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I've noticed this type of comment a lot on HN lately. An innocuous comment which features the tiniest sliver of an attack surface, in this case use of the pron
by handsomechad 8y ago
I've noticed this type of comment a lot on HN lately. An innocuous comment which features the tiniest sliver of an attack surface, in this case use of the pronoun "she" in an anecdote, is used as a launchpad for a completely unrelated implication or outright accusation of prejudice or ignorance.
When I read the grandparent comment and saw the (uncommon) use of the female pronoun in the story describing a negative action, I instantly thought of this type of response. I'll admit it, I even had the impulse to make a throwaway and troll and say something like the parent comment just to see the reaction. (I figured it would be swiftly downvoted/greyed).
Despite my own impulse to troll, I truly can't tell if this comment, and others like it which are not hard to find here, are performance art of the reductio ad absurdum kind, a sort of Andy Kaufman-esque "triggered SJW" act, or if this ascribing of every phenomenon to some type of systemic inequity no matter how farcical is a real part of the zeitgeist now.
I'll admit my bias: I'm tired of oversensitivity and bucketing everything into these overly broad categories of discrimination. I like to be able to use whatever (third-person) pronouns I want in my stories, etc. However, I have always thought that the "triggered overreeacting SJW" archetype was mainly a boogeyman created by immature people at the opposite of the spectrum, the type who frequent r/theDonald or breitbart or what have you.
After seeing these types of comments here so consistently, however, I cannot be sure!
- vertex-four 8y agoI tend to find that the weird behaviour of finding a tiny point in somebody’s post and using it to launch into some hypothetical about someone’s behaviour/attitude/mindspace is common on HN - it just jumps out a bit more when the hypothetical is regarding gender-related behaviour because that’s something we all know a bit about and often have strong opinions on.
- dabbledash 8y agoI saw the use of “she” and appreciated what I saw as a conscious attempt at inclusion. In fairness, I don’t think the parent comment is a criticism of GP, just a complaint about how women in tech are treated in general.