'Della': Dell's very special site for women

Fear not the musty, masculine stench and wet towel snapping at Dell's regular website, lady shoppers. The computer giant has baked up a very special separate place for your delicate female sensibilities! Dell launched a new site this week geared specifically towards women, called Della. Yes indeed. If you thought computer …

[b166er]

Everyone loves a bit of stereotyping...

and condescension, well done Dell!

Perhaps they'll do one next for the kinds of people who dream up these ideas, called 'Dull'

Oops, there, I've done it myself, must be catching.

Paris, because her and Della getting together could never be Dull.

[Nicholas Ettel]

So...

Let me get this straight: According to Dell a woman only needs a computer to gossip with her friends (email), learn more about cooking and providing the male population with dinner by the time he comes home from work, dieting (because all women are apparently fat), and learning how to be more materialistic... er "posh?"

That's pretty sweet. Who thought up this garbage?

[Anonymous Coward]

No offense

But I think I just grew an ovary. Can I get a hug?

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't think this through...

Dell.com goes to the boy's site, with no "No Girls Allowed" sign, nor even a polite message pointing them where they belong.

How are these computer- and internet-illiterate chicks ever going to find the Della site???

/runs for cover, lest the girls catch up with their netbook-laden handbags

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually..

...there's loads of stuff on there for us blokes.

For example - that Robyn Moreno ... fwoar.. she looks alright.

Erm, ok, right ..coat on... I'm off...sorry.....

[SisterClamp]

Oh thank you Dell...

...for seeing through the facade of my skills, experience, and knowledge of tech and getting to my hot, wet core of girly, angsty longing. But not so many pictures of sisters wearing spectacles, please! They look too geeky, too far removed from the moist caverns of my womanness, and I so too want to be a fully capable, cooking and emailing woman like you suggest. (And for only $399. Your generosity knows no bounds, oh masculine masters of Dell.) Big kisses on preferred anatomy portions to all the manly men involved in this. They obviously know exactly what women want. Mwah, sweetie.

[Anonymous Coward]

This couldn't backfire

Nope. Never.

[Trix]

FFS

How am I supposed to buy my friggin' servers?

(Actually, we haven't bought Dell for years - I'll just trundle off to HP, thanks)

[Anonymous Coward]

now we need a...

gender flag in our browsers :D

mines the one with HRT in the pocket

[Goat Jam]

LOL

That is all

[Zygote]

@ bws

No.

Get back in the kitchen!

[Frank]

It's really nice

I like the use of pastel colours here and find this site so much less threatening than the original site. It doesn't talk down to me and it makes me feel that my opinions are wanted and valued.

I do worry though that if I buy a computer from this site then my friends and colleagues will somehow think I'm less of a man. What do you think, am I worrying too much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aawwwhhh @bws..

Need a hug? Feeling a bit emotional? Perhaps it's that time of the month.... Oh no, sorry... Aarrgh the wrath of the moderatrix, please don't resign.

[Austin Chamberlain]

Wat

Ten quid says Della is removed by Dell in less than two weeks. I thought it was a parody site at first!

[Anonymous Coward]

This would really be insulting...

...if it weren't so close to the truth.

[Admiral Grace Hopper]

I feel the need

to vomit copiously into my handbag.

[Anonymous Coward]

A computer that will fit in your purse.

Now assuming that we are in good old blighty where a purse is what you keep your money in, and a bag is what you put your purse in;

Does "fit in your bag " include the power supply, spare battery and external hardrive ?

Does it leave enough room for the;

Purse,

Mobile Phone,

Make up,

Spare Make up,

bit that fell off the car last week and may be causing it to rattle, misfire and smoke a lot ( should visit www.fordina.com and check with the nice online mechanic)

Come to that

;

1. How do women fit so much crap into such a small bag;

2. Can somebody please proove point 1 scientifically so we can move on to point 3.

3. Can I please have a bag that can fit a laptop/psu/spare battery and external HDD and doesn't weigh 5.5 tons and doesn't look like something carried by a squadie in Iraq.

Paris ?

Cos she doesn't need a purse

[Anonymous Coward]

And next month

comes Dell Monte, which sells Apples!

---

Della may seem condescending, but if you ARE a computer-illiterate woman (probably more likely than a computer-illiterate man (or at least one who'd admit it)) then this'd probably seem like a nice, friendly site. And given that most people need to be at least a little computer literate for work nowadays the most likely to be computer illiterate but still in a position where they can get a new PC are stay-at-home or recently-rid-of-the-kids mums. Who probably don't fantasise about LN2 cooled quad cores- they just want to chat to uncle John in Canada or Lynda from the hairdressers.

