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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Carol ColatrellaCarlo Colatrella, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in an article on CNET discussing the presence of scantily clad "booth babes" at technology trade shows to tout products.
"The outcome of dressing women inappropriately, establishing them as eye-candy or as decorative objects or hypersexualized figures, results in people taking women in general less seriously and being less inclined to hire women and promote women into positions of authority," said Carol Colatrella, author of "Toys and Tools in Pink: Cultural Narratives of Gender, Science, and Technology" and co-director of the Georgia Tech Center for the Study of Women, Science and Technology .
Instead of booth babes, "why not just have a neon bulb that goes off to attract people's interest?" Colatrella said.
Colatrella believes the RSA Conference and the other associations instituting dress codes for their tech conferences is a positive move.
"I think it's the right step to treat women as people and not as hyper-sexualized objects," she said. "Whenever you have a professional situation, it's better if all of the professionals are on as equal footing as possible."
