
IBM Apologizes for “Hack a Hair Dryer” - aestetix
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ibm-apology-hack-a-hair-dryer_5665a739e4b08e945ff004c9
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brianmc21
IBM get criticized by a bunch of SJW because they tried to sell STEM to women
in a way that hurt their feelings. In a day in age where people are just
looking to be offended by something this saddens me.

Even if 1 women became more interested in STEM it would have been a net
positive.

I am not sure why making math pink is mutually exclusive with removing the
stigma. By being effective it may naturally remove the stigma.

My fiancee would never be interested in making Google, it is just too dry for
a lot of people. But she would love to work on more feminine products like
jewelry and definitely hair dryers. That is just who she is and appealing to
that seems like a logical choice to me.

It sounds like they are marginalizing her interests because they are more
feminine.

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curryst
To play Devil's advocate here, it's a very non-engineering mindset to discard
the possibilities in revolutionizing the hair dryer. Sure, it's not as
glamorous as working on the top Node.js module on Github, but you know what's
in nearly every household in America? A hair dryer. I'm not aware of any
significant changes in hair dryers beyond safety for a good long while
(though, as a short haired person, I don't use them often so I could be
mistaken). It seems like a good thing to work on. I don't believe the
circuitry is very complicated, and the ceiling for complexity you could work
with is fairly high (i.e. is there some combination of heat, air pressure, and
air directionality that could cause curlier hair?). It gives an entry point to
people at various skill levels.

I think there was a gap in communication. Women felt as though IBM were
implying that they should stick to their gender roles, when really IBM was
saying that women are in a unique opportunity to improve on womens products.
Not that they can't work on more "serious" subjects, but rather that they
welcome both genders to work on all of their projects but this one is
something women are going to be better at due to experience. It would have
been far more impressive if the project had ended with a far more efficient or
featureful hair dryer than burned down amidst cries of sexism.

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k__
I see at least two real problems here.

1\. A hair dryer is considered a female only item.

2\. Hacking something only women use is considered no real engineering.

This is seems to go in the whole "lean in" direction again. Women need to do
something "real" (read: male) to be considered real engineers.

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Cpoll
I can see the blunder, but aren't the reactions from the women already in the
tech sector a non-sequitur? They're not the target audience.

The SMBC comic is right on, but "removing the stigma of math as unfeminine" is
HARD, and "making math pink" is much easier, and potentially lures in more
girls - maybe some of them will discover that they like math.

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doughj3
I agree with you. One of the tweets in the article says, "Yikes @IBM! I’m a
girl & actually know OS Assembler language & have “hacked” your MVS operating
systems." Well, sure, if you're already in tech, "hacking a hairdryer" might
seem patronising, similar to "making math pink." But if you're _not_ already
in tech, a hairdryer is a relatively simple, common, and familiar device. It
has potential and I'd bet it's mostly untapped[0]. It seems like the perfect
kind of thing to get started with, IMO. To me, the fact that it's a "beauty
product" to is irrelevant.

[0] For curiosity, I thought I'd check out results from HackADay for hairdryer
hacks, there isn't much to see:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=site:hackaday.com+hairdryer](https://www.google.com/search?q=site:hackaday.com+hairdryer)

