5 ms·

Y Combinator Mentoring for Women

56 points by spacejockeys 18y ago

silencio 18y ago
Yay! It's really nice to see women help other women out like this. I'm not applying for this upcoming cycle, but I have benefitted from talking to and being mentored by other women with more experience. Helps a lot when there's only a very, very tiny percentage.
spacejockeys 18y ago
We're hoping that it gives more women the gumption to apply. It's Susan Mernit's idea, and a good one.
halo 18y ago
I apologise in advance as this is probably quite a controversial rant, but this sort of thing has always really frustrated me. I guess it comes down to this: I don't see how sex matters when you're a business person, when you're programming, when you're building things. The sex of the person rightfully shouldn't come into it - it's their skills that matter. The interpreter, afterall, doesn't spit out a different result depending the sex of the coder - a computer is ultimately a great leveller. It has been a long fought battle to try and gain equality between the sexes and I firmly believe society is increasingly heading towards that goal. And then when I read things like this it feels like a punch-in-the-face, as though it's saying "equality doesn't matter when it helps women". Or, even worse, there's perhaps an implication that women /need/ the help of other women to succeed and deserve special treatment. Or should I get ideas that there is some sort of conspiracy to form the inverse to the stereotype sexist "men's-only club" boardroom and there's some sort of attempt to reverse that through a "women's-only club". I loathe all these implications. I've often wondered about this curious double-standard. There's previously been women-only discussions by Google in Computer Science at my University, but I bet there isn't men-only discussions in the psychology department, languages or other women-dominated social sciences and I think they'd be highly controversial if they did. Often an eyelid isn't blinked when someone offers something exclusively for women, but there'd rightly be uproar if someone offered it for men-only. I often wonder if the fact that men do significantly worse than women in exams (and as such University admissions) in this country would be quite such a footnote if the shoe was on the other foot.
- SapphireSun 18y ago
  While I agree with you for the last two paragraphs, I've started to think that it might be very useful to have a female in the founders or first employees circle. The reason isn't because they are necessarily better, but they are aware of facets of culture that we are not aware of because they grew up in that tribe and we didn't. They would have the same problem vica versa. If you're selling to a broad multisexual audiance, it makes sense to have a confederate in your midst to point out any faux pas you may make.
  - halo 18y ago
    I can see your point although I'm not necessarily sure I agree with it. I don't think I'm any more away of the facets of culture of the average man any more than most women and I don't like to think that women-kind is that distant that it's easy to make faux-pas. I don't object to employing someone for their knowledge of a market though when it's relevant. When in Rome, it might be handy to hire some Romans...
  - netcan 18y ago
    please watch the formatting It stretches the page.
- Alex3917 18y ago
  This is about equity, not equality. And we do talk about the same things for men when it comes to reading ability and scholastic performance. In fact just a couple weeks ago I posted a review of Peg Tyre's new book The Trouble With Boys.
- mhartl 18y ago
  Though clearly well-intentioned, these sorts of things have always rubbed me the wrong way, too. It seems they are only acceptable for categories outside the "dominant" set {white, male}. "Women in Engineering" is fine, as is "African Americans in Medicine". And unlike, say, a Gay Men's Chorus, I'd bet they're not particularly accepting of people who don't fit the profile. As a white male, I'm sure I enjoy all sorts of implicit advantages I don't even notice, but it still weirds me out to see groups wear their exclusionary nature not only openly, but with pride.
okeumeni 18y ago
I like and appreciate this effort on behalf of women. I want my girls to grow up feeling comfortable getting involve in hacking because of some of you out there playing the role model for them. All through my career I have seen a handful of women hackers and some were pretty damn good ones. Keep on pushing girls!!
fallentimes 18y ago
"At the last Y Combinator Demo Day I attended, there were 3 women in a room of over 100 people. That just seems a bit low to me, and I have no doubt that it reflects the candidate pool" I'm glad she mentioned this. How could Livingston not want more women founders? She's trapped with 80 dudes six months out of the year. I'm certainly for equal treatment, but whether the media wants to admit it or not - people are different. That's why Title 9, quota hiring and Chief Diversity officers (gag!) have been such utter failures. Right idea, wrong execution. Working in admissions in school was one of the most eye opening things I've ever done. Some of the other efforts are great, but most come off as discriminating double standards.
- aston 18y ago
