[javadyan]

This was not sexism. It was a poor attempt at humour.

[waterlesscloud]

I agree it was a poor attempt at humor, but it was an attempt at sexist humor.

[javadyan]

So? It's not hurting anyone. You know, there is a difference between an ad for a geek event that no one cares about and a woman not getting a job because she's a woman. These are not the same things.

[natrius]

I can imagine many women feeling unwelcome at an event that was advertised in that way. I don't want women to feel unwelcome at tech events for many reasons.

[marshray]

You're right about one thing: nobody cares about any technical value that might have been at Boston API Jam now.

[tptacek]

Disagree.

[marshray]

I don't see any evidence that they were just trying to be humorous. "Women" is listed right after "booze". If they were joking by advertising "women" as "perks", then they should have understood that most people are not going to find that particularly funny.

They advertised "friendly female event staff to get you a beer". Any reasonable person would believe that they were intending to follow through on that.

[javadyan]

Well, did you expect to see a "WARNING! WE NOW WILL ATTEMPT A POTENTIALLY OFFESIVE JOKE" written in red print? Those things are supposed to be spontaneous, you know.

[marshray]

It looks to me like a well planned document, not a spontaneous remark. They could have quickly retracted it if they didn't mean it.

[Czarnian]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "well" planned document.

If it's a joke, where's the punchline? Were they not going to have women servers? Were the massage people going to be big, hairy, biker types?