back to article Marissa Mayer in Vogue fashion shoot

Yahoo! boss Marissa Mayer has sent the digital chattering classes into a frenzy after posing for a series of buttoned-up photographs for fashion bible Vogue. In an entirely predictable reaction to the Vogue spread, feminist bloggers unleashed tens of thousands of words of purple prose discussing Mayer's decision to appear in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vogue is getting increasingly tech savvy, with a recent Google Glass shoot showing that the worlds of high fashion and hi-tech aren't as far apart as they used to be. Is it just a matter of time before the two worlds lean in even closer?

    Nnnnnooooo... it's bad enough that we have to put up with fanbois belief in their favourite iDevice being a 'fashionable life accessory' we really don't need the fashion fucktards getting in on the act. Technology should be functional, practical, useful... not fashionable. Good technology should be virtually invisible to your everyday life, just being there and doing what it is meant to do for you reliably, when you want it to.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I hate to burst your bubble but the reason iPhones are considered fashionable is _not_ due to technology. In a case of massive irony, the technology (the chip wizardry and the Os) _is_ completely invisible (as you wish it were). What people are appreciating is the physical design, the packaging of the technology if you will.

      It's a mistake to think people value function over form. Most don't. We all like a bit of beauty in our lives and there is no reason that technology cannot be beautiful.

    2. tomban
      IT Angle

      Indeed, holding / using an iPad does not make you tech savvy.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sorry to disappoint you, obnoxiousGit, but the "fashion fucktards" have been in on the act for ages.

      HELLO, LG phone for Prada?

    4. Compact101

      So gadgets can't be nice looking?

      Gadgets can't be cool?

      You sound like someone who would want everyone driving communist era dull cars and functional clothers with elbow patches.

  2. pepper

    Awkward

    Her position on the couch/bench does look awkward if not painful. Surely they could have done better then make it look like someone has been on a 5 day bender with only certain spices for dinner?

    1. Anonymous Coward 101

      Re: Awkward

      I suggest there is dodgy photoshopping in the photo.

      1. russell 6

        Re: Awkward

        Yup. Her hair has definitely been 'shopped' with a blur effect

        1. pepper

          Re: Awkward

          The lightning, the colours, her eyes.. It all looks so scary for some reason.. Lucid almost. Also her torso twist looks painful.

          1. codejunky Silver badge

            Re: Awkward

            So glad its not just me. That picture looks very odd and wrong but I couldnt quite put my finger on it. Like a bad photoshop effort blending 2 images. Was she on a green screen floor and they placed her in an outdoor setting?

            1. pepper

              Re: Awkward

              I think they did it in a inside setting, fake grass(or just temporarily laid down) could be, although studio lightning on the outside doesnt seem impossible either. Its just washed out of all colour.

              Although you could be correct in that they photoshopped 2 photo's together, it wouldnt surprise me.

              1. Richard 12 Silver badge
                FAIL

                Re: Awkward

                The legs don't match with either the torso or the lounger.

                That's why it's firmly in Uncanny Valley.

          2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

            Re: Awkward

            her torso twist looks painful

            You can't be in very good shape if you think that's painful.

  3. ratfox
    Stop

    Stop it

    If Branson can dress in a stewardess-and-lipstick outfit for advertisement, I fail to see what the problem is with these particular pictures. We do not need to analyse everything a female CEO does in terms of gender issues, just because she is female.

    If any CEO can get to advertise for their company by doing a photo shoot, let them. I remember Larry Page and Sergey Brin did an interview for Playboy, and the only reason that got them into trouble is that it was during the quiet period leading to the Google IPO.

    1. Bobthe2nd
      Trollface

      Re: Stop it

      It should have been more realistic though, maybe photograph her in the kitchen washing the dishes...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Stop it

        Did you just call Branson a female CEO?

        1. Anonymous Custard

          Re: Stop it

          Anyway, wasn't Branson's cross-dressing the result of losing a bet, rather than as a "photoshoot" (although I accept they're both basically PR stunts, not to mention Cupid Stunts).