  Just curious whether you'd be willing to share some of those eye-opening insights with us.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Wouldn't really call them insights, but sure. HHI 60k, Black, 2.1 GPA, similar EC, no record, ACT Score 16 - Accepted. HHI 50k, White, 3.2 GPA, similar EC, no record, ACT Score 22 - Rejected. Most were variations of that. That is, less qualified applicants in similar economic situations were admitted solely because of race. Obviously I knew these practices existed (oh hai Division 1 athletics), I was just surprised how blatant it was especially with economic situations being roughly equal in many of the cases. Scholarships were even worse, but seeing as it was a few years ago, I don't remember specific cases. Just apply the above to general scholarship fund stuff. Edit: Didn't like how the first sentence read.
    - aston 18y ago
      Oh. Not that surprising, really. Affirmative action exists. Even (especially?) in the best schools in the nation. It's not just for race, though. Women get it at tech schools, men get it at some state schools, and poor people get it anywhere where most students are wealthy. For the record, I'm an adamant supporter of AA. And not entirely because it helped me out personally. edit: I go through all this work to say something to get an argument, and all I do is get a downvote? C'mon guys...
deleted 18y ago
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ALee 18y ago
For all the gents out there, please stop griping. We need more women in startups (seriously, have you been to the meat market parties after tech events?!). Moreover, it'll give lonely male hackers more choice beyond the no talent Julia whatsherface-cant-get-back-my-15minoflife-after-reading-her-lameness-in-Wired, the designer and "community" chicks, the high-powered VC women, and the one or two technical female founders (re Leah Culver). I've met some really talented technical women out there (see the women of Meebo) and I've learned a lot from just talking to them and giving them the leg up of YC, LB, or TS would be a good move.
- meredydd 18y ago
  We need more women in startups (seriously, have you been to the meat market parties after tech events?!) ... Moreover, it'll give lonely male hackers more choice Although you probably didn't mean it, this attitude is most definitely Part Of The Problem. It's a pain because you're right - in an ideal, evenly-divided environment, there would be a lot of within-group dating, and everyone would be fine with that. The problem is that, as long as there's a significant imbalance, the constant romantic interest is going to be seriously offputting for the few women in the group. The men don't even need to be malicious or socially maladroit (although, let's face it, as a group hackers tend to lack social skills, which makes things much worse). What would be a perfectly reasonable level of possible romantic interest from each individual person rapidly becomes intolerable if it's all concentrated on the lone female in a big group of males. Which is why you hear so many female geeks screaming "Stop trying to date me, damn it, and look at my code!"
  - opal 18y ago
    Just to add, the guys have it far worse in this situation.
    - pinkgarage 18y ago
      Not really; women are trying to get a place at the table when they do tech work, not find dates.
pinkgarage 18y ago
This is a fascinating set of responses. For those men who don't see the need and therefore don't approve, I wonder why you are objecting? For those who see this as exclusionary, you might ask yourself whether an all white organization seems meant for and welcoming to a person of color, and then swap out gender and see what your response is. Just because women live in a world where most engineering cultures are set by men, that doesn't mean that everyone, women and men, are impacted by the lack of diversity and gender difference. As someone who took a woman-founded team to TechStars (yep, and I'm not an engineer, either), we found a strong interest there in supporting many diverse types of teams as they also sought to support the strongest teams they could find that year. I left a voice mail for Jessica Livingston letting her know that we were going to do this before we started it, and if I'd been more aware of the deadlines earlier, I would have reached out earlier and started it earlier. There are no factors except culture, comfort and class that make it neccessary for 98% of the applicants and teams selected for YCombinator--or any competitive program--to be male. This mentoring effort, which I started with some friends, is meant to give women who qualify and want to apply some support that they may perceive as lacking in a program that, to date, has been almost exclusively male, as are most programs in the start up world. Will this effort be exclusive to YCombnator? I think not. But you're our first noble experiment, and if you're reading this and are a woman who'd like mentoring or to support this, email us at pinkgaragementors@gmail.com --Susan Mernit
- jodie 18y ago
  I'm applying for this year's cycle and have sent pinkgaragementors a couple of emails with no reply. Any other way to get in touch?
  - pinkgarage 18y ago
    jodie--the email is pinkgaragementors@gmail.com or email me directly via my blog-susan mernit
lemonysnicket 18y ago
shouldn't the mentoring be for your start-up in general, and not just the YC app?
