By all accounts, Ada Lovelace was a pretty kickass woman. The only child of the poet Lord Byron, she ditched her birthright in romantic verse and became the world’s first computer programmer. Charles Babbage – you know, the dude who invented the computer – swooningly called her the Enchantress of Numbers. When’s the last time you enchanted some numbers? (Trying to get out of paying a restaurant tip doesn’t count.)
So it’s unsurprising that a female-run fashion company like Dear Kate would want to pay tribute to Lovelace. Except for one thing: Dear Kate is a lingerie company. And to advertise its new Ada collection, it convinced six prominent female tech executives to pose in their undies.
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Each clad in Dear Kate knickers, they’re depicted coding at their desks and assertively chairing meetings. Lean In-type quotes accompany pictures of high-powered start-up founders. One declares: ‘It never hurts to ask… That promotion? You’ll never get it if you don’t ask, and worst case scenario is they say no and you’re in the same position.’
Now, some feminists in tech aren’t happy with the pants-friendly depiction of their industry. ‘Posing in your underwear undermines the message that you aim to be taken seriously as a technologist,’ one female CEO told Time. And with sexism well-documented in the industry, many argue that there’s no point in adding more fuel (or at least, lacy knicker shots) to the fire.
Dear Kate founder Julie Sygiel calls the online hate ridiculous. ‘The thought behind the campaign was to bring attention to the fact that there are women in tech and they are killing it,’ she explains. ‘We wanted to highlight the fact that they are there because, to some degree, the media doesn’t often feature women in tech.’
One model, Skillcrush CEO Adda Birnir, contends that she found the shoot empowering for its diverse cast of ladies of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities – or as she puts it: ‘real women in all their complexity’.
Personally, I think Dear Kate should be applauded – in theory, at least. It’s hard enough to find a lingerie campaign that doesn’t airbrush every belly roll and stretchmark out of existence, let alone one that puts black, Asian or plus-size models front and centre.
And while I’d argue that there are better ways of saluting female CEOs (when was the last time you saw Sheryl Sandberg celebrated in her pants?), it stands to reason Dear Kate can’t do much that doesn’t require women to be in lingerie – they are an underwear company, after all.
But my main beef with this campaign? It just looks… lame. While I know fashion requires some suspension of belief, I sincerely doubt any CEOs actually lounge around their office in bralets and lacy briefs. Sex doesn’t even enter into it: the overall effect isn’t any less bizarre just because Dear Kate’s models pose with cheerful smiles and coffee cups, rather than come-hither eyes.
We all get it: we should be able to celebrate women as successful, sexy and smart all at once. But this isn’t it – it’s got all the appeal of a snore-worthy uni prospectus for computer engineers and a spectacularly chaste M&S granny panty photoshoot.
And the bitter controversy over the campaign just shows how little we agree on what actually empowers (or, conversely, demeans) women. It’s enough to make you wish Ada Lovelace could programme the problem away.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.