Ok, so I am a little late in the day with this post in terms of timing, but last months (how retro2.0 of me) Wired Magazine had an article (and cover) led by Julia Allison.
I’m sorry, Who?
Oh you too. Well Girl Geek’s could there (finally) be a leading lady in technology and with enough kudos to be on the cover of Wired? Prestige indeed. In short, no is the answer that you are looking for. And lets stay with ‘looking’, because essentially that is all we should equate with Ms Allison. She is a brand, to be looked at. And a very clever one too. Let me explain, she has friends in all the right technology places including, Randi Zuckerberg (sister to Mark, of Facebook fame and fortune), Choire Sicha (former managing editor of Gawker), the ‘Virgin’ Richard Branson and of course leader of the pack Chris Anderson (Wired editor). As well as her own MySpace, Twitter feed, numerous websites, YouTube exposure etc.
So Ms Allison could be the ‘new’ model of Girl Geekness, someone who can ‘bounce’ and ‘giggle’ in all the right places, with just the right amount of accompanying spandex and glittery eye makeup to hold interest and, according to Anderson, ‘captivated’ her audience.
‘What a woman’. ‘What a role model for Girl Geeks’, I hear you cry!
Oh sorry wrong sort of crying there *sob*.
It’s not that I don’t rate Ms Allison, there is clearly much to admire (aside from the spandex) from a woman that has so brilliantly (and dedicatedly) branded herself as a technology superstar. From her beginnings as a lustful med-student-pursuer, ‘I realised I had a thing for doctors’ she simpers, to official I.T. Gal, and self-nominated (with pride), ‘douche bag’ across her Twitter stream, MySpace page (and no doubt Facebook), as well as her personal website, xojulia.com. As with her previous sites, juliaallison.com, itsmejulia.com, and juliajuliajulia.com together these provide the commentary to every moment of her spandex-ualised life.
Well snap my knicker elastic.
So it seems that my last posting ‘Girl Geeks should be going to gold. A challenge’, to identify the why’s, how’s and when for equality in the technology industry can now be laid to rest. We have resolution. Nay, we have a winner, AND with it a new Girl Geek figure-head in the form of Ms MeatSpace.
Could this be the solution to the promotion of Girl Geeks? Answers in lipstick and with a pout only please.
http://adorkablegrrl.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/the-bullet-points-of-life-vaycay-edition/
http://tech.bitchbuzz.com/10CommandementsBeingaGeekyGirlinGeekGuyW.html
Allison is commendable as being able to manage the brand of herself, but like most marketing her spin on who she (tech girl) is is 100% misleading. It is PR gone amok. She has SF entranced & it's srsly disturbing!
I mean – why couldn't they have picked one of the numerous hot AND brainy legit tech women to highlight instead of her?
Meh
@ Anon, are you volunteering on behalf of all GGs?
There’s so much promise here for a ‘real’ woman in technology.
So perhaps a GG figure-head IS needed? She can knock Allisson off her heels.
@ wiredup,
yes title was a deliberate ploy to see if GG would get more hits if there were included a ‘knicker elastic’ ref.
i hear what you say though, more wires, less elastic next time!
@ Guy Geek, i hope that you ARE jesting! although would the prize be an iphone?…
You should pop Wired Mag into your introduction as I was not sure were you were going !
Yes saw that and agree but then look at who is writing for the mag. Now I think a good journalist (any gender) could do better.
So lets get GG into such places
oh I’m a fan already, does this mean that there’ll be a Girl Geek beauty contest?