Friday, November 21, 2008

The subtle sexism of conferences

After waiting in a sea of the stereotypical engineer on the first day of the conference to register, I finally got a program of the talks for the week that resembled a small town’s phonebook and my name badge. As I tried decide the best place to clip the over sized badge to my shirt I came to the realization that those types of badges are really meant to be worn by men. They clip perfectly to suit jackets or the front pocket of a men’s collar shirt, they did not however clip well to any of the outfits I brought for the week (with the exception of the suit I planned to wear to my talk). As someone who is a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl I find it hard enough to put together a week of business-ish, conference appropriate attire. I only own one suit and I really don’t have the need (or money) to buy another one and I don’t want to be the stinky girl who wears the same suit all week. So not only was I stuck in heels for four whole days but I also spent the week trying to find the perfect place to display my name. BAH.

Fig 1 - yup, I look dorky. Stupid name tag.

2 comments:

elizabeth said...

I'd go with B, Bee. Hope you had fun... and I hope to be seeing some pictures of some Philly cheesesteaks or the liberty bell or something ;-)

Abbie said...

Yeah, so i didn't take ANY pictures cause i am lame and forgot my camera. but i can do some google image searches for you and pretend that i took the pictures, deal?