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'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

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Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#111
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't. Presenting it was not an act of discrimination or hate. It was inconsiderate and possibly both crude and dumb.

If its not sexist, then can you explain why it is inconsiderate?

It's inconsiderate because they got all the men thinking about tits at a mostly tit-less conference.

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#112
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both genders objectify each other on a regular basis. There isn't even anything wrong with that (unless objectifying each other is the whole of your entire concept and interaction with the other gender). The issue here is pretty clear cut. It wasn't appropriate for the setting in which it was presented. Nothing more. A stupid app, Cosmo magazine, pinup posters, physical attraction, and so on aren't really relevant an…

Yeah, there is something wrong with objectification. When you reduce someone to an impersonal object, with no regard to their dignity or personality, you dehumanise them. You can essentially do what you will with them.

Guess what? People I don't know in a porn video performing sexual acts as their profession in order to sexually arouse people watching them are "impersonal objects". So are male and female models who exist as clothing-racks or make-up canvases. Musicians and actors exist to entertain and their dignity and personality are not relevant. My garbageman is a guy who exists to make my cans of trash go away.

Even you, as highly as you must regard every human interaction in your every moment of existence, surely deal with a great number of people on a regular basis who exist simply to perform a function that you benefit from.

As for "you can essentially do what you will with them"... I think that speaks more to you than anyone who enjoys porn, strippers, pinup posters, musicians, dancers, actors, or anyone else that they have no personal regard for. That statement is kind of like a religious person finding out that I'm an atheist and incredulously responding with "if you don't believe in god, how come you're not out raping and murdering people?!".

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#113

Frankly, TitStare was quite funny. In despite of being tits-related, i can't see how a woman could find it offensive (maybe because she has tits too? i can't see the correlation). It's more about lonely developers staring at tits. It's funny to see how the tech industry is passing thru its "feminist" age and just can't understand that THERE ARE differences between men and women, which doesn't mean anyhow that one is…

It's more about objectification of women it doesn't matter if it is lonely developers doing it. It is disrespectful. What are the women who attended this hackathon supposed to think. Do you think they would feel like they are valued for the ideas and knowledge they bring, or their tits?

I have asserted that it's not so much that it in itself is disrespectful. It is disrespectful that they would not take into consideration that some of their audience may be made awkward by it (and a person can feel awkward about many things which are not necessarily bad in any way).

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#114
post #102

When you gear an entire industry to the immaturity of male youth, what do you expect? I'm a 46 year old male with almost 20 years of various IT experience (systems administration to .net coding to sql server) and the terms rockstar, ninja, brogrammer don't apply, nor appeal to me. I would argue that the entire IT industry is to blame for this bullshit. Stop, just for a moment, to think about the culture you're manife…

//"rockstars" wash up, burn out, fade away or simply die and the fall is as quick as the rise."//

So exactly as most of us have come to know the industry over the last two decades. :/

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tits as well as tit jokes are damn entertaining. For some only. That's the point.

Guess what? Women find tit jokes funny too so don't even try and say that you know what the whole group of Women is thinking... Fuck cencorship. The freedom to offend is more important.

Nowhere did I say that I "know what the whole group of Women is thinking". It's a bit ironic that you precede that with "Women find tit jokes funny" which could be interpreted as you saying that you in fact do know.

But I do know for a fact that some women, in fact some people do not find them funny. Which is what I did say.

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#116
post #92
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feminism is about the equality of opportunity and power . You cannot create a picture of equal sexism by demonstrating a low-power, low-economic status, low opportunity-of-career-advancement role (that has traditionally been a female-only occupation due in-part to traditional gender-specific roles around child-rearing) where men who choose to enter it are viewed with scepticism. Especially if that role includes close…

You had me up until "Sexism is a female only problem". This is provably false for any sane definition of sexism. Try being a male nurse or kindergarten teacher, getting an allegation of sexual abuse taken seriously, looking at the statistics of criminal charges vs. convictions by gender etc.

Sexism is not a problem for men as long as men hold most of the power and are afforded most of the best opportunities.

Equality is not about uniformity — it is about the overall balance.

You are picking small examples where women outnumber men and are claiming cause and effect. Show me a genuinely powerful organisation or occupation that discriminates against men and I'll fight it with you.

Looking at Kindergarten teachers is a red herring. Look at board members, police & army chiefs, presidents, government minsters, nobel prize winners etc. THat's where the power is so that is where the sexism is.

Power & opportunities; not uniformity.

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And to me this sounds as racist as any casual sexism I hear in the workplace. Why did you need to re-iterate -- in a negative manner -- that they were Australians, and that this somehow explains their behaviour? OK -- I wrote that before realising that you are also living in Australia (and I assume a male citizen), but I'm still not sure that makes it any better...

I didn't say all Australians are boofheads. I said some Australians are boofheads. And I never said it explains or condones their behaviour that they are Australians. Doesn't help stereotypes! Yes, I am an Australian male :-)

If I talk about a tree branch, does that mean I think the whole tree does not exist? Am I "objectifying the tree" by reducing it down to one branch?

That's why it's ridiculous to say that joking about tits is "objectifying women". It's not. You're wrong.

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess what? Women find tit jokes funny too so don't even try and say that you know what the whole group of Women is thinking... Fuck cencorship. The freedom to offend is more important.

Nowhere did I say that I "know what the whole group of Women is thinking". It's a bit ironic that you precede that with "Women find tit jokes funny" which could be interpreted as you saying that you in fact do know. But I do know for a fact that some women, in fact some people do not find them funny. Which is what I did say.

So then what's your point?

Don't joke about anything that anybody could possibly get offended at?

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#119
post #51

This is actually a good example why you should have a code of conduct as a conference. Bad things on stage happen. As an organizer, you can now write an apology that sounds like the one techcrunch wrote: http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/08/an-apology-from-techcrunch/ Or, if you had a CoC, it could sound like this: * "Sorry, we had people on stage that violated the rules we agreed upon beforehand. They were expelled from…

And that would actually seem to be a really reasonable progression for this whole thing. The presenters say "we made an unfortunate judgement call and we apologize" and the conference says "so from now on, here's our short list of rules to avoid uncertainties in the future" and then we all grow up and move on with our lives.

Unfortunately the tech industry seems to be enamoured with not merely being offended, but being offended by the potential that they could have been offended. So we'll circle the drain with everyone beating the drum in support of their own personal agendas for awhile more before this is over.

By that time, someone else will have done something dumb and we'll be ready to have another go.

Re: 'Titstare' app at TechCrunch: women in tech deserve better

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not sexist to make an app to encourage men to ogle random women's breasts and submit photos while doing so, to an audience of men and women. I think you will have to accept that many people hold a exactly opposite opinion on that point.

Did I indicate anywhere that some people don't have the opposite, poorly formed opinion? I don't give a shit. If they try censorship, I say offend them even more until THEY accept that not everyone agrees with them.

> Did I indicate anywhere that some people don't have the opposite, poorly formed opinion?

I think that we can agree that there are poorly formed opinions on display here.

> I say offend them even more until THEY accept that not everyone agrees with them.

Someone's throwing their toys around today.

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