Women in 2.0: The Sarah Lacy Aftermath
by
on March 11, 2008,
I didn't want to rehash SXSW. But after reading both Kara Swisher and Mike Arrington's take on it, I find myself in strange company, because I agree with both of them, and this apparently puts me in the minority.
Two years ago, I would have sold my soul to attend SXSW. The past two years, it's seemed less and less about tech and more and more about a four-day-long party with the “cool” kids. Is it making up for time spent as the computer nerds in high school?
What happened at the keynote was a disgrace, and as far as I'm concerned, a blight on the web industry. How cute everyone was with their Twitter use during the keynote. How positively edgy and anti-establishment. And then to heckle a speaker? So cool and anti-establishment.
Here's the problem; Mark Zuckerberg is an absolutely HORRIBLE live interview. Weren't these bloggers the ones who chortled with glee after his Lesley Stahl interview? And while the Zuckerberg fanboys are still seeing hearts today after their hero descended from the mount to speak to them yesterday, the reality is that he still isn't riveting live. If I had $5 for every time he repeated his “help you communicate more efficiently” mantra yesterday instead of answering an actual question like “Why do you think people are spending more time on MySpace than Facebook?” I could buy myself an island somewhere. I'm failing to see how zombies are helping me communicate more efficiently.
Worse yet, in my opinion, was the number of blogs who then raked Ms. Lacy over the coals, some going so far as to say BusinessWeek should fire her after the debacle. Most offensive of all in the comments and blogs I've read over the past couple of days were the women who agreed, citing a nervous giggle and hair-twirling as “embarrassing to women.”
Sarah Lacy is a respected tech journalist for a national magazine. I'm a technology writer for a mid-sized tech blog. And instead of supporting her as one of the few women who's broken that glass ceiling at a national publication. CEOs talk to people who don't live and die by the content on Techmeme. Sure, she plugged her book. If I had a book coming out, I'd be wearing a sandwich board with LEDs as I walked around town.
The prevailing wisdom in 2.0 is that women should know their place, and that's to listen to the men who know better. I found it ironic than a commenter on Rex Hammock's blog referenced Kathy Sierra's appearance at SXSW. I already spoke to how I felt about Kathy Sierra's handling of that situation, but after being so afraid she wouldn't go to ETech and shuttered her blog, she makes an appearance with Gary Vaynerchuk at SXSW? What I found ironic is that Robert Scoble, one of the Twitter pack at the keynote, was one of Kathy Sierra's biggest supporters.
What was the difference? That Kathy acted like she needed protection and the big, strong tech guys could come to her defense? While shortly after the SXSW keynote Sarah was matter-of-fact, pointed out that this is essentially what tech is like for women, and went on about her business, showing up at the Gawker party that night? Neither situation should have warranted the news coverage, and I don't think either would have if a woman wasn't the main topic. I find it depressing that that was the biggest news that came out of SXSW. And I certainly hope this sort of thing isn't the next Twitter.
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Why is it always down to gender? As far as I can see, the only sexism in this story is from the people who use that defence automatically. Lacy is a woman, crowd was largely male… it must be down to her gender, right? Nothing to do with her performance at all.
Adam, I'm not saying she didn't make mistakes. Ever letting developers open their mouths is a mistake, and I should know, since I live with one.
However, the ensuing coverage and associated comments have made a HUGE deal about her gender. The Zuckerberg keynote wasn't the only session with boorish behavior, but it was the only one that lit Techmeme up like a neon sign. What offended me the most were the comments about her mannerisms (would it have been newsworthy if she stuttered or used D&D analogies rather than twirling her hair?), as well as other women talking about how she is a blight on women in tech, reflects badly on us all, etc. Even if she did bomb (and my perception after seeing the video was that it wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be… for example, Zuckerberg's "You have to ask a question" wasn't a Lacy slam, but an inside joke to anyone who saw the Stahl interview), then nothing should have come into play but the actual events, rather than "She was flirting with him." Let's face it, most of the Facebook fanboys fall all over him. Is that flirting too?
I agree. I wasn’t there, but from Mike’s view and watching the video, I am pretty shocked that this was such a big deal. You made some good points in your post. I bet if a man was up there it would not have been a big issue.
And yes Adam, things unfortunately do come down to gender since the IT/Web community and industry have a much bigger ratio of men. The women are not treated the same, which is a shame.
The revolt had nothing to do with Facebook “fanboys.”
First of all, as far as being boys (since you decided to highlight gender in your post) …from my seat at sxsw, there were just as many women heckling her as there were men (left side of the room, 2nd grouping of seats near the A/V hardward).
Second of all, as far as being fans (and if you can get past your gender issues for a second point), you would also have realized that the people in the room were not huge facebook fans. In fact, the very first heckler yelled something along the lines of “Beacon Sucks!” referencing the whole fiasco of privacy invasion by Facebook.
Lacy failed on her on accord. After her droning on for 30 minutes people were over her, over her continuous self-promotion, and her repeated insertion of herself into the spotlight.
People were there to gain some insight on Zuckerberg’s way of thinking, find out what cool stuff (or further privacy related issues) facebook might be doing down the line, get some perspective about what it’s like to run a global phenomenon (something everyone in the audience is pretty much trying to recreate in their own way), and be entertained.
Lacy completely missed the boat and wanted to showcase herself. Plugging her book was the least of my complaints. In fact, I only bring it up here because you did in your original post.
@Uhhhhh I never said it was only men. I pointed out that I was even more annoyed with women who piled on, especially those who spoke to the events afterward.
I note that you didn’t provide any sort of user name; if you had no problems with what happened at the keynote, then why hide your identity?
The bigger picture is that people are no longer there to actually learn. They are there to drink, socialize, and turn SXSW into one big cool-kids party. You attend a keynote to be “entertained?”
The keynote wasn’t the only session disrupted in such a way. It was, however, the only one to plaster Techmeme, and the only one to blame it on a single person on stage rather than the “adults” in the audience.