OMG, Hot Chicks Get Tech? (Or, Is The IT Chicks Sexist?)
No one working in online video today will claim that the medium is a safe zone for feminism. I mean, there are plenty of dynamic and talented women working behind and in front of the camera, but the web’s special talent for objectifying them can usually be considered to be a factor in their success — especially in light of Steve Bryant’s observation that “boobs evolved for thumbnails.” Putting hot chicks in your videos is a commonly accepted way of getting people to watch them. We accept it, and move on.
But every once in awhile a show comes along that makes me think about this again. Because the question at the heart of today’s review is as follows: How sexist is The IT Chicks, exactly?
Produced by the entertainment division of L.A.-based Woo Agency (whose clients include Intel, Fat Burger and Linksys), IT Chicks is a comedy series about a small Internet company whose IT department consists of two model-hot women, who speak fluent geek and in theory are smarter than their bosses. (It is also an advertising platform for technology products, with the first episode devoted to singing the praises of NETGEAR’s ReadyNAS backup system.)
The fact that this is considered to be enough of a premise to hang a series on — holy smokes, attractive girls know how technology works? How unexpected! — should be offensive to women of all levels of hotness. And the show’s presentation on meettheitchicks.com doesn’t do either gender many favors. Take this quote from the show’s about page:
The IT Chicks must devise a way to inoculate themselves from the stream of techno-tards that invade their space. For example, “The Stance,” the girls’ famed position, where one of them visits their needy co-worker’s desk, leans over sensually, and attempts to work on their computer. This move is 100% effective in disarming all male co-workers’ techno-stress whether the Chicks actually fix anything or not.
According to the character bios, Stephanie and Chloe went to MIT and Cornell. Those schools sure have some progressive approaches to preparing their graduates for the corporate world.
I mean, when French Maid TV uses scantily clad women to sell a product, there’s a goofy charm to it, an acknowledgment of the stereotypes being exploited. But there’s none of that here. This is women using their sexuality to manipulate easily duped men, which does neither gender any favors.
However, while on the surface the show might make Gloria Steinem shudder, the actual execution…isn’t as bad. First off, the show (written by National Lampoon writers Scott Rubin and Phil Haney and directed by Rubin) is well-written, slickly produced, and occasionally pretty funny — one character is told to keep hitting the F9 key on his keyboard every two minutes “or you’ll never get off the island.”
And Elspeth Keller and Jade Catta-Preta are decent actresses who create a sense of realism with their characters, not only ably managing the technobabble written in the script, but capturing the impatient superiority of an IT expert surrounded by morons. So when Stephanie does use sexy double-entendres and the aforementioned “Stance” to manipulate her boss (played by famous houseguest Kato Kaelin) into getting the back-up system their office desperately needs, at least it’s a choice grounded in characterization, not stereotypes.
Is The IT Chicks worse than any other product series out there in its depiction of gender? Not really. But are there plenty of other shows out there that don’t use a woman’s sexuality to sell a product? Absolutely. I guess the question is, how many products do they sell?
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
How is that sexist? This is like empowerment for Women because it shows that they have the privilege and control over men with their boobs. As you can see, girls can get guys to do things for them if they just flirt with guys a little.. It is true that they are using some decent looking actresses in this video, and this is too good to be true in the IT world; however, this is how our society works. Guys would prefer hot girls over ugly girls, and I strongly believe that girls would do the same. If you have the choice of choosing between hot guys and ugly guys… which one would you choose? The answer should be pretty obvious, and please don’t give me something like “Omg, you are so shallow!”. Looks are always our first impression before you talk to someone.. so just ask yourself… would you ever have any sort of interaction with a hobo without having any sort of prejudice? Equality is just an ideal… not the reality.
Personally, as a woman, I didn’t find this offensive. It’s just like a knock-off of an office comedy in a good way I guess. It’s actually cool to see the chicks in charge.
“The fact that this is considered to be enough of a premise to hang a series on — holy smokes, attractive girls know how technology works? How unexpected! — should be offensive to women of all levels of hotness.”
I don’t think that premise should necessarily be considered offensive. Attractive men and women are used all the time to attract viewers, sales, etc., etc. Men are especially visual by nature, so the use of “hot chicks” to get their attention shouldn’t be surprising or worrisome. It all depends on context, of course.
For instance, our shows at Bite Me TV are geared toward young men so there’s no question that our programming features beautiful women in abundance. That’s not any sort of evil sexist plot at work…that’s simply us providing the kind of visual entertainment that a lot of guys enjoy. The key is to keep things fun and positive without resorting to being degrading.
‘The IT Chicks’ looks fun and not degrading, so we should probably just enjoy it for it’s entertainment value without taking it too seriously.
I don’t care if it’s sexist or not … I’m just happy to have Mr. Heckles back in my life! Hopefully he’ll turn up in more eps.
Of course this show is sexist. Is that a really debatable question?
Master Wong commented above: “this is like empowerment for Women” Well, so is MMMMMMF porn to some people. Come on. The whole point of the show is to get dudes to watch hot chicks sell IT products.
The author hit the nail on the head. And I say this as a guy who enjoys cleavage as much any other guy or teenage boy on the internet.
Odds are its unlikely to develop much of an audience. Best thing they got going for it is Kato – that’s golden.
The comments at zdnet look representative of what i’d expect the viewing public to say about this show:
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5206-10532-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=66889
Druu, you make a fair argument, but what I had a problem with is the story concept of a hot woman not just SELLING tech, but UNDERSTANDING it better than a man, being enough to support a comedy web series. The execution isn’t bad – context is important, as you say.
“Is The IT Chicks worse than any other product series out there…”
Product series is a great name for these ‘shows’ that are little more then commercials disguised as web shows.
So… are you saying that hot girls are not capable enough to do IT? If you are viewing this without any prejudice, you wouldn’t even notice it in the first place. In my opinion, I think hot and cute girls are just as good as guys with computers or IT stuff. You are just being stereotypical, Milowent.
master wong – could luck with your show, but i don’t think its gonna get huge views. no offense.
Good point, Liz. We’ll have to see whether there’s enough there to keep the series interesting.