back to article French software developers are all beautiful women

Development tools outfit PC Soft has given the world a look at software developers in its native France, and most appear to be beautiful young women wearing not very much. PC Soft makes the WinDev, WebDev and WinDev mobile tools, version 19 of which was released in preview during the middle of April. One of the marketing …

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  1. deadlockvictim

    Now that's what I call programming 16

    Can anyone explain why the packaing of WinDev 919 looks like a record from the 1980s?

    Perhaps WebDev comes on LaserDisc™?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Now that's what I call programming 16

      I think maybe Clement Delafargue is being a bit harsh.Also it is the brochure that the young lady civil engineer is holding rather than the box. Reading through the brochure there does seem to be a mixture of photos of both young women, and men developers which isn't really sexist at all.

      This is probably a brave attempt by PC soft at destroying some developer stereotypes. Stereotypes such as the male social inadequate knocking out under the desk code while paging through fan folds of ASCII art.

      Throughout the brochure the developer pictures all seem to entirely appropriate. I would particularly highlight three very apposite pictures of software users, the photo of the young lady Linux app developer, the Dashboard project manager and 'Master Home Communications Domotics user'.

      During my IT career these are very much more the sort of people I have encountered. In detail:

      Linux app devevelopers - have exclusively consisted of scantily clad young ladies wearing fetish heels.

      Dashboard project managers have without fail always worn a pilots hat.

      Home Communications Domotics user have always been wearing a blue bikini, or maybe PVC, or leather ..... whips maybe

      That said your mileage may vary .... having just woken up from a bit of a day dream just off to knock out some code. Now where is my ASCII art? Then again maybe the back dates of the PC soft brochure....

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Now that's what I call programming 16

        How many hands does that woman in the bottom picture have?

        1. DavCrav

          Re: Now that's what I call programming 16

          "How many hands does that woman in the bottom picture have?"

          The standard number. Two. Why, how many do you have?

          (I know that it looks as if the hand is doubled but it's her other hand. Took me a second to work it out when I first saw it.)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Facepalm

            Re: Now that's what I call programming 16

            Ooops I should have read a bit more of the brochure I pulled off this website.

            Apologies for the confusion. Linux Girl, Group Captain dashboard PM, and Mistress Home Comms Domotics are all in the Windev 18 brochure.

      2. JEDIDIAH
        Mushroom

        Re: Now that's what I call programming 16

        This reminds me a lot of the Law & Order collection of shows. The female legal talent is all portrayed like supermodels. On the one hand it seems "sexist". On the other hand, that's the same ideal that women push on each other. So if you are going to appeal to the female demographic, then it's the "Cosmo" approach you're going to have to take.

        Lo and behold... after a few years of this wildly successful show that "objectifyies women" you see a glut of lawyers that look very much like their Hollywood counterparts.

        This is not a "brogrammer" problem. Geeks just get trashed because the media (probably full of jocks and frat boys) probably want to perpetuate the same tired old "Revenge of the Nerds" narrative.

        Bleeding hearts might want to whine about this kind of nonsense but the tech sector is just the very tail end of the problem.

  2. ratfox
    Meh

    I often find myself reacting adversely to this type of advertising. Ignoring the part about the way females will react to it, it also assumes males are easily duped morons who will be swayed by such tricks.

    And, if I want porn, I know where to find it, thankyouverymuch.

    1. foxyshadis

      I assumed they're trying to go for the "so bad it's funny" angle, because they can't possibly be serious. It looks like something a high student would make for their first web design project. (All it's missing is the flashing UNDER CONSTRUCTION GeoCities-era banners.)

      And if they are....

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: so bad it's funny

        You mean something like this ?

  3. Anonymous Blowhard

    TLDR

    Forty seven pages for a marketing brochure!

  4. Michael Thibault

    It can't possibly be stereotyping when all the women you know look and vogue like that.

    Thought so.

  5. Dangermouse 1
    WTF?

    What's with the bizarre self censorship?

    Last time I checked, "porn" was not a swear word. The concept may be unacceptable in some circles, but the word itself? And why censor "p*rn" but not "shitty"?

