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XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

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Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#91

Post by pvarangot »

fleitz wrote: post #55
pvarangot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful with thinking that issues you think you have solved for yourself, or that you believe your friends have solved, are issues society or culture have solved. Isn't the phrase "don't be a pussy" part of your culture? Has your culture got over with most cheerleaders being white, female and fit already? The fact things have gotten better with time doesn't mean we are living the golden age of gender equality.

Yes, the phrase "dont be a pussy" is definitely a part of my culture as is the phrase "dont be a dick". They are both colloquial expressions of undesirable behavior that refer to genitals, I don't find it to be evidence of a larger overarching problem. Has your culture gotten over most chippendales being male, well-endowed and fit? There are people who enjoy sexuality and sensuality, I personally don't care that ther…

That there also exist objectification of the male sexuality doesn't justify any objectification of sexuality at all.

Also I don't believe by harassment and assault nor Randall nor anyone referred to being slapped on the ass. If we take domestic violence as the example, woman are a lot more often, and also more brutally, subjected to domestic abuse than men. I'm not being reductionist and suggesting that all of this is because we say "don't be a pussy", what I'm implying is that both are current examples of how western culture is violent and denigratory towards women.

I value your insight into overcoming detrimental gender biases as an example, and I'm not being overly polite, I really mean it. Life is both about the hand you were dealt and about how you play it. Arguing in favour of gender equality and trying not be sexist is about trying to give everybody a better starting hand, because not every single other one is going to be able to overcome things they way you did.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#93

Post by olalonde »

Steko wrote: post #84
_3u10 wrote: post #49

I take great offense to my culture being defined as "relentless treatment of women as objects teaches them that they are defined by the one thing that men around them want from them" Yes some people do that, but VERY few. It's as silly as thinking that all gay men speak with lisps, yes some do and those that do are very identifiable as likely gay. Yes there is always that guy in the bar that is inappropriate with wom…

Wow, just wow. It's almost as if you didn't read what Randall wrote. He's not saying "all men are ogres". He's saying "ogres exist and some women wish to avoid them". "I take great offense to my culture being defined ..." Total straw man, he didn't define any culture as this, he noted that it's one characteristic of our culture. "Yes some people do that, but VERY few." That's irrelevant. Baghdad is still a dangerous…

> Total straw man, he didn't define any culture as this, he noted that it's one characteristic of our culture.

From Randall's post: Our culture's relentless treatment of women as objects teaches them that they are defined by the one thing that men around them want from them [...]

> "Do you want to walk around Baghdad at night alone?"

An American man's likelihood of getting killed in Baghdad is a couple of magnitude higher than a woman's likelihood of getting killed by a sexual predator in NYC. In fact, my educated guess is that far more women die from car accidents than from crazy murderers.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#94

Post by sabraham »

jaredmck wrote: post #82
sabraham wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As to being bigger and stronger, perhaps we should look to the nation of Japan and the feats its military was able to achieve with men roughly the size of north american women. Women are perfectly capable of defending themselves, not that they should have to, just like smaller men are perfectly capable of defending themselves, not that they should have to. These are again averages and if you look at the deviances you…

Fend themselves off from what attack? Oh yeah, a straw (wo)man attack. How is your argument not part of "the culture that breeds feeling of ownership by men of women"? Simply spectacular invocation of rape culture arguments, not that I've ever seen this topic discussed rationally. No one needs to be trained to a military standard to fend off any type of vicious attack that might occur, because except in ultra-rare oc…

except in ultra-rare occasions they do not happen in first world countries

You've scuttled your own argument here.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#95

Post by ignifero »

demallien wrote: post #63
_3u10 wrote: post #49

I take great offense to my culture being defined as "relentless treatment of women as objects teaches them that they are defined by the one thing that men around them want from them" Yes some people do that, but VERY few. It's as silly as thinking that all gay men speak with lisps, yes some do and those that do are very identifiable as likely gay. Yes there is always that guy in the bar that is inappropriate with wom…

"but VERY few" I'm not sure what you're suggesting here. You know, if it's only 1% of men that act in a sexually predatory manner (workplace sexual harrassement, groping on public transport, all the way through to rape), how am I as a woman supposed to react? Online it's even worse, I can expect sexually explicit comments to be made to me with a probability approaching 1.0 if I reveal my gender (HN is a pleasant exce…

I am kind of surprised that you think the best way to amend a problem is to avoid it. How about asking Google to implement an anti-stalker program and to actively ban/restrict those who engage in such behaviour?

