Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

bropages.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 872 posts

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#281

Post by theorique »

ItendToDisagree wrote: post #230
theorique wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be a joke, but a lot of people actually do get upset by this!

Just imagine how upset people would get if you referred to a mixed gender crowd as "ladies" "come on now ladies lets move the tour along" "Who you calling 'lady'!?" Guys really is just a historically ingrained shorthand. I don't think I've ever heard it used in this sort of context to cause harm. Using "Ladies" in this way, on the other hand, could cause yourself harm.

Back in school, my sports coaches would sometimes refer to all male groups as "ladies". However, I suspect this is not what you're talking about ;)

As much as anything, I've heard many women refer to mixed gender groups as "guys" or "dudes". A lot of this "definition creep" is actually due to women themselves. Probably this is because the male identity is viewed as a source of power, and women seek this out and aim to identify with it.

In other words, I don't think the use of "guys" generically is being driven by sexist men. I think it's being driven by blurring of gender roles and definitions, and adoption of these generic terms by women.

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#282

Post by ilyanep »

[deleted] wrote: post #269
ilyanep wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Not_a_woman http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/You%27re_the_sexist#.22Ta...

[deleted]

"Geek Feminism is a highly politicized source [because they're feminist]...Perhaps you can find a more neutral source to cite as evidence [that somehow covers feminist issues without being "politicized"]"

Furthermore, those explicit two pages I linked basically describe his argument and then rebut them. We can have a discussion about why the pages don't in fact describe his argument or about why you disagree with the rebuttal. I can even verbatim paste what it says if you want.

I don't really want to debate on how skewed or biased the wiki is, because I don't really read it. But those two pages seemed relevant to me.

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#283

Post by dictum »

smoyer wrote: post #258
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite like "pam" [pamphlet] as an alternative - not the manual just a short pamphlet of examples ... or maybe just "ex" or "eg"? [ex currently is linked to a mode of vim (which I never use) on my system; eg isn't used but the system tells me it's for easygit. "pam" says no command found but that there are 23 similar. I don't know what program provides the suggestions precisely something in the apt ecosystem I suspe…

I don't know of a pam command in *nix, but there are a ton of modules related to the "Pluggable Authentication Module" with pam in the name. When I say "pam" at work, everyone thinks "PAM".

Pam is also often short for Pamela, which, if we're going to stick to no-gendered-anything-ever, is a gendered name.

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#284

Post by donotsurveil »

nailer wrote: post #96
dewitt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people are familiar with the term. It is not a compliment. See http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bro . "Obnoxious partying males who are often seen at college parties." "An alpha male idiot. This is the derogatory sense of the word (common usage in the western US): white, 16-25 years old, inarticulate, belligerent, talks about nothing but chicks and beer" "A usually white young male, fou…

Anything to do with gender on urban dictionary has been vote brigaded by feminist blogs for years now. See: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=man Here's the number one entry: Things With Penises who tell women anything just to get intercorse "timmy is like most men he tells tina he loves her so he can get ass then he never speaks to her again." The number two entry is about how real men love feminism and…

This doesn't mean dewitt point is invalid. From the point of view of someone outside of USofA bro is portrayed in the movies and the internet exactly as dewitt and urban dictionary says.

A loud and obnoxious fraternity guy with partying, acting stupid and engaging in despicable behavior as their life style.

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#285

Post by dnautics »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #213
blahedo wrote: post #99

Great idea; shame about the name. Here's the problem with using words like "bro" (however jokingly): the problem is not with what you [0] are thinking when you read the word "bro", but with what other people , especially newcomers, are thinking. The locker-room atmosphere that stuff like this creates is a huge barrier to entry for a lot of people, women especially, who infer that on top of all the technically difficu…

I disagree. There is nothing wrong with 'bro' just like there is nothing wrong with a programming language 'Julia'. They are both gender specific and you as an individual can infer whatever you like about the term. Only you, the individual, can determine how you feel about what someone says or writes, only you can determine whether or not you're insulted. How something IS vs. how a group FEELS are separate, and one s…

Hm. I always assumed Julia referred to Gaston Julia.

Funnily I was working at a place where the HR manager was named "Julia Lang" so we all had a laugh when I discovered (and pitched) the language - with its website "julialang.org".

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#286

Post by dreamfactory2 »

lowboy wrote: post #247
miah_ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'man' command is named that because its short for 'manual', it has nothing to do with 'men'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_pages

The etymology is inoffensive, but the term itself is still exclusionary by way of "man" also being a gendered term. We are (and should be) more cognisant of these issues these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#287

Post by [deleted] »

glesica wrote: post #253
overgard wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, lets throw away our sense of humor and wordplay because there are theoretically people that might be offended (maybe, kindof. You know. In theory.). (N.B. the people that seem to be offended so far are offended on other peoples behalf..) Isn't it way more offensive to assume that women are such dainty delicate creatures that like, they won't get the joke?

Another offended man checking in. Why is it so hard to accept that sexist language and actions are offensive to men? I suspect that most people would agree that white people can be offended by the use of terms like "nigger", or jokes about slavery. So then why can't men be offended by misogynistic language or jokes that are likely to create a hostile environment for women? I clicked, I saw the name and was a little t…

[deleted]

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#288

Post by KVFinn »

paul wrote: post #155

Awesome idea. Shame about the humorless nature of this community. To me, a "bro" is a dumb, fratboy version of a man, which makes the name hilariously perfect. If you're feeling oppressed and excluded by a command name, your real problems lie elsewhere.

>If you're feeling oppressed and excluded by a command name, your real problems lie elsewhere.

Similarly, why are you so offended by people thinking something is a bad name and expressing those sentiments?

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#289

Post by mumbi »

glesica wrote: post #253
overgard wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, lets throw away our sense of humor and wordplay because there are theoretically people that might be offended (maybe, kindof. You know. In theory.). (N.B. the people that seem to be offended so far are offended on other peoples behalf..) Isn't it way more offensive to assume that women are such dainty delicate creatures that like, they won't get the joke?

Another offended man checking in. Why is it so hard to accept that sexist language and actions are offensive to men? I suspect that most people would agree that white people can be offended by the use of terms like "nigger", or jokes about slavery. So then why can't men be offended by misogynistic language or jokes that are likely to create a hostile environment for women? I clicked, I saw the name and was a little t…

for a man to be offended by this FOR the sake of women, you must be one pussy whipped mofo.

let the down votes commence.

Re: Bro pages: like man pages, but with examples only

#290

Post by schrodinger »

blahedo wrote: post #99

Great idea; shame about the name. Here's the problem with using words like "bro" (however jokingly): the problem is not with what you [0] are thinking when you read the word "bro", but with what other people , especially newcomers, are thinking. The locker-room atmosphere that stuff like this creates is a huge barrier to entry for a lot of people, women especially, who infer that on top of all the technically difficu…

I agree that the name sucks. For some reason, I think boy pages would have been just as funny without the same baggage.
Post reply on HN