**English Translation:**
**Are these women too pretty to be "real" engineers?**
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional networking site. The Chinese name for LinkedIn is Lingkeyin. The company was founded in December 2002 and launched in 2003. Its purpose is to allow registered users to maintain contacts they know and trust in their business interactions, commonly referred to as “networking” (Connections). Users can invite people they know to join their “Connections.” Now, with over 200 million users, LinkedIn gains a new member every second on average.
How strange is sexism in the software technology industry? On Friday, programmers in the tech community got a firsthand experience of it. A farce unfolded between LinkedIn and Toptal, a small developer network platform, over the credibility of the girls featured in Toptal’s ads on LinkedIn.
The incident began with a brief appearance of an ad related to female programmers on LinkedIn, which was quickly taken down because users complained about the appearances of the girls in the ad.
Without any explanation, LinkedIn requested that Toptal modify the images of the girls in the ad, demanding that “product ads should be relevant to the product.” After some debate and ultimately being forced to comply, Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal, responded with an exposé blog post:
"The truth is, the tech community (LinkedIn users) believes that the female programmers in our ads cannot possibly be real programmers, and the tech leaders of the LinkedIn community have accepted this view. Unfortunately, our ads were banned unless we used all-male imagery. Personally and professionally, I am disappointed by this situation. It needs to change."
Similar to LinkedIn's vague justification for its actions, observers on the Hacker News website generally believed that the girls in Toptal's ads were too attractive to be 'real' programmers.
But how does a girl's appearance become too attractive to appear in a programmer ad? Readers of Toptal mostly stood by their CEO, Du Val, believing that LinkedIn's decision to cater to those who opposed the ad was a form of sexism. "LinkedIn seems eager to insult women and engage in self-loathing because they think all female programmers are unattractive and programmers must be messy nerds," commented one reader.
However, some readers pointed out a undeniable fact beyond the gender bias in the ad. Toptal's ad could give the impression of being spammy. Many thought there was some sexual innuendo in the ad. "You can imagine, when someone looks over your shoulder from behind and sees the ad without reading carefully, all they see is a pretty face and '1800-2800 dollars/week,'" commented cbhl on Hacker News.
"Unfortunately, attractive women are usually used in spammy ads (dating site ads)," another reader, dwild wrote, "There's nothing you can do; no one believes they might be programmers, and this ad is actually perceived as fake information."
Adding complexity to the issue, Toptal had actually used a composite image, combining an artistic photo with a real picture of one of their programmers. The girl on the left was actually actress Amanda Schull, and after her identity was pointed out, Toptal later removed the photo along with references and comments about her. "Even if it's a fake photo, who cares?" said Du Val, "The point is, they perfectly represent ordinary professionals."
After removing Schull's photo, the remaining image of the girl in the ad was actually Brazilian programmer Florencia Antara. "Florencia Antara's identity is 100% authentic," he protested in a comment, and the photo in the ad came from her own profile picture.
Antara's appearance in the ad sparked heated speculation, as one reader pointed out that she appeared to be "staring into the camera, as if preparing to make out with the viewer," while another reader looked up her resume and claimed she wasn't a 'real' programmer. However, gus_massa on Hacker News did not agree, saying, "Maybe she has enough experience to do her job well."
Ultimately, LinkedIn agreed to restore the ad, but their explanation remained ambiguous. According to Du Val's latest update on Sunday, LinkedIn "after careful consideration, re-reviewed all of Toptal's ads, landing pages, and daily operations, and reinstated our ads." Perhaps LinkedIn wanted to confirm whether Toptal was truly a network of software developers rather than focusing on the true identity of the attractive girl with beautiful hair, red lips, and neat attire.
However, Fenot Tekle, a spokesperson for LinkedIn, informed the Daily Dot via email late Friday that the ad was "incorrectly rejected during the standard review process."
Although Du Val was satisfied with LinkedIn's response, this explanation neither clarified why LinkedIn initially supported the views of those who complained about the ad nor explained why only ads featuring female images were initially requested to be removed by Toptal.
Toptal's choice to use attractive girls in their ads made them seem less credible, and the unfortunate tendency in the software industry to criticize the use of women as image representatives further undermined the ad's authenticity.
Ultimately, LinkedIn's questioning of Toptal undoubtedly caused some harm to itself.
Photo by Aja Romano