Fatima’s next job could be in cyber

[EugeniaGrace]

My left wing friends are up in arms - how dare the evil tories dash her dreams.

But, but, but, I am torn.

Isn’t this what we have been asking for? The ability to dream of stem careers for women and not say the only dreams open to women should be in the underpaying arts and prancing around in a tutu. Argh!

(There need to be be money to retain though. Rethink. Reskill. Reboot. Seems to be missing the learning grant or what have you for DomCum’s digital wonder world).

It’s the people I know in the arts who are offended - they’ve trained long and hard to perfect a craft and forge a career, only to see it treated like an indulgent hobby (‘prancing about in a tutu’), so took it as another kick in the teeth.

However the ad is just one in a series for (yet another) piss poor govt comms campaign, so think it’s just an unfortunate juxtaposition in this instance.

My DM just sent me that, incandescent. Incredibly insensitive at a time when so many dancers, actors, performers of all kind are on the brink of losing their livelihoods.

Just chuck in your dreams and ambitions love, and do something useful.

Scope for plenty of pisstaking though:
www.mumsnet.com/uploads/talk/202010/large-905481-121309700-10158902715607417-3604056078551942842-n.jpg

Ballet isn't just prancing around in a tutu, it's incredibly hard work, the dancers are athletes in their own right in my opinion, and train endlessly to be successful. To me, feminism isn't about saying women should have access to typically male careers, it should be about saying that all career choices should be available to women, and all should be valued and respected. The arts shouldn't be underpaying, or as vastly undervalued in this country as it clearly is. As adverts go it's exceptionally poor timing, but then I would expect that from Bojo's government at the moment.

It was spectacularly insensitive in the current time and they took it down quite quickly, to be fair.

Plenty of people in the Arts/Entertainment field who've been working online for months, so inept from that point of view as well.

Here is the guardian take on it. It very much suggest the lack of coordinated leadership (propaganda) when the different ministers are pitted against each other in announcements on a Monday.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/12/ballet-dancer-could-reskill-with-job-in-cyber-security-suggests-uk-government-ad

I’ve figured out what is niggling me though.
Both the ad and the criticism of the ad take as a basic assumption that you can’t be both.

I.e. if you have put long hours and energy into the arts you are unfit for a career in tech

And

I.e. if you put long hours into a career in tech, you are unfit for the arts.

As @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g points out being this exclusionary dismisses the people in the arts who ALREADY work online (and looks at how many music tools and photography tools are computer based already).

When one thinks how long a ballet dancer trains, and how punishing the work is - that advert must be like a knife in the chest.

It is brutal and disrespectful to the entire population of arts and performance professionals.

“Cyber” has never meant cybersecurity. It means cybersex. This ad sounds like she is going to be working on OnlyFans. It’s not a new term and make me wonder who approved the ad.

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cyber

God that's awful - a ballet dancer who's honed her physique and skills for decades expected to be grateful for the chance to slump in front of a screen and eat pringles. Fuck that. If it's a choice between losing all our culture and getting covid, I'll take my chances with the latter.

Prancing around in a tutu? . Of course their should be more women in stem, the way to do this however is not by shitting on the arts sector even moreso. Sick of this bullshit.

Interesting how working in tech or being a sports (wo)man is worthy of respect but ballet is just "prancing about in a tutu". Smells like internalized misogyny to me.

I too hate the message of the ad, but it should be noted that it’s from 2019, before Covid devastated the arts.

Still a shit, offensive ad though.

inews.co.uk/news/politics/old-government-advert-suggesting-ballet-dancer-retrain-labelled-crass-minister-public-anger-712753

If people are unable to financially support themselves due to the impact of C-19 on their profession, then encouraging them to adapt and/or retrain into growth industries which are better insulated from the impact of C-19 seems like a great idea.

Entirely see why those who have trained in their current field don't like it, but the state has a responsibility to signpost opportunities rather than making those people dependent on taxpayer funded bailouts.

It’s completely and utterly out of touch.
Honestly. That’s before I even get to the use that this is great because it encourages STEM careers for women. I don’t think it does tbh.

If people are unable to financially support themselves due to the impact of C-19 on their profession

A shame we didn’t apply that thinking to the banks who lost billions gambling with our cash in 2008.

"In cyber....." what?

I hate the "but she doesn't know it yet". Seems quite sinister.

I just took it to mean that if your particular skill area/industry (whatever it is) is going to be subject to a long term down turn, then it would be helpful to consider what else you can do.

I have much respect for people of the arts who put enormously long hours and hard work into their chosen specialism but the world is in turmoil at the moment and we have to look at where the earning opportunities are so that people can actually make a living.

If we look at how we had to manage during WWII and the huge lifestyle changes people had to make in those days because circumstances dictated (women having to take jobs in factories and learn how to work the land etc) - I see this as similar.

I'm not quite sure how it is offensive, more indicative of a sad and challenging situation.

@Iggly

It doesn't require a particularly detailed knowledge of economics to appreciate that bailing out banks saved the state huge amounts of money. While you could, of course, encourage bankers to retrain elsewhere, that would cripple the economy (with banks acting as the main source of funding and liquidity for almost every other sector).

Will the economy collapse if dancers (who can't currently work) retrain? Nope. It will be a pity but hopefully many can come back when theatres re-open, having performed fulfilling and important roles in the interim.

But surely the unemployed dancers don't need adverts to tell them that they can re-train?

This will what Dowden has to say

Also, no one seems to have thought that you don't just switch to a career in cyber-security overnight, as the advert implies. You can't just get a job running secure computer systems any more than you can one day decide to get a job as a ballerina at the Bolshoi.

You have to get trained up. It's so bloody stupid....