    2. Craigness

      Re: Stop it

      "We do not need to analyse everything a female CEO does in terms of gender issues"

      Can you let Sheryl Sandberg know? For some women their whole career is a feminist campaign.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How can this even spark a sexism debate at all? It's! Vogue! and! not! Playboy! (unfortunately, I might add)

    1. Great Bu

      (unfortunately, I might add)

      Hmmmm...Yes she does look as if she goes like a belt-fed wombat.......

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think she looks nice.

    Imagine Steve Ballmer in the same position. It's not her fault she's reasonably good looking and slim, but that should not detract from her technicaly ability.

    Now I can't get the image of Ballmer out of my head, and I'm off to be sick.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: I think she looks nice.

      You, sir, have a very sick mind. ;-)

      Now I am infected as well! Cannot get that image out of my head. Imagining that the furniture collapses beneath Balmer's weight helps a bit, I find. Imagining he will throw it at somebody helps more.

      Either aspirin or loads of beer might erase the image entirely

      Guess what I will try ;-)

      1. LaeMing
        Go

        Re: I think she looks nice.

        Gaaah. Now I have to go study the Goatse man to get that horrid Balmer image to leave me alone!

  6. Tom 13

    Looking at just her, she looks good.

    Looking at her in context,...

    Won't someone please rid us of the troublesome photographer who thought this was a good pose?

    OK, she's working hard at turning around a company that has been failing and for the last ten years has turned into the standup comedians one sentence all-in-one-joke-and-punchline. So I can see where she'd be willing to try something different like interviewing with and posing for a fashion magazine. But in all honesty, I think women will only achieve real and functional equality when ideas like this one are assumed to be bad and need to be proven otherwise before women accept them. Yes if I was 20 years younger and 70 pounds lighter and I saw her at a bar I'd probably try to pick her up. But if she's coming to talk about tech and/or career, she shouldn't have to wander off into that territory.

    1. LaeMing
      Happy

      Re: Looking at just her, she looks good.

      Maybe it signifies how she has had to bend over backwards to make any headway in the mess that she inherited.

  7. Mystic Megabyte

    Vogue has never been stylish

    On page one of just about every issue of Vogue since time began has been an advert for a diamond encrusted piece of bling.

    If Vogue were at all about style and sophistication they would ban the advertising of such hideous crap.

    Also, WTF is Yahoo! I've never seen it.

    1. Peter Storm

      Re: Vogue has never been stylish

      "Also, WTF is Yahoo! I've never seen it"

      It's the company that bought flickr and have been doing their level best to completely fuck it up ever since.

      Completely agree about Vogue btw. Utter garbage.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Vogue has never been stylish

        May I humbly suggest that you are not the target market for a publication such a Vogue?

        for some people it is their fashion bible (Along with Tatler)

      2. ChristianG

        Re: Vogue has never been stylish

        That may be, but in printing terms Vogue is most certainly a benchmark.

        In magazine publishing if you want to be better than everyone, Vogue is the one to beat. It's been done but so far all the upstarts have fallen by the wayside one way or the other (usually they've run out of money - gone broke trying).

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Alert

    Dammit, El Reg!

    Even I notice the headline has a spelling error.

    Imminent Reg tombstone predicted.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Dammit, El Reg!

      Ok, fixed now.

  9. Gordon 10

    Was she working from home that day?

    Enquiring minds want to know. Bet she didnt take annual leave for that shoot.

  10. Thomas 4
    Thumb Down

    Really?

    "She discusses a "well-rounded childhood", her love of coding and how she is "blind to gender"."

    Her blindness to gender might explain why the Yahoo comments section is a physically sickening mire of homophobia, transphobia and casual sexism.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I don't see what the big deal is.....

    It's a little demeaning to put a qualified woman into some kind of glamour shoot. However, she had a chance to promote her company in a well-known magazine, and as the story suggests, I could see a male CEO doing a feature in GQ. So why not?