    The mind b*ggles.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: What's with the bizarre self censorship?

      It has nothing to do with american uptight Warriors Against Fun and feminazis battling rape culture they detected, It is because of pr0nfilters. Too young to remember the discussions being had before the War on Terror?

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: What's with the bizarre self censorship?

        "Too young to remember the discussions being had before the War on Terror?"

        Oh what fun we had when our work email systems were beginning to be filtered.

        We did indeed do the 'Scunthorpe' and 'Penistone' and others -- as well as trying all sorts of messages about 'bombs' and 'explosions'.

        It ended up with many people being highly descriptive and quoting Shakespeare, Chaucer, Hansard . Plus careful use of double-entendre and innuendo.

        Also a smattering of Carry On and Python quotes (always use quotation marks when telling someone to 'Fakir off!')

    2. Stoneshop
      Coat

      Re: What's with the bizarre self censorship?

      The mind b*ggles.

      There's really no need to obfuscate the name of a fictional WW1 fighter pilot or a seventies pop group in this eminent forum, you know.

      1. kmac499

        Re: What's with the bizarre self censorship?

        B*ggles ?? " OK Ginger chocks away " or is that another "yoofanism"

        "yoofanism" vocabulary of anyone much younger than you..

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What's with the bizarre self censorship?

        Fictional?

        Are you trying to tell me Group Captain Biggles is a fictional character?

        I'm going to have to move all my Biggles books from the History to the Fantasy section of my library, and my forthcoming book on aviation in WW1 is going to need a complete rewrite. My weekend is ruined.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lovely photo shopping

    The original 'female engineer' photo :

    http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-78224647/stock-photo-group-of-engineers-meeting-on-building-roof.html?src=xqjTRfUcIh9P0NQJ8_itxA-1-84

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Maybe she just got an email featuring Justin Bieber

      She still looks like she's going to keel over and slide down the solar panel any second now while the male representatives of the human race are like "dude, what?"

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC

      I have to admit, the third "engineering" picture was the only one which made me grin a bit.

      Thanks for getting us the original.

      1. monkeyfish

        Re: @AC

        To me it looks like the two men are having a serious discussion, and the girl is wondering what on earth this computer thingy is...

        Maybe not what they were intending?

  7. Carpetsmoker

    Hard hats required!

    Software development is dangerous! Wear a hard hat!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hard hats required!

      Software development can be dangerous, if you are working with real time machinery control. I still have the broken finger that has never quite healed straight to prove it, and I heard of someone else who ended up with a broken leg.

      It's a pity that no standard hat has evolved for software developers. I have one child whose hat is a silly 18th century wig, and another whose hat is white and hard. Worn with the usual suit, both of them are immediate guides to profession. And fans of the girlgenius comic will recall this episode.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Automatic upvote for mentioning Girl Genius !

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Hard hats required!

        "Software development can be dangerous, if you are working with real time machinery control. I still have the broken finger that has never quite healed straight to prove it, and I heard of someone else who ended up with a broken leg."

        I've been working with realtime machinery control since the late '90s, and have yet to injure myself or anyone else - can you tell me which companies you've worked for so I can avoid their products? :P

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. JEDIDIAH
          Devil

          Re: Hard hats required!

          Some work sites are hard hat required, not exceptions. If you get caught, you get thrown off the site. It may make no sense at all. Although it's likely driven by government safety regulations which themselves likely make no sense at all.

          You can either ignore this stuff or be a statistic... much like cycling without a helmet.

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Pint

    Something to get steamed up over your morning Müsli.

    Those incidents sparked worldwide condemnation and social media outrage. Perhaps the same thing might happen after this story is published?

    OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK!

    TO YOUR TWEETS!!!!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pick up a women's magazine and look at the adverts inside, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad. Pick up a men's magazine, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad.

    Good looking women help sell a product. It doesn't matter if they are in context or out of context or if the audience is male or female. They sell.

    1. Admiral Grace Hopper

      Women, on the whole are easier to look at than men. This is certainly the case in the office in which I work. Sorry guys.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I call out the media

      "Good looking women help sell a product. It doesn't matter if they are in context or out of context or if the audience is male or female. They sell."

