So Apple came out with its big new deal today. It’s more or less a giant iPhone with the alarmingly terrible name, iPad. Oy. Virtually every woman I know who heard it said that it sounds like a feminine hygiene product. I tweeted that I bet there were no women sitting in on that product-naming decision. A follower commented that there were barely any women in the ROOM when the product was announced. As I’m reading You Are Not A Gadget I’m noticing that I’ve yet to come across a woman’s name as Lanier mentions IT development over the decades and the important figures involved. He talks about the chopping up of personhood, the compartmentalization necessary in a world of bits and how that compartmentalization is changing our idea of what it means to be human, and I’m wondering—would any of this be different if more women had been involved in key moments of tech development? Does the very nature of software design and IT development tend not to attract women and their particular skill sets and interests? I know with that question I am coming dangerously close to a sweeping generalization and buying into Mars v. Venus/”math is hard” bs, but really, where are the women? Or do I have it all wrong? Are there plenty of women engaged in this world and we just don’t hear about them? I was thinking about all of this last night while reading Lanier, and the announcement of the iPad (gawd…really…a company like Apple, working on this product forever, with lots of time to give it an awesome name, could not do better??) has me wondering if things would be different with more women involved. How would it be different? Just pondering.

[Edited to add that Linda Gerber pointed out how utterly reminiscent this is of episodes of Mad Men in which Peggy's input is often ignored by the suits...I seriously can't believe that no one mentioned what the word "pad" evokes in half the population, so I can only conclude it was mentioned and ignored and the sixties live on! Woot!]

[Edited again to add that I watched the iPad video on Apple's site. All upper middle class thirty- and forty-something white dudes in $180 T-shirts. One says something like, "I don't have to change myself to fit the product; it fits me." Read the Lanier book and see how you have already changed yourself to fit the product. "You see something and you just reach out and tap it! You don't even think about it, you just do!" Awesome. And, there are no women in this video. As Apple reps or users.]

[Also: Yes, I want one. Of course! I am not bashing the 'Pad, yo. It is a cool toy. I like cool toys as much as anyone. Just ask my credit card. I'm only saying to view advertising as advertising, be wary, deconstruct messages, and...wonder where the women are.]