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#96

Post by pvarangot »

rawatson wrote: post #68
pvarangot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful with thinking that issues you think you have solved for yourself, or that you believe your friends have solved, are issues society or culture have solved. Isn't the phrase "don't be a pussy" part of your culture? Has your culture got over with most cheerleaders being white, female and fit already? The fact things have gotten better with time doesn't mean we are living the golden age of gender equality.

Amusingly enough, the phrase "don't be a pussy" originally had nothing to do with genitalia. However, time has certainly altered the word's meaning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy#Weakness

I really seem to have selected a poor example, sorry but Spanish is my native language and some subtleties of English (such as etymology) are sometimes elusive to me.

As to decorate with another amusing fact, while researching about "don't be a pussy" I found that Google translates it to Spanish as "no seas marica", which would be "don't be a marica", marica being a derogatory term to refer to homosexual men. I know Google Translate uses statistical analysis and not fixed rules... but what amuses me a little is the idea of how this fact alone could start a whole new inflammatory thread if posted on Google+ by some Internet celebrity.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#97

Post by ignifero »

silencio wrote: post #89
olalonde wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There seems to be deep ignorance of what it's like to be an old fat bald guy in our culture. Who do you think had the worse night? My guess is that it's the old fat bald guy who had to go home with his right hand, got publicly humiliated in front of all of his friends by getting rejected and physically pushed by a girl half his size. Not to forget his wallet is probably much lighter after paying all those drinks to w…

There is a lot more to it than "old fat bald guy". I don't know why so many people keep missing the extra clues, including in this past weekend's skeptic/atheist brouhaha over Richard Dawkins being ignorant. In short, it's the same damn situation. "Nice guy" (which is an unknown to the woman) approaches woman, gets rejected, is pissed off. Nice guy forgot to look at the situation, which was woman alone with man hitti…

That's all nice to hear, but the truth is that the (popular and unpopular) culture of western nations drives behavior to be outright hostile and racist to those with even minor genetic defects. And people herd themselves like sheep.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#98

Post by demallien »

muuh-gnu wrote: post #81
demallien wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but VERY few" I'm not sure what you're suggesting here. You know, if it's only 1% of men that act in a sexually predatory manner (workplace sexual harrassement, groping on public transport, all the way through to rape), how am I as a woman supposed to react? Online it's even worse, I can expect sexually explicit comments to be made to me with a probability approaching 1.0 if I reveal my gender (HN is a pleasant exce…

> until you've been in a bar and had a fat, bald guy Since when is being bald become a derogatory term? How do you expect to get sympathy for your position if you at the same time totally deadheartedly debase a group of people purely on their looks?

Sorry, I was just describing the last guy that actually did this to me, and those were the aspects that I found physically unattractive... If I had described him as 'totally fit, washboard abs, young guy with handsome square jaw', most people wouldn't understand what I was complaining about!

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#99

Post by archgoon »

edanm wrote: post #42
jordanb wrote: post #15

This seems like a really pointlessly long rant that boils down to a feature request: Change the "other" category to "other/not-disclosed". Also do these women who don't want to disclose their gender really need Randall Munroe to file the bug report for them?

"Also do these women who don't want to disclose their gender really need Randall Munroe to file the bug report for them?" That's disingenuous. He's simply acting as a good "beta tester" by filing a report on what he sees as a bug. I don't think he's setting himself up as "representing women", just someone who noticed a problem and has the ability to act on it (which is true of very few people in this case; how many G…

>which is true of very few people in this case; how many Google+ users have used the feedback option?)

I have, but for more mundane UI issues. Though I suspect that Mr. Munroe has considerable amplification power of his opinions. I have multiple reshares of that post at this point.

Re: XKCD's Randall Munroe on Google+ requiring your gender to be public

#100

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

ignifero wrote: post #95
demallien wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but VERY few" I'm not sure what you're suggesting here. You know, if it's only 1% of men that act in a sexually predatory manner (workplace sexual harrassement, groping on public transport, all the way through to rape), how am I as a woman supposed to react? Online it's even worse, I can expect sexually explicit comments to be made to me with a probability approaching 1.0 if I reveal my gender (HN is a pleasant exce…

I am kind of surprised that you think the best way to amend a problem is to avoid it. How about asking Google to implement an anti-stalker program and to actively ban/restrict those who engage in such behaviour?

They should do that too, but surely preventing a problem is better than looking to address it after the damage has been done?
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