Girl Geek Revolution
June 26, 2008 – 2:28 pmRecently, I’ve been paying attention to the Zivity / Girl Geek Dinner situation. If you are unfamiliar, let me briefly explain. Girl Geek Dinners hosts networking events for women in technology. Recently, Zivity, a unique new porn site, announced their sponsorship of a Girl Geek Dinner. Mary Hodder, commented to GGD that she didn’t think that a porn site should be sponsoring a work event for women. So, Sarah Blow, the founder of GGD made them give back the sponsorship money, but they are still speaking and taking pictures.
I like Zivity. I think its a great idea. But I do not think that it should be associated with such a respected women’s networking event. Especially when they are taking pictures and possibly using them as marketing materials. It’s also unfortunate that women who speak out about this is branded as a feminist or prude. I just think that sex and work should be separate, it has nothing to do with women. Would it be fair to have a new media mixer sponsored by YouPorn? Do you, male or female, want your name associated with a porn company, preserved eternally in some Flickr stream and blog index?
Well, if you answered “No,” then we have an alternative. Mary Hodder and I will be hanging out Sugar Cafe from 6-9 tonight. There will be food - hors d’oeurves and cupcakes - and drinks, and no porn sites. Please come by, bring your friends. Girl Geek Dinners are girls only, but for the sake of solidarity, boys are OK tonight (and its a public place, there’s little we could do stop you from coming). The details are below, for updates regarding the event you can follow @SiliconCalley or @MaryHodder on Twitter.
Sugar Cafe
679 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 441-5678
UPDATE: I talked to Cyan Banister after posting this, and realized that I was using false information. I informed her that there was false information distributed about the event, and we agreed that things could have been handled better on both ends.
I would like reiterate that I never had a problem with Zivity, it’s a great site and I wish them all the best.
And with that I would like to lay this issue to rest.
Subscribe via RSS
5 Responses to “Girl Geek Revolution”
Not sure where you are getting your information, but the following is incorrect:
“So, Sarah Blow, the founder of GGD made them give back the sponsorship money”
We were never under the impression that Zivity was giving any money to Girl Geek Dinners, only providing a few photographers for a fun & geeky photo shoot.
By Angie Chang on Jun 27, 2008
Sad that even in the 21st century, women need to worry about being branded a feminist. Like that’s a bad thing.
By Ed Falk on Jun 27, 2008
Sex work IS work - work done by women all over the world. Your statement disenfranchises and oppresses all women who do sex work as outside of the category of women - tainted? dirty?
I am proud to be associated with women who support other women, regardless of race, class or vocation.
With you, I’d rather not associate. I am a feminist. We are feminist. You are neither feminist nor prude, only myopic and elitist.
By chantelle oliver on Jun 30, 2008
Chantelle - I really don’t get how you tied sex work into this. I never said anything about sex work, I said that Sex + Work shouldn’t be forced upon anyone. If an engineer wants to go to a work event, she shouldn’t have to go to a porn-sponsored event.
That was my point in this whole thing. I’ve heard different things now, and I understand the situation, that we had false information. Will write a follow-up post soon.
Sorry if it took so long for your comments to show, I didn’t know that I had them on moderate. Sorry
By calley on Jul 16, 2008
Hi Calley,
Someone just pointed me to the comments here, which I gather were in moderation until you replied to one of them sometime in July.
Angie Chang is right. BAGGD never had Zivity as a sponsor giving BAGGD money. Rather, Zivity was paying for a service for the event, the photographers, and that was an in-kind sponsorship.
I haven’t confirmed it yet directly, but the story I reported on my blog, and that you linked to, was that Sarah Blow asked BAGGD to remove Zivity as a “sponsor” on the event listing, via someone who had talked with Sarah Blow.
That meant though that Zivity would still pay for the photographers, and speak. They would just no longer be listed as a sponsor for the in-kind sponsorship they were still providing.
In the meantime, Zivity has said they were never a sponsor, even though in-kind payments to conferences and events have always been considered sponsorship, and BAGGD’s themselves characterized the arrangement as a sponsorship in their original announcement on their blog, as well as in Twitter. Since blog posts can be edited but Twitter cannot, only the Twitter post remains to show BAGGD’s (by Angie Chang) original intent as to Zivity’s involvement.
See this link to view the BAGGD post showing Zivity as a sponsor of the event:
http://twitter.com/bayareagirlgeek/statuses/836642775
Thanks for clarifying.
mary
By mary hodder on Aug 7, 2008