PABNABbed

I spent all of my career in the technology sector, and a good slug of it in technology for financial services, so I am no stranger to rampant sexism in the workplace. Or in the tradeshow place.

One company I worked for ran a print ad that showed the rearview of a leggy blonde in a miniskirt. She was standing at the entrance to an office, her legs spread in a wide V, and within that wide V you could see the leering faces of Wall Street types pretending to man their terminals. I’ve forgotten what the ad was for, but I wish I’d kept a copy as a reminder of the good old days.

Then there was the meeting of the strategy team for financial services at one of the late, unlamented companies I worked for. I was the lone woman on the team, and boys being boys, one could not resist saying that our strategy was so brilliant that “fin serv would be lying there, legs outstretched” – that V again – “eagerly waiting for us to penetrate.” Ho, ho.

At one industry trade show I went on yet another company’s behalf – an expo run by some security industry association (perhaps even the Security Industry Association) – there were models in micro-mini French maid outfits, complete with fishnet stockings and spike heels, walking the floor giving out packets of Twinings Tea for British Telecom. At least I wasn’t at that conference to talk about AutoBJ (Automated Box Jenkins forecasting), a product that I was gloriously the product manager for. (Believe me, I’ve heard every AutoBJ joke there is out there.)

Plenty of trade shows I attended had plenty of companies which staffed their booths with eye-candy spokes-models who knew nothing about the company or products they were representing. The goal was to lure the guys into the booth, and then have someone with half a clue talk to them. At one such show, I actually needed to get some product information from a company. I scoped out the booth and noticed that, among the beauty queens in skimpy black cocktail dresses and high heels, there was a perfectly average nice looking woman in a sensible black dress and sensible shoes. I walked right by the booth babes  - not that they wanted to talk to me, either – and spoke with Ms. Sensible Shoes who was, in fact, a product manager who knew her stuff.

But this was all decades ago. Should not the world have smartened up a bit? Should we not be a bit beyond the most overt and idiotic use of women for come-ons and worse in a professional setting? (In which the profession is something other than providing sexualized entertainment; I’m all for Beyonce.)

The answer, sadly, is no. At least for attendees at the recent BIO International Convention, held in Boston in early June, the greatest show on earth for biotech innovators.

The convention itself wasn’t the problem. It was an after-show-hours party known as PABNAB, the Party At BIO Not Associated with BIO, and event with “a reputation for bringing over-the-top themes and festivities to an industry networking event.”

Attendee Kate Strayer-Benton was expecting edgy, but ended up:

…shocked and frustrated by what she saw: At least two topless women dancing on mini-stages, their bodies painted with logos of several of the companies that had sponsored the party.

In a photo that Strayer-Benton took at the event and shared with STAT, a dancer wears only a crown of flowers, a pair of boots, and bottoms resembling a bikini; her body is painted with the logo of the investment firm Alpha Blue Ocean on her abdomen and the biotech company Selexis on her right thigh.

“It felt like a line had so obviously been crossed,” said Strayer-Benton, director of strategy at Momenta Pharmaceuticals. “Objectifying women — in this case, even physically branding them with sponsorship of companies in our industry — it just felt so wrong.” (Source: STAT News)

Strayer-Benton wasn’t the only one disturbed by this spectacle. The chairman of the group that runs the conference:

…told STAT he was “horrified” to learn of the party. He said BIO is warning member companies that sponsored this year’s PABNAB that if they sponsor the event again in the future, they’ll be kicked out of the trade group.

This might be a bit of an overreaction, as it doesn’t give PABNAB the chance to agree to rein things in a bit next time around. But PABNAB does sound like a piece of work. Several sponsors of this year’s event claim they had no idea how their logos would be used. They thought it would be on drink glasses and bracelets – not on the bellies and thighs of near-naked women.

PABNAB has long been edgy/artsy, but, I take it, more along the lines of Cirque du Soleil style acrobats. They did get in PETA-esque trouble a few years ago for having attendees party with a camel.

The theme of this year’s party was supposed to be the Day of the Dead.

Even though June is not Day of the Dead territory – that would be November 1 (All Saints Day) and November 2 (All Souls Day – this them could certainly have been plenty edgy and artsy without resorting to logos painted on bellies and thighs.

“We can talk all we want about diversity on panels and in the boardroom, but when events like this are commonplace, I just think it undermines all the progress” being made by industry groups and drug companies, Strayer-Benton said. “I just think we take giant steps backwards when something like this is considered acceptable.”

I’m with Kate.

There’s plenty of place for naked dancing women out there, mostly in strip clubs along the Route 1’s of the world. Just not at industry-related events where people network and even get down to business. All something like the PABNAB event does is set up an environment where women (and any man who might find himself offended) find themselves sidelined or written off as spoil-sport prudes.

Enough.