piece of meat??

At the same time it could also be an aphrodisiac to her. You just never know OK well I've made my point, you guys and gals have fun.

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[tjk629]

LOL! WTF! So it's A OKAY to dress up women, and have them just stand in front of a product, and just smile away, BUT OMG say they got a nice behind, and you've just crossed a line.

 

[kodiak799]

That she's a model is not irrelevant. What if that had been actual ad copy? A few feminazis would have cried foul, but otherwise I don't think it causes quite the stir. Post it on twitter and of course you're going to get the mostly negative comments.

Have we become so jaded that we accept that sex sells, just be oh-so-very-discreet about it?