IBM Pulls the Plug on Sexist #HackAHairDryer Campaign
A hair dryer is useful technology for both men and women. (Photo: Getty Images)
Yesterday, IBM finally decided to terminate its #HackAHairDryer campaign, a social media outreach project aimed at getting women interested in STEM fields. The well meaning but patronizing hashtag has received backlash on top tech blogs and by women in STEM on Twitter. “This is stereotype threat, creating a situation where women can’t engage without fear of confirming a stereotype about their gender and being perceived as foolishly feminine,” Mika McKinnon of Gizmodo wrote. “IBM tried to combat gender stereotypes by perpetuating gender stereotypes,” Issie Lapowsky of Wired noted.
Some responses on Twitter to IBM’s #HackAHairDryer. (Source: Twitter)
The campaign’s video (now removed) depicts a hair dryer being hacked in various ways: “You, a windblaster and an idea, repurposed for a larger purpose, to support those who believe that it’s not what covers your cranium that counts, but what’s in it. So hack heat, re-reoute airflow, reinvent sound, and imagine a future where the most brilliant minds are solving the world’s biggest problems regardless of your gender.”
IBM’s poorly received campaign to hack a hair dryer. (Photo: IBM/YouTube)
A spokesperson for IBM later said, “The videos were part of a larger campaign to promote STEM careers. It missed the mark for some and we apologize. It is being discontinued.”
This isn’t the first time that a tech company has been criticized for patronizing campaigning. In October 2015, energy company EDF received backlash for its #PrettyCurious campaign, which was meant to encourage young women to pursue male-dominated fields in STEM. “Science! It’s the new pretty! Or something. Nope. That doesn’t work either. #PrettyCurious is #PrettySexist,” scientist Karen James Tweeted. “@edfenergy So only pretty girls can be scientists? You’re reinforcing gender inequality in science, not solving it. #PrettyCurious,” scientist Tessa Kendall asked.
EDF then replied in a public statement, “It’s not about being ‘pretty’; it’s about being ‘pretty curious’. Using ‘pretty’ is a play on words. We are using the word in the sense of ‘pretty serious’, ‘pretty practical’, ‘pretty inspired’, ‘pretty important’ and ‘pretty curious’. It’s been chosen purposefully to challenge the stereotypes around personal appearance that are often applied to girls. We knew the name would attract attention and chose it in order to raise awareness of the campaign, which aims to address the significant under-representation of women in STEM.”
Hacking a hair dryer isn’t the problem, though — it’s assuming that all young girls will make a segway into science through beauty products, as opposed to whatever encourages little boys into pursuing science. There has been a growing trend of getting girls and young women interested in STEM through traditionally feminized topics of interest, like Nailbot. “Women are allowed to use hairdryers, and to like them. Hell, they can even hack them if it tickles their fancy,” McKinnon says, noting that she uses a hairdryer in her tool kit. But no one is asking young boys to hack beard trimmers, and there are gender non-conforming young men who are more interested in manicure robots than other women. And Silicon Valley’s culture is founded upon young men hacking and tinkering away at semi-useless web apps — many of which are much less useful than a hair dryer. In August 2015, 22-year-old software developer Isis Anchalee Wenger launched the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign after social media claimed that she was “too pretty” to be a real engineer. “This industry’s culture fosters an unconscious lack of sensitivity towards those who do not fit a certain mold,” she wrote.
The problem isn’t the dryer, and the correct response to #HackAHairDryer isn’t “I am a real scientist and I hate hair dryers.” Rather, it’s that hair dryers, like many tools of technology, are useful for both men and women, and this campaign has wrongfully targeted “women’s technology” as different from “men’s technology,” which should be just known as “technology.
Related:
‘Too Pretty’ Female Engineer Launches #iLookLikeAnEngineer
