News
Mimi Launder
Nov 22, 2017

Picture:
Twitter / @RealSexyCyborg
Naomi Wu, a 23-year-old designer who creates wearable tech for women, was recently the centre of a strange conspiracy spun by her male followers.
Wu's work racks up millions of views on YouTube where she posts videos on her creative process - she also has tens of thousands of followers on social media.
She calls herself "RealSexyCyborg": as well as creating technology-enhanced clothing, she also chooses to change her body's structure with surgery.
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CEO of Maker Media, Dale Dougherty, accused Wu of being nothing more than a fake - a front for the 'real' man behind her, namely her engineer boyfriend.
In a tweet, which has since been deleted, he reportedly wrote:
I am questioning who she really is. Naomi is a persona, not a real person. She is several or many people.
Dougherty has since apologised, writing for Make, the online tech magazine he explains:
Naomi, I apologize for my recent tweets questioning your identity. I was wrong, and I’m sorry
Doughery was touting lies that have circulated online since Wu's LED underlit skirt went viral on Reddit in 2015.
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According to a Newsweek interview, Wu believes Dougherty's attitude is simply an example of how Western tech companies treat people like her in China.
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She also doesn't think American men understand her city, Shenzhen. On her Patreon page, she says:
It's a city straight out of CyberPunk, on the cutting edge of tech and it's growing at an amazing rate.
I'm right in the middle of it.Â
She added:
I know it can seem a bit odd by Western standards but it's not disrespectful or frowned upon here, it makes me very happy and I still post lots of tech stuff.
Wu has said she now considers the matter closed.
More: A woman shared a perfect example of mansplaining and things got out of controlÂ
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