Noth­ing like a bit of controversy…

I wasn’t going to com­ment until after the proper web site launched, but it’s been in the news now so I fig­ure I might as well. The won­der­ful Sonja Bern­hardt, who will be return­ing as a judge at the 2006 WA Web Awards, is behind the IT Screen God­dess cal­en­dar, an effort to break geeky stereo­types by show­ing 12 beau­ti­ful and intel­li­gent IT pro­fes­sion­als recre­at­ing clas­sic movie screen god­dess poses. Pro­ceeds will be going to fund groups that pro­mote IT careers to young women.

My good friend Megyn Car­pen­ter, web coach extra­or­dinare, is man­ag­ing the web site project, and I’ve been help­ing out with the pay­ment gate­way and some SEO advice. Three Perth women are fea­tured in the cal­en­dar — Megs her­self, Kara O’Halloran and Nat Brunovs.

Not every­one is enthu­si­as­tic about the con­cept. Rose­mary Lynch, a woman who I have the utmost respect and admi­ra­tion for, posted Gen­der Mind Ben­der about how it seemed a strange idea to her, and won­ders what the response would be if a man had sug­gested the cal­en­dar instead of a woman. I can def­i­nitely see her point. On the other hand, I do believe there’s some­thing to be said for the idea of women “tak­ing back” the idea of a pinup cal­en­dar, turn­ing it into some­thing pos­i­tive rather than some­thing negative.

My own issue with the project stems more from pro­mo­tion of unhealthy body image. All the women in the cal­en­dar are absolutely gor­geous, and while they might argue that they are just ordi­nary peo­ple with the ben­e­fit of great light­ing, make up and pho­tog­ra­phy, at the end of the day it is a glam­our shoot and they are there because they are beau­ti­ful. What is the mes­sage that is being sent to young girls with a poor body image — that those who are suc­cess­ful in the IT indus­try are as stun­ning as movie stars as well as brainy? While it may help girls who have a neg­a­tive view of the IT indus­try, is it putting up a men­tal bar­rier for girls who don’t feel they have “all that”? Are we try­ing to replace one harm­ful stereo­type with another?

It’s a hard ques­tion. I don’t know the answer. I do com­mend Sonja and every­one involved in the project for get­ting out there and doing some­thing pos­i­tive, and I also com­mend peo­ple like Rose­mary for stir­ring the pot and get­ting some dis­cus­sion going.

Maybe Rose, the next Perth Web Women Wednes­day should involve jelly wrestling — pro-calendar vs anti-calendar :)