The startup OnePlus recently launched its first smartphone, the One, and to deal with production issues it's been letting people buy them by invitation only, slowly offering them to more people as more are produced. It's a weird system, and today OnePlus began supplementing it with a horribly conceived and deeply sexist contest that allows women to jump the line if they're willing to have a bunch of internet dudes vote on their appearance. The contest asks women to draw the OnePlus logo on their body (or on a sheet of paper that they're holding) and then take a photo of themselves and post it in OnePlus' forums. From there, the 50 "most well liked" will get a free T-shirt and have the option of buying the phone.

"This contest is sexist and insulting. Way to inflict self-esteem issues."

OnePlus is calling it the "Ladies First" contest, and it's basically as awful as it sounds. To say nothing of the fact that the prize is merely the opportunity to buy a phone at full price, the entire conceit is that the male fans of OnePlus are honoring women by voting on them. "In true gentlemen fashion and because chivalry is not dead, we are giving the lovely ladies of OnePlus a chance to skip the invite line," OnePlus staffer Jerry writes. Jerry introduces the contest by writing that "OnePlus wants to give a shout out to the few but beautiful female fans in our community."

If you're having trouble imagining why OnePlus might have just a few female fans, there's a good chance that it's related to the wholly off-putting, condescending, and inconsiderate attitudes that this contest demonstrates. The entire contest looks like guys from the depths of the internet finally found some amount of social currency and are using it to coax women into putting on a show for them, or somehow mixing that with a strange form of advertising. OnePlus is hardly the only member of the tech industry that's making a lack of respect for women so pervasive, but this is a truly blatant, bad, and public example of it.

OnePlus has received a few submissions so far, but it's received about as many fake submissions from guys Photoshopping OnePlus logos onto womens' bodies as it has actual submissions. Other comments are men leering over the womens' photos, while others just note that there aren't actually that many women on the forums. A few of the photos have been women standing up against the contest though, with one woman flipping OnePlus off and another woman holding up a sign that reads "This contest is sexist and insulting. Way to inflict self-esteem issues, we don't have enough of those in our society."

Following widespread attention and backlash, OnePlus removed the Ladies First contest page from its forums shortly after 3PM ET. In a comment sent to The Verge later in the day, a OnePlus spokesperson said that the company regretted the promotion, characterizing it as "very misguided" and "perpetuat[ing] a stereotype that OnePlus in no way supports or condones." Its full comment can be read below.

OnePlus is thrilled to have a small but growing number of women active in our online community. We want to encourage even more women to get involved with and excited about the amazing things happening in tech right now. The 'Ladies First' contest was a very misguided effort by a few isolated employees to do just that, however there is no question the post not only failed to better include our female community but actually perpetuated a stereotype that OnePlus in no way supports or condones. We deeply regret any offense caused by this contest.

Update August 12th, 3:36PM ET: OnePlus has removed the contest page from its forum following wide coverage of the promotion. This article has been updated to note its removal.

Update August 12th, 10:11PM ET: this article has been updated to include OnePlus' response to a request for comment.