Tech speakers, it's 2023. Stop using moms as your example of a non-technical audience. It's wrong, its not funny, and whatever you were saying, now most of your audience is not thinking about it.
Just use the exec team as an example instead and get on with your life.
And dudes, if you think this is a small thing (it's not), then it should be a small thing for you to fix your shit. If you'd like to not have to deal with people being annoying when you do it, you can literally have that.
Everyone else, if you're in a position to do so without it being a risk for you, tell the speaker and the conference, every single time.
Also? Marketing? HR? Largely female-coded work, so you're doing the same thing, but now also showing that you don't really respect your colleagues. And yes, they are actually your colleagues, and they do notice. Punch up. The CEO will laugh too, and he can take it.
If he can't, you really want to change jobs anyway.
@dymaxion I like the way you think.
I think the problem is an overall mindset and that same mindset creates so many additional problems in work culture.
For example, I sit on project meetings for months at a time without other team leads communicating even basic requirements. Or showing that they comprehend their roles. Later on, usually in the middle of a deployment, those same leads suddenly realize they aren’t prepared and act like they didn’t know.
@dymaxion Hmm! It's interesting that you're saying Marketing is female-coded. I don't think I have any such associations.
(Interestingly, I tend to conflate it somewhat with Sales, which I think of as male-coded.)
HR though, yes, strongly female-coded in my mind.
@zenlan @dymaxion
I love the idea of dunking on the CEO as the most tech-incapable person in the organization. It’s punching up, and in my limited experience, it’s true.
I believe the CEO is the most tech-incapable person because they are too busy to learn stuff. Conversely, the reason young people tend to be better with tech is that they have the time to noodle with it.
I use "The C-team" and if people ask, I say "You know, CEO, CFO and so on..."
@proactiveservices @dymaxion @kim
I'm an old hippie who works at the library. I get steamed every time I have to shelve the Facebook (Instagram, tech du jour) For Seniors. I'm actually really good at picking up new software - I enjoy it like a new game.
People assuming that I'm techphobic or inept are showing their ignorance just like someone assuming black folks all love (fill in racist trope here)
Please stop using “mom” as an example of an unsophisticated user of technology. This reinforces harmful stereotypes. Instead, I suggest using “congressperson”.
Start using bosses for that example
Author: Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier One of the more humorous ad series today is the Geico “caveman” commercials, featuring a caveman complaining about the stereotype of something being “so easy a caveman could do it.” Since we don’t have to worry about offending cavemen (or cavewomen), companies can safely poke humor at that demographic group and …
@ginapieters @dymaxion I've got very little faith in local media to understand anything at all, regardless of how incorrectly oversimplified one makes things.
Often the concept of a magical box is about as much as you can give for details. It's sad.
@dymaxion (Now) Elderly women co-invented the internet. Invented higher level languages. Wrote the software to go to the moon. And …
Don‘t assume old people can not do something. They may have invented the stuff you‘re working with.
And whether they had or raised children doesn‘t matter, again, when talking about technical achievements.
@dymaxion i've honestly never given this any thought. it never occurred to me that it might annoy people, but i'll make it a point not to do that in the future.
in the past i've used "my mom", "my dad", or "my parents" as examples, cuz neither is tech savvy. my dad has a copy of "windows 10 for dummies"...
i was oblivious that people might take offense. there was never any malice on my part when i used my parents as an example. i never meant to imply that they were stupid or inept, much less did i intend to disparage all women or all elderly.
but i don't deny that one's choice of words is important. i also don't deny that sexism and ageism are real, systemic problems. i would prefer not to contribute to that, even subtly or inadvertently, so i will do as requested.
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