cmos 18y ago
I think this is a great idea! She is offering help. Frankly, this is the first post I've read where someone is offering plain and simple help. It would be great if she could help everyone, but her available 'free helping' time is I'm sure limited, and she choose a filter to limit the pool and to serve her personal goals as well. I say thank you!
arien 18y ago
I'm a girl and found the suggestion interesting. Support when you are starting is apreciated :) Sometimes you need someone to look upon, who you can use as inspiration or for support. The closer they are to you the better you tend to feel. For example, I would look first for a local incubator (Spain) instead of aiming for a foreign one (e.g. US), but that doesn't mean the foreign ones aren't as good, just that I probably will feel more comfy on the one that's closer and consider we will understand each other better. This of course can be true or not, and I will find out eventually. Before thinking about "does genre matter", think of the subject and change genre for something else. Does it sound normal to you? Then why the controversy when it's about genre (or race, politics or whatever)? This is just a proposition to try to bring more players into the game :)
blurry 18y ago
As a female/startup co-founder, I find it rather unfortunate that Christine chose to close with: Let's work constructively to get more bright young women to apply. Why young? Are women over 30 over-represented among start-up founders? Does she feel that we are ticking time bombs waiting to run off to have babies? Is she simply uncomfortable mentoring someone slightly older? What is it? I don't question the intentions. But I do question the quality of a mentoring group where the mentors themselves carry outdated self-defeating stereotypes. Reminds me of an otherwise intelligent Indian friend of mine who is completely hung up about having darker skin.
- lisawilliams 18y ago
  My sense is that most of the YC applicants are not just male but under 30. Is this incorrect? I am one of the mentors in the group and participated in TechStars at the grand old age of 38 and have two young children, and I can say that our group would be happy to work with applicants of any age. I don't believe that Christine's comment is meant to indicate our support of women within a particular age range (or whether they have or plan to have children) -- it's a reference to what we believe the median age of YC applicants are. Your comment does make me wonder, however: what is that number? Does anyone know?
  - spacejockeys 18y ago
    Lisa is correct - the comment was pragmatic, not didactic. I don't know the actual median age of the YC applicant pool, but in my own anecdotal and unscientific experience (e.g., who have I met in person at events, or heard a pitch from) the median YC participant is around 23, and has yet to develop the familiarity with pitching that comes from years in the industry. Also, if program awareness comes from social networking or from university outreach, I'd expect a dominant concentration of 20-somethings in the pool.
webwright 18y ago
Is it ever okay to suggest that a demographic balance is just fine? There is a lack of european-descent long-distance runners in the top tiers. Not too many woman play football. Very few men do much knitting. Do we need outreach and mentoring to change make sure that all groups are a mirror of the world's demographic makeup? Women and men are different, and perhaps the reason that software startups are male-dominated speaks to that difference rather than a social issue. In other words, perhaps our society is that way because of how we are rather than how we are being driven by our society. All that being said, I met Christine at Demo Day was was very impressed-- if she's offering to mentor you, you should take her up on it. If you couldn't/wouldn't have the guts to dive in and kick ass without this mentorship/support group, I'd suggest that you probably aren't temperamentally suited to be an entrepreneur.
- pinkgarage 18y ago
  So white males are the most affluent, successful class because of their geneitics? ROFL.
  - webwright 18y ago
    Feel free to read up on what a Straw Man Argument is at your leisure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
axod 18y ago
Surely this could have been worded to come accross as slightly less offensive: "Y Combinator Mentoring from prominent businesswomen".
- misuba 18y ago
  And less accurate, yes. Considered asking yourself why something being for women is offensive?
  - axod 18y ago
    Sure, for the same reason if something is for whites only it's offensive, or for men only. It's pointless anyway... Why aren't there more white basketball players? Racism? Probably more likely the same reason there aren't more women founders. You have to admit a special school only for white basketball players would be pretty offensive. no?
    - misuba 18y ago
      No no no; I said _ask yourself._ Don't just repeat what you already know; think a little longer and look a little deeper into where the offense, the _feeling of offense in you,_ comes from.
      - axod 18y ago
        heh I don't take life seriously enough to get offended. I'm just looking for a bit of consistency here though. Either every instance of racism/sexism is offensive, or they are all fine.

