I am getting so sick of this story. How many millions of man-hours were wasted this week by people being offended that Adria Richards was offended? I saw this story on the BBC and CBS today. Before long, one (or both) of the fired employee victims will hire Gloria Allred to file a wrongful termination lawsuit and we'll be subjected to this circus for months.
There are Ladies Present
71–80 of 113 posts
Re: There are Ladies Present
#72I went to school for a female-dominated profession (yes, there are quite a few out there where the balance goes the other way). I can assure you that if you find the things men say offensive, you haven't heard anything... I want to add the caveat that I am NOT attempting to appeal to hypocrisy. While I agree that there is a limit, I don't see how calling languages "estrogen" is offensive and I don't understand how ca…
> While I agree that there is a limit, I don't see how calling languages "estrogen" is offensive and I don't understand how calling a hat "cute" is offensive. To be frank, you don't see these things as offensive because you're ignorant. I grew up in the same era as you did, and I'm guessing you just had the misfortune of not being asked to walk in another person's shoes. You go ahead and enjoy all that delicious priv…
Check your privilege
Re: There are Ladies Present
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what an /r/MensRights commenter looks like, right? The weird, totally irrelevant racial tinge the comment has is a signal too, right?
There are people that have the "I'm offended" weapon and people that don't. As far as I can tell offending a woman or a non-Asian racial minority is considered to be a Very Bad Thing. It might even get you fired. And there are no rules. Every person is different and you don't know who you will offend and who you won't. Adria was spotted playing "Cards Against Humanity" at the conference and I would assume that I woul…
Adria was spotted playing "Cards Against Humanity" at the conference and I would assume that I would be safe making almost any joke in conversation with someone that played CAH. /But I would be wrong and she would kill my job with her special weapon/
Evidence for this claim?
Re: There are Ladies Present
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Ellen Degeneres or The Voice or any of the other false equivalences you're desperately reaching to make is not the professional technical workplace. If you run in any of my technical circles, put on a technical presentation, or otherwise represent at a technical conference, and you make "jokes" that are sexual innuendos of any kind or are otherwise unprofessional.... You will be gone. Gone. Count on it. The tech…
Maybe because I'm young and I don't know "how it works" yet, but I would hate for the Tech industry as I know now to become "professional." To me, the tech industry is one of the few places I can work without wearing a suit and tie everyday and still make more than 6 figures. I don't want my presentations to be "censored" because someone has a stick too far up their ass. I don't want the next Linus to be fired becaus…
Being in an industry where there is still a chance to do new things and be judged on our work instead of other things is pretty great.
We just need to be sure that we all act with the maturity and respect befitting our good fortune--this includes dealing politely with things we disagree with, and having the good grace not to cause drama over dumb shit.
Re: There are Ladies Present
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are people that have the "I'm offended" weapon and people that don't. As far as I can tell offending a woman or a non-Asian racial minority is considered to be a Very Bad Thing. It might even get you fired. And there are no rules. Every person is different and you don't know who you will offend and who you won't. Adria was spotted playing "Cards Against Humanity" at the conference and I would assume that I woul…
Adria was spotted playing "Cards Against Humanity" at the conference and I would assume that I would be safe making almost any joke in conversation with someone that played CAH. /But I would be wrong and she would kill my job with her special weapon/ Evidence for this claim?
Please tell me you don't really care.
Re: There are Ladies Present
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are people that have the "I'm offended" weapon and people that don't. As far as I can tell offending a woman or a non-Asian racial minority is considered to be a Very Bad Thing. It might even get you fired. And there are no rules. Every person is different and you don't know who you will offend and who you won't. Adria was spotted playing "Cards Against Humanity" at the conference and I would assume that I woul…
Yes, white and/or Asian guy. Live in fear. The rules have changed. There are no rules. Bullets won't harm the women unless they're made of silver. The garlic thing is a myth; they'll just laugh at you before they use their terrifying "I'm offended" fangs to rip your throat out. Keep dogs outside your door to spot the Terminators and the gay people who look just like real humans.
C'mon, man--I know you can post better than this. :(
Re: There are Ladies Present
#77I am getting so sick of this story. How many millions of man-hours were wasted this week by people being offended that Adria Richards was offended? I saw this story on the BBC and CBS today. Before long, one (or both) of the fired employee victims will hire Gloria Allred to file a wrongful termination lawsuit and we'll be subjected to this circus for months.
this story just set the stage to have the conversation about why women have a hard time in tech, and things like the difference between direct harassment (which everyone agrees is bad) and creating a hostile atmosphere (which lots of people don't get).
Re: There are Ladies Present
#78A question for the guys of HN who know their movies: what would your reaction be to a service called Treehorn with a client program called LogJammer? I only found out where those names came from much later.
I'm going out on a limb and assuming this isn't "FernGully"?
Edit: Big Lebowski? For the curious (http://www.anyclip.com/movies/the-big-lebowski/KDCB4uut7hbbu...)
Re: There are Ladies Present
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not about "the remotest possibility of offending people", it's about the cultural background that a large penis is pushed as a dominating, masculine thing, and being in a room of 80% male attendees and someone makes a "big dongle" comment (for example) skews the environment in a male-friendly-masculine-dominance way and a female-unfriendly way. In the same way that being around a group of really rich people and…
Since you've started this analogy what am I doing in that group of rich people if I don't belong there? Also, do I really want to be there or am I doing it just because it's cool or whatever?
I hadn't decided, but it ought to be something basically irrelevant to the point, so not a country club or a networking event with potential investors. Maybe you were pushed by family obligation into visiting your spouse's rich relative at their lakeside property and all got invited next door to a barbecue. How's that?
They're all rich and friendly, they're basically "nice" people, and you're not rich in their league. They're "trying" to help you fit in, but somehow everything they say just helps to heighten the feeling that you aren't equal and don't belong. You roll with the punches, you aren't offended, but you are alienated. You'll make the best of the night, but next time you'll try harder to avoid going.
Which is fine for an informal night with strangers, but it's not the feeling a trying-to-be-inclusive professional event wants to invoke in significant fractions of the population. It's the difference between them "trying" to be friendly (in quotes - meaning acting how they would act to each other to be friendly) and actually being friendly in the all you have to do is whatever it takes sense.
Re: There are Ladies Present
#80Quiet Amy Poehler, no dongle jokes, there are ladies present!
http://youtu.be/KgmhhVCLgM8
I'm sorry but I disagree with your opinion. Women are welcome in the tech industry but many parents (not all) simply don't encourage their daughters to be programmers because in truth it can be a very unsocial introverted career path. Who really wants their kid to sit in a chair for 14 hours a day staring at a dull light. At first everyone loves the idea of little genius engineers until their kid is on the machine for a whole week and turns into a techno-zombie. If my kid has a passion for it then fine, if not then I am secretly relieved.
Sales, finance, construction, military, agriculture and religion (if you consider that an industry) could learn more from this lecture than the tech industry. I grew up working in construction and farming, interned for sales reps, and created tools for the finance industry. The tech industry is a woman's best friend compared to those work environments. At least in tech you can commit code and be solely judged by the quality of your work and not your sex, age, race, or physical abilities.