I mean at least they're trying to make an effort.

[David Edwards]

The can only do a women one becuase

If they did a male one it woudl be called "Dell-Boy"

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it mean...

..they can only buy Pink Netbooks on this site.

However I'm a little confused, I do 90% of the cooking in our house, does that mean I have to cut a bollock off, or will a bit of cross dressing suffice?

[Anonymous Coward]

Implementation date of Della postponed from 1st April?

I thought pink netbooks had been available for quite some time. And you can get pink USB Flash Drives at only about double the price from Play.com.

[Anonymous Coward]

er...

the Della link is broken - I also cannot find it via google which is a bit strange because THIS page comes up at the top of the rankings searching for "della dell". Go figure

[Kate Craig-Wood]

What. The. Hell?!

I thought this was a joke when someone mailed me the link. Dear Gods, what are they playing at?!

I was going to send out a major press release, which in part recommends Dell as a virtualisation platform. I certainly don't want to sing their praises now!!

Right, time to give some of their senior people a serious earful.

Kate.

--

Kate Craig-Wood aka. "Famed Skydiving Hosting-Biz Queenpin"

MD, Memset

http://kate.craig-wood.com

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know

Dell made pink computers.

[foo_bar_baz]

Separate spheres ...

I hope the mod'rix gives you a spanking for that one.

[Peter Ford]

Doesn't work for me

When I type www.della.com into my browser, I end up at www.weddingchannel.com.

Either that or Dell are really branching out into new lady-friendly territory...

[Anonymous Coward]

unfecking believable

So what.. there'll be a Pinka for gays, and a Nigga for black folk, and a Dumba for Americans..

Its offensive.

truly bad. Bad bad bad.

[GrahamT]

Why a male reviewer?

I can't help thinking the review might have been a bit harder hitting if written by Ms Bee.

[Destroy All Monsters]

I foresee a fight...

...between the author and our esteemed moderatrice.

Still, it's funny how >25 years after "keeping recipes" was mentioned as a good reason to get a Z80-based computer, they they still turn up in marketing material.

[Anonymous Coward]

From looking at that screen grab...

LOL!

[thefutureboy]

Maybe...

...you should ask Sarah Bee to pop round and "have a word" with them?

[Justabloke]

Knight Of The Realm

ODFO.

[Darren]

Dell's Homo-Erotic Fantasy

Dell further subjegates it's customers by breaking us up into boys-only/girls-only websites. Are they planning to evolve the boys site into a Nuts/Zoo-esque affair.

Personally I would pay for a Dell Laptop if Jordon had a tits draped all over it...

[N]

Is this some kind of joke

or what - check date?

It seems like Dell dosnt even recognise the existence of its feminine side:

http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=uk&l=en&cs=&k=della&cat=all&x=0&y=0

Reveals nothing but a few cables

Perhaps Dell is a closet cross dresser & wears its female attire only at the weekends!

[Barney Light]

Brilliant...

...quite brilliant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell site for women?

Ridiculous! What are they doing away from the kitchen sink?

[Matt White]

How the hell did no-one shoot this down...?

Seriously, how did it get past multiple levels of marketing people without someone going "maybe this is a bit, I don't know, condescending and sexist...?"

[GrahamT]

@foo_bar_baz

Re separate spheres; if that was supposed to be mammary inuendo, then the sub editor needs either to: a) get out more, or b) learn some geometry.

There exists nowhere in the known universe a woman with spherical breasts. Some approach being hemispherical, (mainly in paintings by Rubens and Botticelli) but it is difficult to see how spheres would be attached to the body.

If it wasn't meant to be inuendo, then foo_bar_baz needs to get out more.

[peter garner]

domain name LOL

Sadly, www.della.com points to a wedding site. Irony, part of a cunning plan, or just someone "forgetting" to register the domain name?

[Laura Witters]

OMG! It's all so clear!

I see what they are trying to do.. the tech tips are there to produce the next set of Stepford Wives!

My husband has just placed the order for the pink one with matching bag!

[Fizzl]

Step back a moment.

Is this really so surprising? To be honest this is what a lot of women want from a Netbook. I also don't see this as any different to marketing PC products with a busty woman, fast car or footballer.