56 points by spacejockeys 18y ago

Yay! It's really nice to see women help other women out like this. I'm not applying for this upcoming cycle, but I have benefitted from talking to and being mentored by other women with more experience. Helps a lot when there's only a very, very tiny percentage.

spacejockeys 18y ago

We're hoping that it gives more women the gumption to apply. It's Susan Mernit's idea, and a good one.

halo 18y ago

I apologise in advance as this is probably quite a controversial rant, but this sort of thing has always really frustrated me. I guess it comes down to this: I don't see how sex matters when you're a business person, when you're programming, when you're building things. The sex of the person rightfully shouldn't come into it - it's their skills that matter. The interpreter, afterall, doesn't spit out a different result depending the sex of the coder - a computer is ultimately a great leveller. It has been a long fought battle to try and gain equality between the sexes and I firmly believe society is increasingly heading towards that goal. And then when I read things like this it feels like a punch-in-the-face, as though it's saying "equality doesn't matter when it helps women". Or, even worse, there's perhaps an implication that women /need/ the help of other women to succeed and deserve special treatment. Or should I get ideas that there is some sort of conspiracy to form the inverse to the stereotype sexist "men's-only club" boardroom and there's some sort of attempt to reverse that through a "women's-only club". I loathe all these implications. I've often wondered about this curious double-standard. There's previously been women-only discussions by Google in Computer Science at my University, but I bet there isn't men-only discussions in the psychology department, languages or other women-dominated social sciences and I think they'd be highly controversial if they did. Often an eyelid isn't blinked when someone offers something exclusively for women, but there'd rightly be uproar if someone offered it for men-only. I often wonder if the fact that men do significantly worse than women in exams (and as such University admissions) in this country would be quite such a footnote if the shoe was on the other foot.

SapphireSun 18y ago
While I agree with you for the last two paragraphs, I've started to think that it might be very useful to have a female in the founders or first employees circle. The reason isn't because they are necessarily better, but they are aware of facets of culture that we are not aware of because they grew up in that tribe and we didn't. They would have the same problem vica versa. If you're selling to a broad multisexual audiance, it makes sense to have a confederate in your midst to point out any faux pas you may make.
- halo 18y ago
  I can see your point although I'm not necessarily sure I agree with it. I don't think I'm any more away of the facets of culture of the average man any more than most women and I don't like to think that women-kind is that distant that it's easy to make faux-pas. I don't object to employing someone for their knowledge of a market though when it's relevant. When in Rome, it might be handy to hire some Romans...
- netcan 18y ago
  please watch the formatting It stretches the page.
Alex3917 18y ago
This is about equity, not equality. And we do talk about the same things for men when it comes to reading ability and scholastic performance. In fact just a couple weeks ago I posted a review of Peg Tyre's new book The Trouble With Boys.
mhartl 18y ago
Though clearly well-intentioned, these sorts of things have always rubbed me the wrong way, too. It seems they are only acceptable for categories outside the "dominant" set {white, male}. "Women in Engineering" is fine, as is "African Americans in Medicine". And unlike, say, a Gay Men's Chorus, I'd bet they're not particularly accepting of people who don't fit the profile. As a white male, I'm sure I enjoy all sorts of implicit advantages I don't even notice, but it still weirds me out to see groups wear their exclusionary nature not only openly, but with pride.

