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I'm sorry you felt that way Aaron. For context for the rest of the HN: when giving a talk on our HTML5 heatmap generation I was using a heatmap of an NBC homep

by bkrausz 16y ago

I'm sorry you felt that way Aaron. For context for the rest of the HN: when giving a talk on our HTML5 heatmap generation I was using a heatmap of an NBC homepage for an example. That homepage featured a promotion for their coverage of the Miss USA 2010 contest. The heatmap showed a disproportionate gaze length on the woman's body (as did most of the heatmaps for that study), which I pointed out as a fairly common observation in the world of ET studies. I've been told by several experts that this is a quick way to check if your ET device is working properly. That being said, I of course did not intend to offend anyone, it was meant more as a humorous jab at where our attention is drawn (both male and female btw). I'll definitely be more sensitive to things like this in future talks.

aaronblohowiak 16y ago
Thanks for addressing this head-on and in a professional way. Nothing you said was particularly offensive. Sex sells, and that is a part of life. Do I think that you're a misogynist? No. Nothing you did was even remotely as offensive as the CouchDB talk at GoGaRuCo last year. As a result of the hoopla around that talk, Martin Fowler wrote a fantastic piece that discusses the interaction of gender, programming, professionalism and humor here: http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html I highly recommend you give it a read. It's one thing to make a comment about sex selling, it is another to make it a theme to talk about how you can see that visitors are spending a lot of time looking at the woman's breasts. Once again, I don't think that your approach was overtly offensive, but there is some great writing that the GoGaRuCo incident inspired. Articulate and measured (as usual,) Sarah Allen's post talks about the difference between a comment and a theme: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-at-gogaruco/ http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-... My thoughts about feminism changed in college when I went to gay clubs and was aggressively pursued for the first time. It was weird to think that I had to be on the defense against people's advances and question their reasons for having an interest in me -- that's an experience that many men in our society never have. I can't claim to understand the struggles of feminism, but I do put more thought into how I approach women that I may be interested in (both sexually and professionally.) I'm sure that you were being lighthearted and meant no harm, but if you're going to crack jokes about staring at boobs when giving a presentation to a room full of strangers, I have to wonder about the jokes you'll make in a more casual workplace environment and will be selective in my recommendations because of that. This all being said, Zed Shaw has (in entirely different ways) offended a lot of people. I am careful in who I would recommend to go work with him. Personally, I think that working with Zed would be a fantastic opportunity and would jump at the chance.

by bkrausz 16y ago

aaronblohowiak 16y ago

Thanks for addressing this head-on and in a professional way. Nothing you said was particularly offensive. Sex sells, and that is a part of life. Do I think that you're a misogynist? No. Nothing you did was even remotely as offensive as the CouchDB talk at GoGaRuCo last year. As a result of the hoopla around that talk, Martin Fowler wrote a fantastic piece that discusses the interaction of gender, programming, professionalism and humor here: http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html I highly recommend you give it a read. It's one thing to make a comment about sex selling, it is another to make it a theme to talk about how you can see that visitors are spending a lot of time looking at the woman's breasts. Once again, I don't think that your approach was overtly offensive, but there is some great writing that the GoGaRuCo incident inspired. Articulate and measured (as usual,) Sarah Allen's post talks about the difference between a comment and a theme: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-at-gogaruco/ http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-... My thoughts about feminism changed in college when I went to gay clubs and was aggressively pursued for the first time. It was weird to think that I had to be on the defense against people's advances and question their reasons for having an interest in me -- that's an experience that many men in our society never have. I can't claim to understand the struggles of feminism, but I do put more thought into how I approach women that I may be interested in (both sexually and professionally.) I'm sure that you were being lighthearted and meant no harm, but if you're going to crack jokes about staring at boobs when giving a presentation to a room full of strangers, I have to wonder about the jokes you'll make in a more casual workplace environment and will be selective in my recommendations because of that. This all being said, Zed Shaw has (in entirely different ways) offended a lot of people. I am careful in who I would recommend to go work with him. Personally, I think that working with Zed would be a fantastic opportunity and would jump at the chance.