Female Artists On Conferences – The Gender Discussion

My tweet about my Magento Imagine 2017 recap got a whole lot attention. Thanks for the positive feedback so far! What brought up a broader discussion was my sentence „For Magento, fairly naked actresses at the party obviously do not contradict with a session about diversity in tech“. I slightly edited this sentence in the initial post as this may have been exaggerated. Anyway, the discussion shows that I was not the only one who stumbled upon this topic. And there was already a discussion or two like that during the developers‘ paradise in Croatia.

I would initially like to clarify my opinion on this. First and foremost, the Magento event team did an awesome job and organised a great conference! Second, I did not feel bad because of the female artists at all. I was just astonished. I personally think that women are the more beatiful species of us and if any dancing or performing or however you want to call it happens freely, why not. I am also totally fine with men artists. But I do understand that people do not like it for various reasons. And I do understand that people do not like it when there are only female artists.

The question I would like to pose is:

Is any performance besides of music (this is a different story) needed on Magento events at all?

I am not fond of such performances. We all go to such events in order to meet people, learn something new and have fun. I can have that without any performances at all. If I want to have them, I go to the circus, to the theatre, to the city center, wherever. I think conferences of any kind do not need performances like that. Lower the ticket price by a few euros and save the money 😉

But if you really want to have them, then please do something „gender neutral“. Why not hire a man and a woman, which act at the same time?

Since this is a highly sensitive and subjective topic, which can lead to endless discussions, I will try to not answer any comment. Please forgive me 😉