Monday, September 27, 2010

Dating Advice and Engadget Geeks

Oops, accidentally posted a draft of this post, instead of just saving it. (-_-)

Leslie Sobon's (of AMD) blog post about winning the affections of a geek in five easy lessons made some noise on Engadget here recently. The whole thing is baffling to me as it was written mostly in jest, to be funny, as a piece of light reading. Why one of the Engadget writers would take such deep offense to it is confusing, and only got more so as I pondered the matter.

Background:

Engadget comes off sexist at times, particularly in a podcast I watched a month or two ago. The only one I ever watched, they made a really big deal out of having a woman from the staff, Laura June, come on stage to banter with the guys. Apparently, that was a first time thing. Near as I can tell she's an editor for Engadget now. When Engadget's head man was commenting on how none of them had formal writing training, Laura corrected him saying that she did (and she does). His response? "That's because you're a girl" or something similar.

I'd have to re-watch the whole thing again to remember exactly the conversation, but I remember it just seemed really off. If you like stereotypes, it seemed to showcase the challenges women probably face going into an industry largely dominated by guys who couldn't get a date to the junior prom. If you don't, it was still a really awkward moment on that particular podcast.

Engadget's angry rebuttal to Leslie Sobon was written by Laura June.

Leslie Sobon and Laura June couldn't be more different. Putting those two in a room paints a vivid picture in my mind. If you were to meet Leslie, I'd see her as professional, witty, and dressed in business casual. I envision Laura being totally different, showing up in a Slayer T-Shirt, probably wanting to talk about the Sims or compare xBox game libraries.

I'm not sure why Laura June spent so much time trashing what Leslie Sobon had to say, but I'd pay good money to watch the two box three rounds for charity.

2 comments:

  1. So, as I was reading Leslie's post, many criticisms came to my mind, just because it was poorly written. It wasn't funny, relevant, or witty, and at times had me physically shaking my head in confusion. The rebuttal had me laughing, though, because she said exactly what I was thinking. Laura didn't seem to be taking offense, she just seemed to be asking "Why? Why? Why?", which is the same question that came to my head. I've read a lot of similar articles on catching nerds in your love net, and have never come across one worse than this. It makes me laugh that someone called her out on it, mostly because I am mean. -shiloh

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  2. I tend to avoid reading any sort of dating advice. When I did wander the earth as a single semi-nerdy guy, I had the best luck landing a date by just being up front and asking the girl out. Her advice seemed totally counter-intuitive to me, but I assumed it was just one woman's perspective.

    You're a pretty sensible lady Shiloh, and if you say Leslie's article is just off the mark and deserved a keyboard curb stomp from someone like Laura June... I believe you. =)

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