Comments on: The Naked Consultant: Sarah White Codes, Advises, and Consults Sans Pants

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:35:28 +0000

Violet,
Don’t know if you’ve caught any of the newest election controversy here on the east coast, where a Democratic candidate in Virginia, Krystal Ball, is being chastised for some “racy” six year-old party pictures of her that have come out and been posted by some Republican asshole ( Black Velvet Bruce Li ).
One of the photos has her dressed in Santa cap getting ready to suck what everyone is claiming is a dildo being worn as a nose of her then husband dressed as a reindeer. Perhaps it doesn’t make a difference but what’s being called by the press as a dildo looks to me like a 3-4″ penis extension. Not sure how such a distinction might counter what is being charged as double-standard sexism. No idea where the then husband is now, whether it was his and certainly haven’t posed the question to Ms. Ball via her campaign web site.

By: Leens

Leens — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:56:16 +0000

I’m going to have to agree with Anonymous here in that something feels a little off, especially with this particularly post. Being sex-positive is great and kudos to White for being proud of her body and geeky, but I hardly think that this kind of promotion is subverting any kind of gender stereotype, or is empowering in any way because, frankly, what does having a beautiful body have anything to do with your abilities as a coder? I feel like White is doing herself a disservice, because no matter how good she is at what she does, she is branding herself as a Naked Coder, and the word “Naked” kind of overshadows the “Coder” part, dontcha think? Also, her explanation as to what the “field” of Naked Therapy entails is full of holes (and not the good kinds…)

Also, I don’t buy this whole Sexy Geek thing. Wearing plastic-rimmed glasses and posing with a laptop doesn’t make you a geek, and if it does, then it’s creating a whole new ideal that most of us can’t reach. So we’re expected to be beautiful AND be geniuses AND dance around in front of a camera eating strawberries and whipped cream? Thanks a bunch. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your body and your smarts, but White’s business seems to me to be based on exploiting the same unfair gender biases that have existed for a long time, only instead of being barefoot in the kitchen, you’re naked with a laptop.

By: Anonymous Please

Anonymous Please — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:29:27 +0000

Interesting post, especially given the very competitive and somewhat narrowing market in web design. I’m a web developer who didn’t have the advantages of being beautiful, rich (no-one as lovely as Ms.White grew up poor) or university-educated (I self-taught in design & code.) I’m happy to now run a struggling, but very ethical and high-quality web/design business. I don’t have any specific grievance towards “The Naked Consultant” initiative, or with sex-positivity in general – but I do want to post here and say, well, this promotion (while totally relevant) feels kind of unfair. I realize that very little in sex, economics or gender is fair anyway, but I don’t know – something always feels a little off to me in respect to the growing sex-positive philosophy discussed and promoted here. Maybe it is a class thing, I’m honestly not sure…