      ...and this week we are taking a close look at Windev's brochure. The approach might be disrespectful etc, but it obviously works. It works because they get coverage in the media. Yes, I'm looking at you ElReg.

      What would help reduce this nonsense is if the media would give the same editorial coverage to an equivalent product purely on its technical newsworthy merits, without the need for an irrelevant 'angle' to pitch it (whether that be the females on show here, or some advertising deal elsewhere).

    3. Elmer Phud

      Incorrect Icon used

      "Pick up a women's magazine and look at the adverts inside, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad. Pick up a men's magazine, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad."

      Why use the Anonymous icon when it's an obvious but very poor and juvenile troll?

      I bet you used to buy loads of peanuts at the pub just to see rthe photo on the card.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Incorrect Icon used

        Elmer, which part do you disagree with?

        Claiming something is a troll doesn't make it so. The point I made is a valid one. Beauty sells.

      2. JEDIDIAH
        Mushroom

        Re: Incorrect Icon used

        >> "Pick up a women's magazine and look at the adverts inside, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad. Pick up a men's magazine, they are full of good looking women, often scantily clad."

        > Why use the Anonymous icon when it's an obvious but very poor and juvenile troll?

        The posting of an invonvenient fact is hardly a troll.

        People have forgotten what that word really means and just throw it around mindlessly when they don't agree with someone. It's little wonder that meaningful discussion no longer occurs in public venues in meatspace. Probably deadly for democracy that.

        People love to whine about tech but they've got nothing on Cosmo or Vogue. Even the ads in Family Circle would probably offend the Womyns Studies types assuming they even acknowledge this stuff.

    4. Psyx

      "Good looking women help sell a product. It doesn't matter if they are in context or out of context or if the audience is male or female. They sell."

      So does offering customers wads of money in envelopes. Doesn't mean you should do it, though.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > So does offering customers wads of money in envelopes.

        Nothing wrong with offering customers wads of cash. Many places do it by offering cash back with purchases.

      2. h4rm0ny

        >>"So does offering customers wads of money in envelopes. Doesn't mean you should do it, though."

        Works for BAE.

  10. Bushman

    Something strange

    Am I seeing things or is the woman not from france as she might claim but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse? (Sister of Zaphod Beeblebrox? Can't be him.. as no extra head..)

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Something strange

      She's a developer and a ski-boxer.

    2. Old Handle

      Re: Something strange

      It does look strange, but the extra arm belongs to the guy in the middle.

  11. dogged

    I worked in France

    Programming for BNP Paribas.

    Nobody could stand the sight of anybody else in the programming team. Uniformly male and not exactly comely, partly due the permanent expressions of anger and hatred induced by working with Siebel.

    The project office manager was pretty fine though, despite the constant miasma of earwax-melting perfume that surrounded her.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: I worked in France

      "Nobody could stand the sight of anybody else in the programming team."

      Erm, what were you employed to do?

      Eyes down and get coding, it's not as if most coders are exactly babe-magnets.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: I worked in France

        I worked in France Programming for BNP Paribas

        I know right?

        All the beautiful ones are getting hired by state, arrive at 09:00 and leave at 16:30...

      2. dogged

        Re: I worked in France

        One takes the occasional break. Health & Safety at work regulations demand it, as does my sanity.

        You, though?

        You sound like the kind of manager who does nothing but wander around all day yelling for other people to be productive.

  12. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Slow news day?

    The shots included on Delafargue's website do make the whole thing look a bit like a lad's mag. In which case I think the whole brochure is doomed to failure as totally off the mark. I suspect most people wouldn't care if the brochure was full of pictures of the usual beautiful people as long as it made the right kind of claims about productivity and world domination in "three easy steps".

  13. Semtex451
    Joke

    Can I just say that wearing anything other than a bikini in our server room is impractical. Furthermore if I accept the offer of a photo shoot and they end up being used to sell dev tools or power tools, it not my fault.

  14. TheProf
    Devil

    The worst thing in the world.

    Is this going to spark off a 'Twitterstorm'? I do enjoy reading about them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The worst thing in the world.

