An Apology From TechCrunch • Hacker News Board

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#181

Post by foobarbazqux » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:40 PM UTC

MistahKoala wrote: post #172

foobarbazqux wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desperately trying to escape the shittiness of your life through drug abuse, and from there getting into prostitution, is still desperation. Say what you will about respect, but I find it disgusting that our society demeans women by congratulating them for entering sex work as a profession. ("Oh good for you, you made a free choice to take off your panties for me! What a sweet little empowered capitalist you are!") T…

And there are plenty that don't. Presumably you don't claim those women for yourself, though.

There are also plenty of women that will tell you they are freely choosing to submit to male authority by wearing a head scarf, or binding their feet which requires breaking the arches so they can fold them in half (in centuries past), or working for significantly less money, or, or, or...

In general, I don't take people's words about the freedom of the choices they've made at face value unless they've first convinced me that they're actually free to make those choices, and that includes freedom from longstanding emotional baggage and unresolved internal conflicts.

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#182

Post by gojomo » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 10:10 PM UTC

roguecoder wrote: post #174

Amadou wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chosen example photos seemed to have as their subject the male gaze, not the breasts themselves. Yes, so many people seem to have missed this key point. To quote from the opening sentence in the presentation - "Titstare is an app where you take photos of yourself staring at tits."

Right there, they have just assumed the audience is entirely male, entirely straight and entirely just as crass, rude and objectifying as they are. Even if the app weren't also obviously sexist and offensive, those assumptions are. (They are also insulting every man in the audience. I take personal offense that they assume I am as uncaring and lazy as they are.)

I don't believe any hack of the 250+ presented was intended to be equally useful to 100% of the audience. The 9-year-old certainly didn't assume the audience was entirely children looking for playdates.

Since the presentation obviously wasn't serious, imputing any serious 'assumptions' to the presenters is silly.

It's not even an app, really. It's a 'Joke App Mockup' – a bit of trolling performance art. You give it more voice and power with your outrage.

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#183

Post by subsystem » Tue, Sep 10, 2013, 9:45 AM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #150

subsystem wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If something is actually good it rarely has to hide behind something like sexism. It's not like you read xkcd and think "I wish it had more dick jokes".

No, it's not like you read xkcd and think "I wish it had more dick jokes". I would prefer my xkcd with an extra side order of dick jokes with fries. Please stop generalizing your personal likes and dislikes and rebasing them onto the rest of us.

Ah, the downfall of HN personified.

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#184

Post by crankywoman » Tue, Sep 10, 2013, 11:18 AM UTC

Just crass. 15 minutes of fame and they got it. But are they capable of designing and commercialising a real idea? We can all take short cuts to get publicity (I'm thinking of an app called 'check my package' which photographs and then invites comments on mens' anatomy). Poor form from the organisers - in the world of grown up tech we expect better. Plenty of room for fun but not schoolboy stuff.

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#185

Post by maxcan » Tue, Sep 10, 2013, 10:17 PM UTC

graue wrote: post #82

zainny wrote: post #64

I wonder if the biggest reason why things like this keep happening is because we're all on a state of "high alert" in the tech community. Hear me out. 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 apolo…

First of all, not everything that's ok in an entertainment medium (TV, movies) is ok in a professional setting. I don't think presentations like these would have been appropriate at a conference of lawyers, doctors, artists, or biologists, either. That said I think this also has to do with the extreme gender imbalance. Tech conferences are very male-dominated. I think the first photo here really gets this across, of…

Imagine that you're a man who has to pee really badly. Not every issue tips in men's favor.

Re: An Apology From TechCrunch

#186

Post by maxcan » Tue, Sep 10, 2013, 10:22 PM UTC

Sidenote: I find expressions of religious faith particularly offensive and harmful to children. We should ban any faith related apps from tech conferences.