Women scientists pissed at conference burlesque

Scientists meeting for a climate conference in Australia were agog when the organizers tried to liven up a dinner event with a surprise strip show in which "delirious male scientists" popped the balloons that covered one performer. An attendee said:

This is supposed to be a gathering of scientists at a government-sponsored event in an already male dominated industry where it is hard enough for a woman to make inroads ... If this is the Australian Government and male-dominated scientific community's idea of conference entertainment, God help us all.

This is interesting in light of the last post, in which Violet Blue writes of another involuntary situation. Whereas airport searches are not optional, seeing them as erotic, in order to reframe the dynamics and reclaim the situation, is optional; it is, perhaps, the best you can do with a situation like that.

By another measure, the big dinner at that conference that your department paid some hard-won grant money for you to attend is not really optional either, except in the technical sense. The dinner is one of the conference events that you go for, in order to socialize with others in your field. Then as you're in the middle of it, a bunch of entertainment comes along that is not part of the deal at all. Yes, you can walk out, and some people did.

At least there weren't clowns.