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Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

johannakoll.posterous.com

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Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#161
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what about teh whitez? Prejudice against privileged groups isn't met with as much outrage as prejudice against unprivileged groups, and this is as it should be. Both are harmful, but the harm of the former is tiny in comparison to the harm of the latter.

So you are allowed to consider race when you are choosing your level of outrage?

You are "allowed" to consider privilege.

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#162

[comment on the comments here] These threads make me so depressed. HN is normally such a well-informed, polite place. Then someone posts a "sexism exists and is bad" post and suddenly this is a youtube comment thread where wilfully-ignorant people shout at each other (alas, with a layer of smugness because they have superficially analysed the problem, or rather, have analysed how to speak their prejudice while soundi…

I feel attracted to these threads like moth to a flame. It's not healthy. I could make all sorts of rude suppositions about why frustrated douchebags comment on these threads...

maybe that's why they're called "flame wars"... :)

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People laugh when they hear a "racist" joke because it's funny. Maybe race related jokes don't have a place at conferences and work places - I am not sure - but there should be room for jokes about race somewhere, right? I mean, where does this political correctness stop?

>I mean, where does this political correctness stop? When you are exclusively in the company of people who know you well enough to tell precisely how ironic you are or aren't being.

There's no such thing as ironic humor based on sexism, racism, ageism, ableism, etc. If you are a member of a privileged group and you make jokes or use terms that have historically been used against people, you aren't being ironic, you are upholding the same sexism/racism/ageism/ableism/etc.

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#164
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what about teh whitez? Prejudice against privileged groups isn't met with as much outrage as prejudice against unprivileged groups, and this is as it should be. Both are harmful, but the harm of the former is tiny in comparison to the harm of the latter.

So you are allowed to consider race when you are choosing your level of outrage?

When white people are enslaved, removed from their native homeland, and used as a primary economic engine for another race for ~300 years, then we can start talking about outrage over the treatment white people get.

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#165
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are allowed to consider race when you are choosing your level of outrage?

In the same way that a 5-year old child punching a 30-year-old adult is not the same thing as a 30-year-old adult punching a 5-year-old child, yes. This gets complicated when we consider that treating underprivileged groups as the proverbial 5-year-old children can also be a problem, such as when we assume they're incapable of speaking cogently for themselves, and so on. It's a difficult problem, which is why these k…

This is the best comment in the thread.

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#166
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do you suggest that the way women are represented + put to use in the media/marketing is okay? Just because X is the case, doesn't make X okay. There's an obvious point being made when a slide with women clad in bikinis is shown at a geeky male-dominated conference. Do you think that's about some women looking sexy? And what do you think about the contrast between those slides and the technical ones? Do you not th…

> There's an obvious point being made when a slide with women clad in bikinis is shown at a geeky male-dominated conference. Sorry, what point? The first thing that comes to mind is that the presenter wants to communicate that the tech is sexy. > And what do you think about the contrast between those slides and the technical ones? I might be thinking of a different slide deck, but the women were on the same slides (t…

> Sorry, what point? The first thing that comes to mind is that the presenter wants to communicate that the tech is sexy.

That kind of imagery is made for a male gaze and is oriented towards straight men, so how exactly does that convey sexy to a room full of people of different gender and different orientations? (hint: it doesn't and using that kind of imagery is very sexist and alienating)

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#167
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's an obvious point being made when a slide with women clad in bikinis is shown at a geeky male-dominated conference. Sorry, what point? The first thing that comes to mind is that the presenter wants to communicate that the tech is sexy. > And what do you think about the contrast between those slides and the technical ones? I might be thinking of a different slide deck, but the women were on the same slides (t…

> Sorry, what point? The first thing that comes to mind is that the presenter wants to communicate that the tech is sexy. That kind of imagery is made for a male gaze and is oriented towards straight men, so how exactly does that convey sexy to a room full of people of different gender and different orientations? (hint: it doesn't and using that kind of imagery is very sexist and alienating)

I don't disagree that male gaze is a problem. But if you pick up anything targeted at women, they also use women to denote sexy things. So I don't think it's alienating. And why would it be degrading?

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#168
post #4

For those who think it doesn't matter, and that there is no sexism and that women aren't be discriminated against due to the pure fact of their gender, be aware that there have been double blinded scientific studies that show that if you change the name of a CV/resume to a female name when applying for science jobs, they don't get as much/as good offers. If this was question about whether a new drug worked or not, th…

Depending on industry, sexism takes other (equally destructive) forms as well. A friend of mine quit his job at a big law firm that shall not be named when he found that attractiveness was the primary criterion for hiring women. He sat in on a hiring meeting once, where the following sorts of conversations took place:

"Katrina. That sounds hot. Do you think Katrina's probably hot? Let's give her an interview."

This was in 2006, by the way, not 1956.

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sexism in tech and the workplace are real problems, but I don't think a slide with a woman in underwear is a good example. You're dismissing a real problem here. Sexism is not isolated to acts of discrimination, it is a part of culture. Fixing sexism is not just about stopping discrimination, it is about changing culture. We bombard kids with pictures of sexy women in bikinis and men in lab coats, and wonder why th…

Sexism is not isolated to acts of discrimination, it is a part of culture. Fixing sexism is not just about stopping discrimination, it is about changing culture Maybe, but I'm not convinced: again, see Sciolino as a counter-example. We bombard kids with pictures of sexy women in bikinis and men in lab coats, and wonder why there aren't as many women in tech even though they're so damn competent at it. There's some tr…

> Maybe, but I'm not convinced: again, see Sciolino as a counter-example.

Sexism is most definitely cultural, almost all critical writing at various levels has talked about the cultural and systemic nature of sexism. While French and US culture is different, France also has its share of cultural issues with sexism and racism, so it does not follow that because some customs are different there is no sexism.

> But women in bikinis appear in so many contexts (advertising, magazines, etc.) because so many people apparently want to see women in bikinis.

Using women's bodies as a commodity in advertising and marketing does not mean that everyone wants to see women in bikinis all the time. You might want to see Killing Us Softly for more information about women and advertising (this link is trailer only, I'm afraid): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY

Re: Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

#170
To say that only the women in the crowd would be offended by images of other women in underwear, or jokes about strip clubs would be making unfair sexual orientation assumptions about those same women. Maybe they're gay, bisexual or entertained just as much as the guys by seeing this imagery. The author is assuming all women are like her and are offended. That in an of itself is more concerning to me than the lame sexist jokes. Not to mention there was probably some gay guys in the crowd, who probably were more offended by the images than the straight women were.
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