IT professionals are vital for the Danish economy but tend to be nerds who don’t know how to dress, have an engaging conversation, or attract women.
So wrote Trine Bramsen, the IT spokesperson for the Socialdemokraterne, in a guest blog on the IT website Version2 – an entry that was promptly condemned as elitist, childish and embarrassing.
“If you’re sat near an IT nerd at a family party, it would only take a few minutes before the conversation becomes so overwhelmed with incomprehensible acronyms that the remaining guests become bored by the conversation,” Bramsen wrote, adding that Denmark’s future was dependent on these anti-social, tennis-sock-wearing IT experts and that the economy was in vital need of people with their skill set.
“But if this is to be achieved, IT nerds need a change of image, especially if we want the IT nerds' good genes to be passed on.”
According to Bramsen, it is a shame that IT engineers don’t make themselves more attractive to women, since their professional jobs and stable income would otherwise make them the perfect partners for desperate singletons.
“Denmark’s future is sitting behind computer screens wearing tennis socks and doing everything possible to avoid contact with women. I wonder why. Is it deliberate that computer men do everything possible to be as unattractive as possible. Is it something you learn in the education?”
Bramsen’s entry was swiftly criticised by her party colleague Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil.
“Elitist crap, Trine Bramsen!” Rosenkrantz-Theil wrote on Facebook. “Just because you exist in a world of men in ties and women in stilettos doesn’t mean you can judge people for dressing differently.”
Hanne Lykke Jespersen, the deputy chair of the IT union PROSA, also argued that she did not recognise the image of IT professionals presented by Bramsen.
“Trine Bramsen is childish and embarrassing,” Jespersen told TV2 News. “The inspiration she obviously needs from professionals in the field won’t happen by making fun of people.”
Bramsen feels misunderstood, however, and argued that the blog entry was actually meant to praise IT professionals.
“I am VERY aware that [IT professionals] are more than tennis socks and t-shirts with Microsoft jokes,” she told TV2 News. “But we do face a challenge with many young people who do not see IT as an attractive career path.”
