I worked another corporate/feminist event this week.
This one funded by a major credit card company.
It was allegedly a serious business event, about small-business-sector entrepeneurship & financing.
There were several kiosks, representing women's business start ups. One sold $45 showercaps. Another, jewelry.
An floral-stylist. Saucy black-power lady-power slogans printed on t-shirts ("I don't want a seat, I want the whole table!").
Little jars of fragrance oils. Same with the panelists onstage: no plumbing female contractors or medical hardware manufacturers or anything which will last 5 years. The founder of BirchBox spoke... for a monthly subscription fee, her company sends you a mystery box of cosmetics samples.
Despite the lack of license plumbers, there was avid interest in plumbing.
The men's room door was vinyl'd-over with this:
https://i.imgur.com/o4XkAqG.jpg
The sink got a white-noise emitter to conceal ladyfarts & a bowl of tampons & a new affirmation decal on the mirror:
https://i.imgur.com/RW1kNkb.jpg
The urinals became this:
https://i.imgur.com/HA8GCnE.jpg
The event took-over the entire 6th & 1st floors of a building. By eliminating the urinals & eliminating the men's room, the women forced themselves to stand-behind men in line, waiting to all use the same stalls. There was a
Whites Only Women Only bathroom on the ground floor, and single toilet "unisex" bathroom, but that required waiting in line for a small, slow elevator; to then get in line for that toilet.
The whole place was decorated in pale pink, flowers flowers flowers, and empty slogans on the walls, like "CEO,000,000"
A spin-off of Johnnie Walker was served, branded as "Janie Walker".
https://i.imgur.com/qEBfy6g.jpg
One of the panelists used the phrases 'second round of venture funding' and 'founder pay'. The moderator noted that those were terms which not-every-woman would know. Where did she learn about those crucial things. She replied that she and her co-founder-- had 'asked our dads'. I thought maybe the dads should be the ones on the panel, then.
The event ended. And men showed up to take-apart the walls & lights & electric cables & rental furniture. The florists were almost-all women. The sound crew and production managers were mixed male&female. The officejob supervisors were predominately female or gay guys.
As I bicycled home, I listened to Joe Rogan talking to another comedian about fake-professional comedians who hang-around backstage at L.A.'s Comedy Store. The opened for somebody famous once, or kinda-did comedy at some point... but they've got nothing really going-on. They're there for the drinks & to hang-around real pros & sometimes they awkwardly interject themselves in a conversation between actual pros talking-shop. "It's weird", said Joe. "Imagine if there was a place where CEOs gathered to talk... but there were all these Fake CEOs hanging-around, pretending to be a part of it." I didn't have to imagine.