61–70 of 186 posts
I've always wondered why in the US everyone loses their shit over a tittie app, but in Europe you can have billboards containing nothing but naked breasts advertising a conference. Source: http://metro.co.uk/2009/09/11/giant-boobs-advert-turns-heads... Related question: would everyone lose their shit if the app was called GuyStare and was aimed at women to look at hot guys?
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Having gone to the NYC hackathon hosted in May for the last 3 years, I can tell you that the submissions are NEVER screened beforehand. All they want to know is the name and a Tweet-sized pitch.
That's really surprising to me. Is the NYC hackathon broadcast live as well? The main reason I assumed there was at least some vetting going on was because the potential for legal / embarrassment / etc on a live broadcast is so much greater. Either way, I think it's safe to say they'll probably be looking for a bit more info up front in future.
Modern society has a similar problem distinguishing between racist humor and racial humor. While there certainly can be overlap between -ist and -ual humor, my general rule for distinguishing the two is that -ist humor stereotypes to get laughs while -ual humor laughs at the stereotyping.
Lots of organizations think the line between the -ist and -ual is too fine and prefer to outright ban the acknowledgment of any issues at all. If we forbid discussion of race at all then you never have to think about whether a topic is racist or racial. Same with sex, if all mention of sex is forbidden then there is no chance of someone saying something sexist.
If an organization wants to take such a "throw the baby out with the bathwater" approach that's their prerogative, but they should be clear about it. Don't say "any type of sexism will not be allowed" say "any mention of sex will not be allowed."
Right now in the tech world we've got ourselves in a big damn tizzy over anything even slightly sexual in nature.
By contrast, almost every single other medium we encounter on a day to day basis (TV, movies, magazines) is HIGHLY sexualised and makes absolutely no apologies for it. I've seen TV ads on primetime more offensive than some of these presentations.
I wonder if we're just going to keep running in to this issue again and again in the tech world simply because our standards are so out of whack with what the average person deems appropriate?
Anyone coming here, wondering what happened, there were two presentation which were clearly inappropriate. First one was an app called TitStare , which allows you to view, upload, and share softcore photos of.. use your imagination. The second, circle shake , was an app to measure how fast you can jerk your wrist, upload and share your scores, accompanied by a pretty wild presentation. I think the first one must have…
Circle Shake is inappropriate for the audience and setting and everyone involved should have known better. But it's not misogynist. It's a joke about masturbation, which is a normal, healthy thing that people of both sexes generally do. Casting it as an attack on women is absurd, and gets into "women can't handle sex talk!" territory.
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You had to create a new HN identity to post that? Afraid of something? Hacker culture is no longer a good-ol-boy's club for good reasons. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't feel very included in a culture that denigrated me like certain hacker events of late do to women.
I didn't have an HN identity. I felt like this might be an interesting discussion, so I created an account. Is it a big secret that men like to look at boobs? I'd like to meet the women who were so offended by such an obvious joke. In the entire circle of women I know, I really can't think of one who wouldn't recognize the playfulness of the idea (and not take it seriously). If a female made an app that included men'…
Probably not, but that is because men aren't trying to release themselves from the clutches of institutional harassment and marginalization in tech. It isn't like you can just swap the pronouns for your argument - because in doing so, you also swap the historical context and culture, and when you do that then you come to different conclusions.
Are people actually outraged? Since when did hacker culture take such a large turn toward political correctness?
Political correctness is sensitivity to the minority, and is generally not a bad thing.
simply put, intent matters and people need to accept that a reflexive hostility towards puerile male humor does not advance the cause of women.
I've always wondered why in the US everyone loses their shit over a tittie app, but in Europe you can have billboards containing nothing but naked breasts advertising a conference. Source: http://metro.co.uk/2009/09/11/giant-boobs-advert-turns-heads... Related question: would everyone lose their shit if the app was called GuyStare and was aimed at women to look at hot guys?
It's because sexism only exists in the United States.
I'd like to stem a couple of obvious, but inevitable (for HN and some other tech communities) criticisms that are bound to appear: 1) Yes, this stuff is tasteless and offends the sensibilities of most decent adults. (Invariably, someone likes to point out that it offends everyone, and conclude therefore that it can't be misogynistic) 2) Yes, people differ in their tolerances for crudeness in their humor. First, I thi…
The sexism is in knowing that it will make most women somewhat uncomfortable, and some women very uncomfortable, and not caring.
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That was absolutely hilarious. I encourage stuff like this. Have a little fun people, nothing to apologize for. Who actually got offended?
Please read and understand this: http://therealkatie.net/blog/2012/mar/21/lighten-up/
> This is a great example of what I call "petty injustice". The sheer volume of petty injustice causes far more net harm than "great injustice" but because it happens incrementally it is incredibly hard to combat for precisely the reasons you anecdotally state.
> When someone tells you to lighten up, have a script ready. Something like, "What you just said was one small example in a long-standing pattern of subtle discrimination that I've had to endure for years. In that context, it is not okay for you to tell me to lighten up."