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Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

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Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#71

Post by msbarnett »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #56
rauljara wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The marketing material assumed that the people reading it would be heterosexual men, and gave no consideration to the idea that a woman might actually want to attend an event. Finding women attractive is not a sin. Assuming the whole world should revolve around what you find attractive without giving any consideration to the other half of the world's population is sexist. Not "I hate women" sexist. Just "women don't…

Tech population =! world population. To not recognize that the tech population is dominated by men is to put your head in the sand. I like to code, I like to look at scantily clad women, and I fully believe they're just as equal as men. EDIT: Downvote away. You don't have to believe in fact for it to exist.

> To not recognize that the tech population is dominated by men is to put your head in the sand.

To not recognize that advertising tech events that female programmers do not feel comfortable attending because they do not want to be treated like subservient beer-wenches is partially responsible for the continued decline of women in the tech industry is to put your head in the sand.

That's what people are taking issue with here. No one is putting you on trial for liking to look at scantily clad women. Trying to make yourself into some kind of martyr for "finding women attractive" movement misses the point so thoroughly as to defy belief.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#72

Post by tzaman »

jsprinkles wrote: post #53
tzaman wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. This was a prank gone bad. No one got hurt (apart from a few egos). Pulling sponsorship because of that is just lame. Don't get me wrong, I have the deepest respect for women but that doesn't prevent me from pulling (even sometimes sexist) pranks on my wife. She does the same to me and we smile at each other. I dare you, everyone that's horrified by their prank say it out loud (and mean it!): "I have never,…

Any chance you could switch industries and, say, work in advertising or something? I don't want to share a career with you.

Why is that? Because I can't agree with big companies pulling their sponsorship because of a mistake? They apologized - which doesn't make it ok, but hey - now pretty much no one knows or cares how much effort has gone into the hackaton event. All it matters now is that they made a mistake.

So the whole industry is giving the message: Your effort is totally worthless (and unnoticed) if you make mistakes that offend someone.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#73

Post by yummyfajitas »

tptacek wrote: post #32
ellyagg wrote: post #29

Whenever people get outraged about things like this, it interests me. I like looking at attractive women. I like programming. Would it be possible to have an event where I could program and look at attractive women at the same time? Or does enjoying seeing attractive women in public make me a bad person? As a man, is this my original sin? In fact, I've even been known to flirt with attractive women in public--perhaps…

What the hell are you talking about? Medical doctors are not "mostly men". Roughly 50% of all medical students are women, and current trends have women overtaking men in the profession long term. "I very much doubt the dearth of women in technology is because men are sexual predators". Sheesh. I agree. Comments like this do the job just fine, too.

"What the hell are you talking about? Medical doctors are not..."

He is talking about the past, as indicated by his use of grammatical tense: "Medical doctors have been mostly men..."

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#74

Post by rickmb »

byrneseyeview wrote: post #36

A general question: when someone says something offensive, the apology is often "We're sorry: we thought this was funny, but obviously it wasn't, so we've changed it." This seems to get universally condemned, and lots of people argue that it's wrong to say "I'm sorry you're offended." But what are the alternatives? I suppose they could have said that they were deliberately sexist and hoped to hurt people's feelings,…

Those are weasel words, non-apologies that only confirm the notion that the people who wrote this are actually sexist a-holes.

It's an underhanded way of blaming the people that are offended rather than genuinely apologizing for doing something offensive.

"We realize this was wrong and offensive, and we are very sorry" would have been sufficient. No groveling needed. Instead, they chose to blame the offended parties and preface their "apology" with lame excuses.

It's neither genuine nor an apology.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#75

Post by bicknergseng »

tptacek wrote: post #6
bicknergseng wrote: post #3

Meanwhile, "booth babes" remain a common tech industry trade show practice http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/the-ces-2012-booth-babe... .

Seriously, you just linked Violet Blue's odious post tagging an application developer as a "booth babe" because of the fit of her shirt. +10 points for proving the overarching point.

Ah.... different article. That one about the Saddest Booth Babe in the world is from 2 weeks after the one I posted. I'll stick by that point that Blue isn't much of a journalist, but I still don't think it overly detracts from what she said in the earlier article about booth babes being a degrading practice.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#76

Post by gyardley »

byrneseyeview wrote: post #36

A general question: when someone says something offensive, the apology is often "We're sorry: we thought this was funny, but obviously it wasn't, so we've changed it." This seems to get universally condemned, and lots of people argue that it's wrong to say "I'm sorry you're offended." But what are the alternatives? I suppose they could have said that they were deliberately sexist and hoped to hurt people's feelings,…

There's a huge difference between "we're sorry for our offensive behavior" and "we're sorry you were offended by our behavior."

The first admits you've done something legitimately wrong; the second only says that others were offended, perhaps illegitimately, and that wasn't your intent. The first is sorry for the action; the second, the reaction.

In this particular case, all they have to do is say "We're sorry - we were being sexist. We've removed the sexist language and we won't do it again." If they want to clarify, they could say they were being unthinkingly, not deliberately sexist, which is almost surely the case.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#77

Post by natep »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #56
rauljara wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The marketing material assumed that the people reading it would be heterosexual men, and gave no consideration to the idea that a woman might actually want to attend an event. Finding women attractive is not a sin. Assuming the whole world should revolve around what you find attractive without giving any consideration to the other half of the world's population is sexist. Not "I hate women" sexist. Just "women don't…

Tech population =! world population. To not recognize that the tech population is dominated by men is to put your head in the sand. I like to code, I like to look at scantily clad women, and I fully believe they're just as equal as men. EDIT: Downvote away. You don't have to believe in fact for it to exist.

So, the tech industry is dominated by men, and this announcement was intended for the tech industry, so it's fine by you that it was addressed exclusively to men? It's OK that any techy woman reading it might stay clear so that they are not mistaken for being a server and/or don't have to put up with sexism like this?

In what other situations do you not feel that the minority do not have rights?

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#78

Post by kpanghmc »

javadyan wrote: post #42

I think some people should loosen up. Yes, it's a bad unfunny joke. But it's not that big a deal.

You clearly have not experienced discrimination before. It's not just the act of being discriminated against, it's the memories that it invokes and the reminder of how little has changed.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#79

Post by tptacek »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #73
tptacek wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell are you talking about? Medical doctors are not "mostly men". Roughly 50% of all medical students are women, and current trends have women overtaking men in the profession long term. "I very much doubt the dearth of women in technology is because men are sexual predators". Sheesh. I agree. Comments like this do the job just fine, too.

"What the hell are you talking about? Medical doctors are not ..." He is talking about the past, as indicated by his use of grammatical tense: "Medical doctors have been mostly men..."

Combined with the sentiment about nursing and status, that's not remotely the message I took away from that paragraph. I'm happy to agree to disagree with you about this, because that's not what I think he wrote.

Re: Heroku Pulls Sponsorship After Boston API Jam Publishes Sexist Eventbrite

#80

Post by [deleted] »

ellyagg wrote: post #29

Whenever people get outraged about things like this, it interests me. I like looking at attractive women. I like programming. Would it be possible to have an event where I could program and look at attractive women at the same time? Or does enjoying seeing attractive women in public make me a bad person? As a man, is this my original sin? In fact, I've even been known to flirt with attractive women in public--perhaps…

[deleted]
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