Female Tech Titans Model Lingerie While Coding

Photo: Julie Sygiel

Julie Sygiel, founder of pretty-but-functional lingerie line Dear Kate, isn’t one to mince words. “I’m a feminist,” she told us—proudly—earlier this summer, explaining why women need underwear that doesn’t just look good, but stands up to the realities of workouts, periods, and post-baby life, too. With the word “feminist” so stigmatized, it was refreshing to hear someone just own it. And yet feminism’s something critics are currently trying to strip from Sygiel because of her company’s new ad campaign, which features female tech professionals sporting Dear Kate’s lingerie while working on laptops and tablets.

Photo: Dear Kate

The pushback’s somewhat surprising, considering the context. Sygiel and Dear Kate have churned out similar imagery since the company’s inception two years ago (diverse, non-model models, career-oriented storylines, etc.) But it seems that by casting female tech professionals in particular, 25-year-old entrepreneur Sygiel stepped on toes, and is even being accused of regressing the feminist ideals she holds so dear. (“Perhaps showing women in their underwear wasn’t the smartest or most nuanced way to show the strength and success that comes with having women in power,” wrote Lauren Keating of Tech Times, while Eliana Dockterman of Time says the ads “may go too far.”)

But why? And why now?

Photo: Dear Kate

Dear Kate’s not a household name, but it’s a brand that’s loyally loved and publicly galvanizing enough that, earlier this year, it raised all the money it needed to expand from underwear into yoga pants in just the first hour after posting a Kickstarter. (We credit their specially patented fabric, which makes the underwear a magic triumvirate of wicking, leak-resistant, and stain-repelling. Who wouldn’t want that in yoga pants?) The brand’s popular and has certainly gotten exposure, enough that people are aware of its past ads. So why did no one freak out when it featured successful fitness gurus and musicians, as if they’re allowed to show their bodies, but tech professionals aren’t? I went straight to Sygiel to talk about the double standard.

Photo: Dear Kate

“We did not anticipate that this lookbook would be so newsworthy,” Sygiel told me, laughing. “But I think it’s good in that this has all inspired conversation that wouldn’t have necessarily come about had we not done it.”

Photo: Dear Kate

Like their previous campaigns (a musician playing piano, celebrity trainers working out, a florist making a floral arrangement—all in Dear Kate underwear) in this one, the women really are coding and working on projects, not just staring at blank laptop screens. “We feature women for who they are and what they do, so to us, it wasn’t anything quite out of the ordinary,” Sygiel explained.

Photo: Dear Kate

And yet people are forgetting that female empowerment context, acting like this is some Wired or Forbes feature where a misogynistic art director insisted a bunch of female tech professionals strip down to their skivvies or get the ax. It’s not. All the women in Dear Kate’s new lookbook wanted to be showcased this way, and many did so precisely because they knew they were supporting a feminist company. But they’re getting more attention for it because of this double standard, this idea that if women want to eliminate gender biases in STEM fields, they must first separate their sexual selves from their “serious,” professional ones. What could be more backward than that?

Photo: Dear Kate

There’s certainly no reason we should freak out over tech professionals embracing their feminine, sexual side too, but not bat an eyelash when florists or musicians do it. Sygiel put it this way: “If someone cannot take a woman seriously after they have seen her in her underwear, I feel sorry for them, not her. I believe women should be taken seriously regardless of what we are wearing, and this should hold true for all professions.”

If you agree and want to support her efforts, there are two super-easy ways to do so: Buy a piece of the Ada collection the tech women are wearing (it’s named after Ada Lovelace, who created the first computer algorithm), or take to social media to speak out, where women are now posting pictures of themselves mimicking the “controversial” campaign alongside the hashtag #notcontroversial:

@juliesygiel + the @dearkates team were called “controversial” by @time for a photoshoot of women in tech posing in their underwear. Women can be sexy and smart and successful– all at once. And guess what? That’s #NOTCONTROVERSIAL. I can wear my @dearkates #vera undies and still make a #PVD based non-profit go global.

@time recently posted an article about a @dearkates ad that featured #womenintech in their underwear saying that it was controversial. “Posing in your underwear undermines the message that you aim to be taken seriously as a technologist” says Elissa Shevinsky…. This is my ‘really?’ face. Don’t try and shame women because they feel comfortable and beautiful in their underwear. Everyone wears it and posing in it doesn’t mean that person is not capable of their job. It doesn’t mean the person isn’t intelligent. The ad itself features #realwomen, not photoshopped models. The message behind the ad is not a sexual one either – it’s for #dearkates #AdaCollection, named after the world’s first computer programmer, #AdaLovelace. #notcontroversial NOT CONTROVERSIAL!!!!!

Orrrrr you could buy some Dear Kates and then Instagram yourself in them, too. Double whammy.

Related: The Tech Start-Up That’s Banning Visible Panty Lines

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