Had I been a cyborg, I venture to guess that I could easily have short-circuited on learning of the latest plans for a certain shopping event whimsically entitled ‘Glam, Gizmos and Geek Chic’. Apparently, from September onwards Dixons plc will be hosting a series of ‘exclusive’, ‘women-only’ technology evenings at selected retail outlets across the UK, beginning with their London, Leeds and Cardiff branches. observer.guardian.co.uk/technology/story/0,16199,1532319,00.html

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that all this is very patronising and sexist not least because it rests on an assumption that females are not technologically minded and consequently, need to be taken aside separately from men in order to have such things explained to them by, you’ve guessed it - experts. Somewhat enigmatically, reports also add that Dixons’staff are being specially trained in how to ‘engage’ with female customers?!

All pretty daunting stuff I fear, because akin to the proverbial airhead who allegedly couldn’t take his/her eyes off the supermarket orange juice carton because it read ‘concentrate’ on the packet; the ‘thingy’ called technology has so far proved itself dramatically mysterious and elusive to someone as technically clueless as myself.

Yet, curiously enough, according to electrical giant, Dixons, I just don’t meet the necessary genetic criteria for inclusion in one of their proudly trumpeted mono-gendered selective soirees. Obviously, under the clumsy label ‘male’ even cutting edge gender aware sales folk nevertheless presume ‘no need to read/explain instructions’.

Intriguingly, such obsessive gender profiling of customers seems to be part of a growing trend amongst retailers, who seemingly can’t resist the urge to pigeonhole us all into bi-polar gendered Ken and Barbie stereotypes.

There’s definitely an agenda at work here, which to me, all sounds as perfectly ridiculous as Yorkie bars being ‘not for girls’. Someone, somewhere must be laughing at the perverse irony that began with the idea that women don’t like chocolate and has now progressed with the insistence that they have to be taught how to shop.

Sales promoters: do you really want to prove you’re gender-radical? Are you genuinely desperate to encourage and empower a group of consumers who, most typically, are likely to be found shopping around in fear, unsure or often too afraid to purchase items that society at large still, (yes, even in the golden era of slick, post-feminist irony) feels are gender inappropriate for them? Through the great cure-all of retail therapy, do you sincerely want to help liberate a section of the community that all too frequently suffers embarrassment and intimidation, purely as a direct by-product of centuries of all-pervasive patriarchal gender oppression? So then, how about a transgendered-only shopping evening at Dorothy Perkins, for instance?

Oh, and while we’re at it, just a wee, small observation. Through blatantly refusing to offer gender equality in provision of goods and services to all customers irrespective of gender, Dixons are actually breaking the law by directly contravening the Sex Discrimination Act. Everybody else is expected to abide by it, so why, pray tell me, should Dixons be any different? Could it indeed be that since they are such a massive company they really have come to feel powerful enough to be above the law?

Come on supposedly futuristic high street Dixons! If you can’t move into the 21st Century at least try getting into the 20th Century and ditch your pre-historic gender prejudices along the way. Otherwise, there could well be trouble in store.




David Solomon

Copyright June 2007 David Solomon
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