The dell site is still there with its nice business like gender neutral front for those who don't view computers as only a social networking tool in a variety of colours but this della crap isn't far off what I see when walking down Guildford high-street or on the front cover of a women's mag.

I do wish most women didn't respond to this stuff and thought playing games and stripping down a PC was a fun night in but that is unfortunately a rare case.

[Blitz]

Targeted marketing has been going on for eons

And it doesn't mean that its a sexist company.

Shock horror, Dell is trying to sell netbooks and accesories by associating it with things that many women think of like recipies, work presentations and family management.

I see this targeted more at the 'Sex in the City' style with patterned netbooks, carrier bags etc.

Did most of the commenters even look about the mini-site?

You know what the reason is that the vast vast majority of dishwashing adverts have women washing dishes in it is? Because in the vast majority of families - women buy the washing up liquid.

The perception with computers and the looming netbook wave is that men buy them and that as a result they're only made for men (aka black lacquer shiny and gun metal silver). So why not attempt to break into a potentially huge market and sell to women at a level that appeals?

I see nothing wrong with this site, I don't see any sexism here and I hope Dell continues to provide a targeted approach to its customers that will appeal to them.

People are so desperate to find controversy that they don't see the truth.

[Lottie]

Lost customer

I WAS seriously considering getting one of their fancy new SCCs, but I'm rather offended now.

Oh well, now I won't be able to surf the net for a recipe to make sure my man is happy. I won't be able to diet either :-(

[Admiral Grace Hopper]

@Fizzl, @Blitz

You both make many good points and my immediate reaction was perhaps somehat intemperate, but as a woman working in IT who has come to expect to be patronised and condescended to by men who have yet to learn as much as I've forgotten about bit-wrangling, this sort of nonsense is rather a red rag to a cow. Sexist? No. Condescending, patronisng and just a bit nauseating? I find it so. Oh well, I am obviously not their target audience.

[Bob H]

lmao @ bws

> "But I think I just grew an ovary. Can I get a hug?"

I think I just we myself...

[Anonymous Coward]

@Does it mean...

>"I do 90% of the cooking in our house, does that mean I have to cut a bollock off"

I would think that very much depends on *what* you are cooking.

[Daniel Jones]

To be fair

To be honest, my mom owns an eeepc 701(similar to the fare being punted on della) and the main thing she uses it for is...

...looking up recipes on the web.

The other thing is... checking her email.

Sound familiar?

[FreeTard]

Brilliant

Oh so condecending, gonna send the link to the missus and see what she thinks....

[Law]

wtf

Where are all you women who read el-reg coming from?? I've been in the industry for 10 years, and only worked with one woman in this sector - can we have a county at least, sick of my 100% sausage fest office!

PS - the wife was considering getting a macbook white for around the house, wait until I show her Della, I'm sure she'll see sense! ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Really?

I would get irritated but there's really no point. I agree it's mostly targeted at WAGS and sensible women with any idea about anything wouldn't look at it (except from links on stories like this!)

And Fizzl, gaming and stripping a PC down? That's tonights jobs...sod the ironing!

[Lime Smoothie]

I know I shouldn't get upset but.....

*Adds to very long list of reasons to hate Dell*

Utter utter utter twats.

The vague notion of buying a Dell Mini to hackintosh is now very far from my mind. Gosh, I probably wouldn't be able to manage it, what with being a bird and all. I'd best get back to trying to find one of those newfangled fancy websites to buy some shoes or something.

Paris - as a feminist icon she wouldn't stand for this shit.

[Camilla Smythe]

No Respect for Women

http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/della-featured-artist.aspx

at the bottom

Gina Q, your Dell Representative

http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.Avatars/00.00.08.59.39/4TBPD6504SA0.jpg

Thank you very much Gina. It's kind of you to tell us what we should all 'aspire' to. I'm sure you have similar dreams.

Traitor.

[anarchic-teapot]

How do women fit so much crap into such a small bag?

Like the TARDIS, they're bigger on the inside.

[Anonymous Coward]

OH oh oh a WIMMINS laptop

If it came with a USB powered vibrator, that would be great - as it would compliment my christian porn collection.

[Anonymous Coward]

della is gone....... it's dell again.......

nuf said, Paris .....

[Anonymous Coward]

still there

at http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/della.aspx

[Anonymous Coward]

Bye bye Della

URL renamed to "lifestyle" (http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/lifestyle.aspx). Most of the content is gone though, except for the "tech tips" pages. Curious to see how they dig themselves out of this hole...