Contemporary dance performance about gender at European Rails Conference

So what exactly are these conferences for?<p>I was slightly supicious anyway - information about most tech is only a few clicks away these days so I'm not convinced they're a necessary part of an engineer's ongoing education. But now there are dance performances? And people get sent to these things on work time/money?

Is this really deemed appropriate material for this board?<p>There's no substantive discussion of women in tech there, just "here's a contemporary dance about a subject".<p>So what? There's literally nothing in there I'm interested in, and I've wasted time looking at it trying to figure out why I should be.<p>Beyond that, I find the idea of enticing geeks to gawp at physically fit women gyrating to the subject of gender differences in tech more than a little ironic. Unless their purpose is to exploit the stereotype. In which case, get off HN!

I think there are some misunderstandings. As far as I can tell, this is an optional part of the conference where you can go on the day before if you want to do something beyond just the "professional" stuff.<p>I like the idea - its a local theatre with an interesting program relevant to current hot topics in the industry, why not show your city from your best side?<p>If you don't want to go, whats the point of being angry about it? Why waste breath on something optional?

Yeah? I'll see your 'Contemporary dance performance about gender' and raise with 'Anti-gay musical touring Malaysian universities' <a href="http://gu.com/p/3em7z" rel="nofollow">http://gu.com/p/3em7z</a><p>_____ I know, a bit off-topic and redditish, but it was serendipitously opened in the next tab

I find this not constructive at all, to put it nicely.<p>So if there was a field with a low male participation would you set up a male bodybuilder show? Or a half naked men dancing show? These are just extreme examples but it's to make a point.<p>You want more female in tech? Instead of paying dancer go to mid school to show kids how cool is to program. If you do a good job also young girls will give tech a try.

The word "Contemporary" always makes me cringe a little. It's such a fancy synonym for "Now".<p>Anyway, I love ballet myself. I did ballet when I was a little boy (for about 8 years). I like going to ballet. Especially when my sisters perform in it. BUT this <i>might</i> be too much of a good thing. But, pff, who cares right? I hope you guys enjoy it! Fok all them haters.

My first thought was, "What does this have to do with Rails?"<p>Then I realised that at 44Con[1] we have a daily Gin O'Clock break with Gin and Tonics all round. To be fair, the purposes of Gin O'Clock are to give us time to join the two theatres for the final talk of the day, to promote networking in the sponsor area and also to provide something very quirky and British at the conference.<p>The bottom line is that the organiser wants to put it in, let them put it in and try it. If the attendees like it, great. If they don't, then they should say so. If it puts you off attending you should tell them (as long as you were going to attend originally).<p>[1] - <a href="http://www.44con.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.44con.com/</a>

One more reason not to attend Rails-related stuff.

Contemporary dance is to now what 'modern dance' was to the 50s and 60s, just bad dancers putting on really bad productions everyone wants to forget as soon as possible.

I for one absolutely love this initiative. If I wasn't bootstrapping my company I would fly over this weekend just to be there.<p>Issues of gender are generally <i>really</i> hard to capture in words and lend themselves much more to being relayed through the other senses, like voice and body language.<p>I'm sure it will be a learning experience for everyone who decides to attend.

Near-naked women hanging from ropes at IGDA? <i>It's all in good fun!</i> Booth babes on conferences floors? <i>Get over it, that's marketing!</i> Interpretive dance not at all even associated with the event, just being encouraged because it's something worth seeing and it's somewhat-related to gender issues? <i>Stupid, worthless! Way to objectify women more!</i> Jesus christ you guys.<p>Thanks for encouraging the arts, Ela :)

Just more proof that feminism has infected the tech community as well. What a joke.