      Reading about Twitter is a bit like reading about incidents in East Ukraine; better than reading more boring stuff about UKIP and not even the risk of someone coming to your front door and trying to get you to get involved.

  15. Hollerith 1

    Good heavens! I don't remember the camera...

    ...but there I am, larger than life in the first pic, clearly taken just as I was about to deal with the latest set of patches. If I'd known I'd be featured in advertising, I'd have worn something more business-like.

    It's just a pity they didn't happen to capture my colleagues Lola and Desiree. They deserve the recognition, hard-working lasses that they be!

  16. Teiwaz

    Too sensitive

    You could look at it this way...

    That we should accept beautiful women (who obviously got up several hours area to get that proffessional makeup done at a salon (did I spell it right? I know it's not saloon)) can be equally efective as their male counterparts in the tech industry. I've never seen any though, maybe they all emigrated to France...

    Has the pictures been of overly handsome men (with equal makeup) now, I think we'd al be just as b*ggles.

    Either type coming to an interview with me, I'd think fraud (or a casting couch interview). Probably a good thing I don't do interviews...

    1. Thecowking

      Re: Too sensitive

      Sadly you did not spell it correctly.

      Professional only takes one f.

      I could not stop myself replying with this answer for a quite large bag of wasabi peas. A beer would have stopped me though.

  17. Connor

    Seen this kind of thing before.....

    I don't think this is sexist, this is clearly a rush job. Most stock photos feature women, they clearly just chucked a load in that they thought would fit; it is like white or black accessories, beautiful women go with everything.

  18. El_Fev

    It's just like my office

    I'm surrounded by beutiful female programmers , makes life a pleasure. :D

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    Yes I'm Lying :'(

    .

    .

    Complete sausagefest :(

  19. Disgruntled of TW
    Facepalm

    Infosec '14 yesterday ...

    ... demonstrated that young, beautiful women in very short dresses are exceptionally strong in IT security knowledge and skills. Why else would so many have crammed into the conference?

    Didn't the French once try to sell washing machines, by putting a bra on a model and sitting her on top of the machine in the advert?

    No different.

  20. Yugguy

    ALL IT material should contain such pictures. It would help keep me awake during meetings.

  21. Yves Kurisaki
    Thumb Up

    A blast fro mthe past

    You should check out the absolutely horrible site examples they list for their web platform,

    http://www.windev.com/webdev/list-of-sites.html

    It's like 1990 all over again.

  22. Stevie

    Bah!

    After a walk through Paris one is forced to ask: Are we certain these French Codevixens are in fact female?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Before we rush to conclusions re: exploitative content, we may want to pause and consider that it may be targetted marketing(gone awry ofcourse) for do it yourself pornography website creation.

    Naturally an independent IT consultant is going to find flaws in the marketing for a product that claims to provide the same functionality that he charges alot more for by the hour.

  24. syspredl

    We're using PC Soft's products for 14 years now ...

    ... and they're working just fine for us. Their brochures may be a (thoughtless) oversexed but their products are quite ok. You get a lot with e.g. their main Windows/Linux/Java/.NET development product named WINDEV, whis is published in its 19th edition now. Distribution of executables is royalty-free, which is not common to most 4GLs. True, these developer tools are different from the usual US-products. PC Soft puts a lot of effort into the looks of the end-products you're delivering, skins, styles etc. Their claim that you can develop 10x faster may not be true in all cases but 2x is good enough for us, copmpared to VB.NET or C#. Products come with a free client/server database system which is quite good and compares well with many database systems like MS SQLServer or MySQL. This little shit who thinks that PC Soft's products are shitty may be a nerd who doesn't care for development cost. Actually, if you tell any project manager that s/he could reduce development time for a certain software product from 12 months to 6 months and s/he would run and buy the product. Even big projects with up to 99 developers can be managed, collaboration is built in, version control, branching, automatic tests - no need to buy those lots of add-ons anymore!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We're using PC Soft's products for 14 years now ...

      Your comment sounds like a brochure made in Montpellier.

      By the way, you forgot to post a beautiful women to complete your words.

      Welcome on board Mr PC Soft.

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