Aha! The guy that should have stopped Microsoft from doing that crazy sexist song and dance in Norway has spilled the beans of how it happened.
Microsoft announced some updates to its Azure cloud platform last week in Oslo, Norway, and as part of that event, the folks in Norway wrote a song and performed a dance to it.
Basically, the performance was a bunch of scantily clad girls bebopping to a song with these lyrics: “The words ‘micro’ and ‘soft’ don’t refer to my penis.”
A helpful monitor in front of the stage added "(or vagina)." You know, to try and be inclusive.
Microsoft has been apologizing profusely ever since a video of the performance went viral on YouTube this weekend. (You can watch it here.)
But the question remains: WHAT where they thinking in the first place? (Or to use terms the song writers in Norway would understand: WTF?)
The keynote speaker of the event, Aral Balkan, has now told the story, in which he takes his fair share of the blame for the incident.
He didn't write the song but when they played it for him, he says he was so tired all he heard was a line that began with ”I’m a developer” and ended with “my penis.” He writes:
"I inhaled… and proceeded to ask him if he realised how sexist that was. You’re telling people that only men can be developers. Because only men have penises. You’re talking to an all-male audience. ... And, in an effort to help, I told them that they could at least include 'or vagina' in the slides (which were mirroring the words of the song)."
Problem solved!
Except for one tiny little thing.
Adding a reference to a woman's private parts does not suddenly clean up a ridiculously sexist, inappropriately bawdy song and dance. AND the addition of that word didn't even make sense.
But it does make one heck of a funny story.
