Girl Tickets to ng-conf • Hacker News Board

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#11

Post by jblow » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:38 AM UTC

LadyMartel wrote: post #10

abduhl wrote: post #4

This is one of the things that confuses me so much about the feminist movement in tech and in society at large. The conference organizers are trying to encourage female attendance by giving discounted tickets to women and someone immediately finds fault with them; however, if no effort were made then a multitude of posts would probably show up lamenting the lack of female attendance at the conference. This type of ca…

I'm not speaking for some imaginary strawman-feminist. I would rather that the event organizers treat me like anyone else and assume that my attendance would be based upon my interest in the subject and not offer me some affirmative-action ticket that automatically separates me from everyone else.

But isn't that how tech conferences usually work? And doesn't that result in the kind of gender ratio problem about which there is much dismay?

Agreed, they did this in a clumsy way, but hey, they are trying something.

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#12

Post by octatone2 » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:41 AM UTC

abduhl wrote: post #4

This is one of the things that confuses me so much about the feminist movement in tech and in society at large. The conference organizers are trying to encourage female attendance by giving discounted tickets to women and someone immediately finds fault with them; however, if no effort were made then a multitude of posts would probably show up lamenting the lack of female attendance at the conference. This type of ca…

Are normal tickets called "boy tickets"? Are they required to be in blue lanyards? Will women caught with blue lanyards be kicked out of the conference? -_-

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#13

Post by WildUtah » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:41 AM UTC

1. Instead of girl-tickets, which is insulting, they should be called "Chickets."

2. Not all girls -- especially adult professional girls -- subscribe to traditional princess gender roles. Offer a variety of pretty pastel and rainbow colors beyond staid and confining old pink. Maybe men could also have some nice alpha earth tones for their lanyards for contrast so that nobody with a gender dimorphic identity could ever feel welcome.

3. Conference fees in the $1000 range are usually paid by employers. Try rewarding the actual girls who might come instead of just lowering the price for the boss who won't share with them anyway. For example, girls could be rewarded with many $5 bills generously slipped into their pants by passersby.

4. If this system prospers, it is certain not to inspire any kind of backlash from non-girls who feel the price differential is unfair to them.

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#14

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:42 AM UTC

abduhl wrote: post #4

This is one of the things that confuses me so much about the feminist movement in tech and in society at large. The conference organizers are trying to encourage female attendance by giving discounted tickets to women and someone immediately finds fault with them; however, if no effort were made then a multitude of posts would probably show up lamenting the lack of female attendance at the conference. This type of ca…

[deleted]

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#15

Post by RyanZAG » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:42 AM UTC

This discussion will go off the rails like always, but I just want to point out that not all women (girls?) are the same. Many women will take this positively and attend because this would make them feel welcome, while many others would be put off by this. Simply being female does not give you the ultimate say on whether this is fine or not. You are not some spokeswoman for your entire gender.

I'd judge this as a success or not based on how many of these tickets are used, which will be found out after the conference. Hopefully they do a post on the statistics at the end so we can make proper conclusions.

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#16

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:43 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#17

Post by brnstz » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:48 AM UTC

jblow wrote: post #11

LadyMartel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not speaking for some imaginary strawman-feminist. I would rather that the event organizers treat me like anyone else and assume that my attendance would be based upon my interest in the subject and not offer me some affirmative-action ticket that automatically separates me from everyone else.

But isn't that how tech conferences usually work? And doesn't that result in the kind of gender ratio problem about which there is much dismay? Agreed, they did this in a clumsy way, but hey, they are trying something.

The problem is not gender parity at conferences, but gender parity in the industry. You see the inverse at conferences in fields dominated bg women, and there are no "boy tickets".

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#18

Post by penrod » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:48 AM UTC

serf wrote: post #3

if you don't like the use of the word girl, eh. I don't really like boy much, either, but it wouldn't offend me. 'Boy's night out', 'one of the boys', whatever. It's not professional, but tech companies tend to be pretty fringe on the word professional, anyway. if you don't like the idea of giving a specific sex a discounted ticket for simply having been born with different genitalia , right on. I totally agree.

On the topic of annoying words, thank you for writing "sex" rather than "gender". I hate that stupid euphemism.

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#19

Post by jmduke » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:51 AM UTC

"In what other industry is it okay to give discounted “girl tickets”?"

To provide, at least, an objective answer, airlines will discount tickets if they have a given level of certainty that the passenger is female -- except, interestingly, on Thanksgiving and Mother's Day, when female demand is higher than male demand.

Re: Girl Tickets to ng-conf

#20

Post by camus » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:51 AM UTC

That's called neo-sexism, like affirmative action was neo-racism ( i dont deny the social implications of racial segregation and slavery, but these politics did not make people less racist). If I was a girl I would definetly feel offended. Now what about tickets for us black people ? We too are a minority in the IT sector... how does it sound now ?