    Mine's the Oscar de la Renta being carefully cradled by my valet.......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I don't see what the big deal is.....

      What's a woman?

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: I don't see what the big deal is.....

        Never mind. You probably have no need of one anyway.

      2. LaeMing
        Happy

        Re: What's a woman?

        It is like a man, but slightly upgraded. :-P

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: What's a woman?

          The beta version. Sometimes it can be unstable :)

  12. a well wisher

    down in the weeds ?

    Is that where the CEO shoudl be ?

    "an effort to bring a more coherent look and identity to Yahoo’s pages. For an intense 80 minutes, Mayer does most of the talking, getting deep into the weeds about the size of navigation buttons, background colors, and spacing between columns. Working through a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and a cup of pretzels from the cafeteria"

    from the vogue article

    1. Mr. Peterson

      Re: down in the weeds ?

      Tempest, meet Teapot.

  13. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Or in the words of Zero Mostel in "The Producers"

    "If you got it, flaunt it, baby.

    That's mine with a copy of some of Melvin's finest work in the pocket.

  14. James Gosling

    Well...

    I guess its just about the only way to make Yahoo in Vogue again!

    And the worst critics of women... are women!

    Good luck to her.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't look anything like her.

    If it wasn't for the rest of the article, I would struggle to put a name to the picture.

    1. LaeMing

      That isn't unusual for glamor shots. My sister has one on her wall and if she hadn't told me it was her, I honestly wouldn't have guessed.

  16. Phredd

    Sounds like Jealousy from a bunch that can only 'talk', not 'do'.

  17. Pete 2 Silver badge

    A tech woman's worst enemy? Other women.

    > Mayer does not look so much passive as she does rigid and brittle,... and a set of straps on her Yves Saint Laurent stiletto shoes

    IT is a creative industry. As such people within it will judge their peers (and betters) by their achievements and what they have produced. That's what wins respect.

    However as soon as an IT woman gets publicity, it seems that all that the women columnists care about are her looks. her colour scheme and what she's wearing. Whether it's Mayer, Whitman or Rometty (HP and IBM) there are more column inches written about their clothes than about their skills.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Well you don't honestly think that fashionistas at Vogue are going to be able to understand anything about her skills, much less comment objectively on them, now do you ?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why quote anyone from Gawker Media?

    Seriously, giving those people airtime is exactly what they want, and they don't deserve it at all. The last time of the three that I had to explain to some dipshit Gawker author that "stealing" a free software project (we would call it "forking" in these parts) isn't frowned upon, or illegal, and is encouraged by the FOSS community (seriously, I dont expect non-tech news to get the total philosophy but at least knowing that Free Software does not have "piracy" isn't too much to ask) and having to explain to people just how fucked up of a business Oracle is from how they treat their customers, and how much of an asshole Larry Ellison is to boot, I gave up. If it isnt sensationalism, especially sensationalism to fuel racial or feminist tensions, Gawker doesn't get it and this applies to all of their outlets, Jezebel being among the worst.

    And keep in mind this is the same organization which tried to raise 250,000 USD from readers to buy a videotape from a drug dealer supposedly showing Toronto's Mayor smoking crack.

  19. JustWondering
    Facepalm

    Synonyms

    Feminist - Permanently outraged

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ummmm

    Am I the only one who thinks that she wasn't holding an iPad?

    Looked more like a Galaxy Tab...

  21. Hasham

    I'd definitely rub one out to her

    Wait, wait, I meant I greatly admire all that she has achieved in life and it especially heartens me to see a woman at the top of such a male-dominated field!

  22. Juan Inamillion

    Good grief...

    What a lot of hot air being blown about here about a CEO worth around $300m posing in a rather interesting way for a STYLE magazine. Photoshopped or not - who the f**k cares! Would you rather see Donald Trump?

    Here's another CEO in an arguably stylish photo, although I'll freely admit that I prefer Marissa's...

    http://archive.aweber.com/woceosinsider/N7GJo/h/CEO_Insider_Your_Weekly.htm

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