LinkedIn It's the largest professional social networking site in the world ,LinkedIn Chinese name ： linkedin . The company was founded in 2002 year 12 Month and month 2003 Launched in . The purpose of the website is for registered users to maintain the contacts they know and trust in their business contacts , Be commonly called “ contacts ”（Connections）. Users can invite people they know to become “ Relationship ”（Connections） People in the circle . Now the number of users has reached 2 Billion , On average, one new member joins every second .
How weird is sexism in the software technology industry ？ Friday , Programmers in the tech community have had a firsthand experience .LinkedIn and Toptal—— A small developer network platform —— There was a scene about Toptal stay LinkedIn A farce about the credibility of the girl in the ad on the website .
The event originated in LinkedIn A short-lived advertisement on the website related to female programmers , This ad was quickly LinkedIn Off the shelf , Because its users complain about the appearance of these girls .
After taking down this advertisement without any explanation ,LinkedIn requirement Toptal Modifying this ad is a picture of a girl , requirement “ Product advertising should be product related ”. After a lot of argument and finally forced to accept ,Toptal The company's CEO——Taso Du Val—— I used a blog to respond to this ：
The truth of this is ： Technology community (LinkedIn Users of ) I think the female programmer in our advertisement can't be a real programmer , and LinkedIn The technology leaders in the community also accept this view . unfortunately , Our ads are banned , Unless you use all male advertising images . From a personal point of view , On a professional level , I'm all disappointed in that . That should change .
Follow LinkedIn It's the same thing to say about your actions , Hacker News Onlookers on the site generally believe that Toptal The girl in the company's advertisement is too attractive , It can't be ‘ real ’ The programmer .
But , How can a girl's appearance be considered too attractive to appear in a programmer's advertisement ？Toptal Readers of the website generally stand in their CEO,Du Val Stand on , Think LinkedIn It's a kind of sexism that websites cater to users who are against this advertisement .
“LinkedIn Seems to be keen on insulting women and self abuse , Because they think all female programmers are not beautiful , Programmers have to be slovenly nerds .”—— A reader's comment
But other readers have found a fact beyond the sexism in advertisements .Toptal This advertisement will give readers a sense of “ Spam ” The impression of . Many people think that there is some kind of Sexual Metaphor in this advertisement .“ You can imagine , When someone stands behind you, looks over your shoulder and sees this ad , I didn't look very carefully , All you see is a beautiful face and ‘1800-2800 dollar / Zhou ’.” This is a Hacker News Readers on the website cbhl The comments .
“ Unfortunately , Attractive women are usually used in junk ads ( Dating website ads )”, Another reader dwild wrote,“ There's nothing you can do , No one believes they might be programmers , This advertisement is actually regarded as false information .”
And what makes it more complicated is ,Toptal It's actually a combination of an art image and an image of a real programmer on its website . The one on the left is actually an actor Amanda Schull, When someone identified her ,Toptal Then I deleted this picture , And her quotes and comments .“ Even fake photos , Who cares ？” Du Val say ,“ The point is , They can represent the ordinary professionals perfectly .”
After deleting Schull After the picture , The remaining pictures of girls used in advertisements are actually Brazilian programmers Florencia Antara.“Florencia Antara My identity has 100% Authenticity ,” He protested in a comment that , And the picture in the ad comes from her own head .
In advertising Antara The appearance of the girl aroused people's excited conjecture , Because a reader on one side pointed out that , She is in “ Look at the camera , It's like getting ready to talk to each other XXOO”, At the same time, some readers searched her resume , I don't think she's a ‘ real ’ The programmer , and Hacker News On the website gus_massa I don't recognize that ,“ Maybe she has enough experience to do her job well ”.
LinkedIn Finally agreed to resume the ad , But their explanation is still ambiguous . According to Sunday Du Val The latest news ,LinkedIn “ After careful consideration , Re examined all Toptal The company's advertising 、 Website landing page and daily business , They're back online with our ads .” Maybe LinkedIn What I want to confirm is Toptal Is it really a software developer network platform , Not one with beautiful hair , Red lips , The real identity of a sexy, glamorous girl in neat clothes .
however LinkedIn A spokesman for the company Fenot Tekle Let me know by email later on Friday Daily Dot It's said that this advertisement is “ Standard review process ” in “ By the wrong veto ”.
Even though Du Val Yes LinkedIn I'm very satisfied with your reply , But such an explanation does not clarify why LinkedIn Why did you support the views of users who complained about this ad in the first place , It doesn't explain why it was only required at first Toptal Delete those with female ** It's like an advertisement for .
Toptal Choose to use attractive girls in advertising , Make the advertisement appear unreal , The bad situation of using women as image representatives in the software industry is easy to attract criticism, which makes this advertisement unreliable .
And in the end ,LinkedIn Yes Toptal The mistake of questioning , Undoubtedly, it has also brought some degree of harm to itself .
Photo by Aja Romano
The original English text ：Are these women too pretty to be "real" engineers?
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