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> Have fun with that. I think your tone detracts from your point. > But a conference which will offend nobody in some small way is a sterile, dull thing. I t
by T-R 15y ago
> Have fun with that.
I think your tone detracts from your point.
> But a conference which will offend nobody in some small way is a sterile, dull thing.
I think the point to make is that this is not "some small way", as much as it may appear to be small to some - it's significant enough for you to stop attending. The group of people offended by misogyny is statistically independent from the group of people contributing to the conferences' success, so:
- there's no reason they needed to be offended
- offending them offers no real benefit
- offending them hurts the success of the conference by discouraging people from attending who otherwise would have.
- ignoring or supporting it exacerbates this problem, and so it's not in the best interest of anyone to ignore or support it, regardless of their views on women
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- yummyfajitas 15y agoThe real benefit is that a more casual and honest environment is created at the conference. At the typical sterile, corporate, business casual conference in my field (finance), there is a particular very boring code of behavior. There will be very little honesty - if you think a product sucks, or you think the industry is broken, you'll keep it to yourself. The guy from Morgan Stanley will never ever disagree with John Mack . From LessConf's advertisements, I get the impression that their conference is more honest and more fun. The guy from Google might even disagree with Larry Page. If this results in a few oversensitive people staying home, that sounds like a tradeoff well worth making.
- T-R 15y agoThat's absolutely a fair point. I don't want to imply that we shouldn't keep it in moderation, but I do think we should be careful about what we define as "oversensitive", particularly for groups that we don't belong to, because there is a danger of defining the whole group as such, and therefore excluding them entirely (socially). If they are sensitive to it, overreacting or not, it does discourage them from attending. I personally don't think giving up arguably misogynistic references (specifically) in presentations would be so detrimental that it offsets the benefit of not offending those sensitive to them, particularly since it's a group that we as a community have been so effective at scaring off in the past.
- uncle_johnny 15y agoWho cares? This argument is a waste of time. Go find someone that is actually sexist and stop making mountains out of mole hills.