Is 0xcafebabe on the chopping block as well?
How about 0xDEADBEEF and vegetarians?
Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
21–30 of 65 posts
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a bit bigger of an issue than that. There's nothing wrong with easter eggs, but the big issue here is that it is a sexist remark at a time when women are having a difficult time making it in many STEM fields, specifically software development, directly because of the actions like this that affect them in the workplace.
Goddamnit, I don't know what's sexist and what isn't any more. What if the message was 0xB1GD1CK (okay, there's no K in hex). Should men be offended?
I encode my numbers in base 21, therefore I can use 0xB1GD1CK as a value. Anyone care to write an article about how sexist I am and shame my employer into a public apology?
Sarcasm aside, we ARE facing an issue in the tech world. People that objectify women, discriminate against them or even so little as treat them differently in the workplace should be shamed. However, this crossed the line (imo). Statistics suggest that this was written by a man but I can see a lot of my female friends (if they programmed) be comfortable enough with what they are to use 0xB16B00B5 themselves.
Heck, I'd use 0xB1GD1CK in my code if I could.
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#23The mere fact that so many software developers don't see the big issue here is exactly the big issue.
I don't see the big issue.
The phrase "big boobs" alone is not sexist.
If it had said "the only good thing about women is big boobs" this would be a different case, but it doesn't. The phrase alone means nothing and anyone calling it derogatory or celebratory is simply projecting.
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Goddamnit, I don't know what's sexist and what isn't any more. What if the message was 0xB1GD1CK (okay, there's no K in hex). Should men be offended?
Although I obviously understand how you formed your analogy, I just don't see how it's actually analogous. Software development is a male-dominated field, and the objectification of body parts is much more prevalent with women's breasts than with male genitalia. If we lived in a world where males felt uncomfortable working in software development environments due to repeated sexual harassment by their predominantly f…
That's fair. However, I don't understand what "objectification of body parts is". Men are attracted to big breasts, small waists and large hips, women are attracted to broad shoulders and big arms (or so I am led to believe).
Body parts are objects. I don't expect my broad shoulders to be able to hold a reasoned debate for long. What do you mean by objectification? If the fact that someone is attracted to "big boobs" and putting it in some source code is anathema, does the same thing happen with "intelligence is hot"? If not, why is one acceptable and the other not?
Granted, I haven't thought about these issues long, so my mind can easily be changed if someone demonstrates errors, but it seems to me that we went from "some men need to stop being creeps and hit on women at least during work hours" to "any mention of any attraction ever is forbidden".
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#25Dear god. Microsoft ought just chill. Anyone offended by a Hex string needs iCouch.me. It would be different if it were some Nazi slogan or some Al Sharpton quote. Either way, it's in Hex. Consider it a funny Easter egg. Let the nerds have some fun! After all, for some MS engineers, that's a close to big boobies as they'll ever get.
It's a bit bigger of an issue than that. There's nothing wrong with easter eggs, but the big issue here is that it is a sexist remark at a time when women are having a difficult time making it in many STEM fields, specifically software development, directly because of the actions like this that affect them in the workplace.
I don't believe that sexual harassment is the only reason more women aren't in the field. The same level and types of harassment are found in any field. The problem is with the picture society paints of anti-social, acne-ridden males dwelling underground with only faint green light for illumination as the "computer geek". There are many other reasons as well including the lack of exposure to the field during education, the same goes for Engineering.
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#26The mere fact that so many software developers don't see the big issue here is exactly the big issue.
Why? People who don't get jobs because of their gender is a big issue. Why, of all problems, is this a big issue?
In my not so humble opinion, people are simply looking for something to complain about. If there were a supposedly man-degrading word that could easily be expressed in hex, I'd use that for debugging, too. There's absolutely no reason to think that the use of these words is somehow meant as some sort of insult, and taking it as such appears to me to show a very rigid mind.
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#27Related: I just noticed the original answer to the "How to be a brogrammer" Quora question got pulled down. Brogrammer backlash has been swift. http://www.quora.com/Brogramming/How-does-a-programmer-becom...
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#28Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Goddamnit, I don't know what's sexist and what isn't any more. What if the message was 0xB1GD1CK (okay, there's no K in hex). Should men be offended?
I encode my numbers in base 21, therefore I can use 0xB1GD1CK as a value. Anyone care to write an article about how sexist I am and shame my employer into a public apology? Sarcasm aside, we ARE facing an issue in the tech world. People that objectify women, discriminate against them or even so little as treat them differently in the workplace should be shamed. However, this crossed the line (imo). Statistics suggest…
I'm definitely aware of people making women's lives harder, and some women say that even small things like these can wear you out eventually, but I don't know.
I mean, surely, if you reverse the sexes and this is okay, it should be okay as-is, too. The enviroment that makes women not want to be in tech would also not be okay if the roles were reversed, but this isn't an instance of that, as far as I can tell.
Re: Microsoft fixes 'big boobs' coding gaffe
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Goddamnit, I don't know what's sexist and what isn't any more. What if the message was 0xB1GD1CK (okay, there's no K in hex). Should men be offended?
Although I obviously understand how you formed your analogy, I just don't see how it's actually analogous. Software development is a male-dominated field, and the objectification of body parts is much more prevalent with women's breasts than with male genitalia. If we lived in a world where males felt uncomfortable working in software development environments due to repeated sexual harassment by their predominantly f…
Then fight the people that are truly objectifying women and harassing them.
This kind of overblown press coverage for an hex value that is not degrading in itself serves only one purpose: making the sexist males take this issue even less seriously than they did before.
Try and imagine for a moment someone that truly degrades/objectifies/discriminates against women. This hypothetical person will not read this article and go "Oh I was wrong, I'll be nicer to women from now on". They think to themselves how ridiculous this is, perceive women as weaker (as is often the reason they have this attitude towards them in the first place) and go on their merry way.