61–70 of 79 posts
I'd love to hear more about the awkward moment that ensued when the rep got on stage and started talking, if he tried to play it off like that whole thing didn't just happen.
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Yes, this wasn't offensive to non-male-heteros - it was just offensive. Yet I have to say I'm still laughing and it being completely over the top lends it a certain element of 'this is too ridiculous to be considered a serious attempt to empower the hegemony'. It's bad taste in general, rather than offensive to any one party.
I've been trying to count the offenses...to men, women, developers, drug users, anti-drug activists, lyricists, grammarians, hermaphrodites, crypto folks, choreographers, markup mavens...it's almost, dare I say it? "Genious" Art. It's absolutely so bad that I can't even manage to be outraged by it, because it brings me to tears in laughter even just thinking about it, it's such a perfect nugget of awful. I was actual…
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You being an atheist really has nothing to do with this. Being offended at how women are objectified/marginalized in the tech industry and being offended at someone's personal religious choice are two completely different things. Also, it's "women", not "females".
I prefer reserving the term women for actual people and females for aggregrate groups. Makes it easier to keep the two separated.
Whoops. In this day and age of ubiquitous cameraphones and Youtube, nobody is allowed to have fun or be brutally honest anymore. Too much risk of being recorded and then quoted out of context or scrutinized by Puritans.
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I prefer reserving the term women for actual people and females for aggregrate groups. Makes it easier to keep the two separated.
Women showing up to tech conferences are actual people.
But if you want to discuss this issue, you have to do it in aggregate, concerning youself with the average person and what problems she statistically has. Then it makes sense to say female. She isn't a real person, just like no person actually has 2,3 kids.
I wonder if those playing the "it's cheesy but c'mon, it's not offensive" line have missed the 20+ discussions about sexism and how to foster a healthy environment for women in tech on HN over the last year. The assumption that developers are men is enough here, and speakers at the conference mentioned in the song have expressed surprise and distaste at their inclusion. For example, they say "Lea Verou will make your…
"Sexism" and "creepiness" are not synonyms of each other.
The objectification of women (and creepy behavior as an extension of that) is inherently alienating and in almost all circumstances is sexist (just by virtue of the fact that there's not a lot of folks out there creeping both women and men)
At the very least the two sets overlap heavily even if they are not synonymous.
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I've been trying to count the offenses...to men, women, developers, drug users, anti-drug activists, lyricists, grammarians, hermaphrodites, crypto folks, choreographers, markup mavens...it's almost, dare I say it? "Genious" Art. It's absolutely so bad that I can't even manage to be outraged by it, because it brings me to tears in laughter even just thinking about it, it's such a perfect nugget of awful. I was actual…
Wow, that is beautifully offensive. I hope the editor who approved those gets appropriately reprimanded/fired.
I grew up in the 80s, feeling that I could do anything and be anyone I wanted to be. A scientist or a singer? I was going to be both! Also, a writer! I feel really blessed by that; but my biggest worry looking around at TV and toys and games lately is that everything's so horrifically A/B tested that any kid who feels other (due to gender, race, or other differences) is marginalized and subtly given that "you can't" message.
I don't have the data, but it really feels like we're in retrograde (like what's up with the "So simple your Mom can use it" crap? My Mom ran an ISP in the early 90s & she's an XML nerd, simple is just going to turn her off...my Grandma was on AIM before most of my friends). I'm hoping there's something we can do to stop this cruddy discouragement--we really need everyone firing on all cylinders and diversity only strengthens us.
In some Microsoft Office, they must have had a meeting, went through the plan and said: "Yes, this is a good idea. This will get people interested in Azure. This is awesome".
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Wow, that is beautifully offensive. I hope the editor who approved those gets appropriately reprimanded/fired.
Yeah, I feel like it's one thing to offend us, we're adults. It's a little too late and at the very least, we can harangue someone or something or punch 'em in the gulliver and effect a (little) change. But kids? An entirely different thing. I grew up in the 80s, feeling that I could do anything and be anyone I wanted to be. A scientist or a singer? I was going to be both! Also, a writer! I feel really blessed by tha…
I still feel that way - I don't think we have to chain ourselves to being 'one thing'. Teaching this to girls when they are young, especially, to hold on to all their dreams is really important so they don't give up on living full lives outside of the job/keyboard.
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Just to clarify: That atrocity wasn't organised by the conference, they'd just agreed to give Microsoft (their biggest sponsor) the stage for a bit to do their big Azure announcement. There's certainly a lesson for conference organisers in there about how much you let your sponsors get involved in the conference, but what happened on stage was still all Microsoft's fault. Also just to clarify: As a woman who was actu…
Thank you for speaking up. Just as it's crucial that women not be silent when being excluded from tech, it's just as (if not more) imperative we hear that you're not feeling discriminated against. Especially when there is a rallying cry from men saying that you should be, or that we should hold Microsoft responsible for this great sexist faux pas. This community is overcorrecting in a bad way and starting to identify…
Some of the details I've heard described as sexist, though - like how the dancers are apparently "scantily clad" - seem to be more the result of mob rage than any form of rational thought.