okeumeni 18y ago

I like and appreciate this effort on behalf of women. I want my girls to grow up feeling comfortable getting involve in hacking because of some of you out there playing the role model for them. All through my career I have seen a handful of women hackers and some were pretty damn good ones. Keep on pushing girls!!

fallentimes 18y ago

"At the last Y Combinator Demo Day I attended, there were 3 women in a room of over 100 people. That just seems a bit low to me, and I have no doubt that it reflects the candidate pool" I'm glad she mentioned this. How could Livingston not want more women founders? She's trapped with 80 dudes six months out of the year. I'm certainly for equal treatment, but whether the media wants to admit it or not - people are different. That's why Title 9, quota hiring and Chief Diversity officers (gag!) have been such utter failures. Right idea, wrong execution. Working in admissions in school was one of the most eye opening things I've ever done. Some of the other efforts are great, but most come off as discriminating double standards.

aston 18y ago
Just curious whether you'd be willing to share some of those eye-opening insights with us.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Wouldn't really call them insights, but sure. HHI 60k, Black, 2.1 GPA, similar EC, no record, ACT Score 16 - Accepted. HHI 50k, White, 3.2 GPA, similar EC, no record, ACT Score 22 - Rejected. Most were variations of that. That is, less qualified applicants in similar economic situations were admitted solely because of race. Obviously I knew these practices existed (oh hai Division 1 athletics), I was just surprised how blatant it was especially with economic situations being roughly equal in many of the cases. Scholarships were even worse, but seeing as it was a few years ago, I don't remember specific cases. Just apply the above to general scholarship fund stuff. Edit: Didn't like how the first sentence read.
  - aston 18y ago
    Oh. Not that surprising, really. Affirmative action exists. Even (especially?) in the best schools in the nation. It's not just for race, though. Women get it at tech schools, men get it at some state schools, and poor people get it anywhere where most students are wealthy. For the record, I'm an adamant supporter of AA. And not entirely because it helped me out personally. edit: I go through all this work to say something to get an argument, and all I do is get a downvote? C'mon guys...

deleted 18y ago

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ALee 18y ago

For all the gents out there, please stop griping. We need more women in startups (seriously, have you been to the meat market parties after tech events?!). Moreover, it'll give lonely male hackers more choice beyond the no talent Julia whatsherface-cant-get-back-my-15minoflife-after-reading-her-lameness-in-Wired, the designer and "community" chicks, the high-powered VC women, and the one or two technical female founders (re Leah Culver). I've met some really talented technical women out there (see the women of Meebo) and I've learned a lot from just talking to them and giving them the leg up of YC, LB, or TS would be a good move.

meredydd 18y ago
We need more women in startups (seriously, have you been to the meat market parties after tech events?!) ... Moreover, it'll give lonely male hackers more choice Although you probably didn't mean it, this attitude is most definitely Part Of The Problem. It's a pain because you're right - in an ideal, evenly-divided environment, there would be a lot of within-group dating, and everyone would be fine with that. The problem is that, as long as there's a significant imbalance, the constant romantic interest is going to be seriously offputting for the few women in the group. The men don't even need to be malicious or socially maladroit (although, let's face it, as a group hackers tend to lack social skills, which makes things much worse). What would be a perfectly reasonable level of possible romantic interest from each individual person rapidly becomes intolerable if it's all concentrated on the lone female in a big group of males. Which is why you hear so many female geeks screaming "Stop trying to date me, damn it, and look at my code!"
- opal 18y ago
  Just to add, the guys have it far worse in this situation.
  - pinkgarage 18y ago
    Not really; women are trying to get a place at the table when they do tech work, not find dates.

pinkgarage 18y ago

This is a fascinating set of responses. For those men who don't see the need and therefore don't approve, I wonder why you are objecting? For those who see this as exclusionary, you might ask yourself whether an all white organization seems meant for and welcoming to a person of color, and then swap out gender and see what your response is. Just because women live in a world where most engineering cultures are set by men, that doesn't mean that everyone, women and men, are impacted by the lack of diversity and gender difference. As someone who took a woman-founded team to TechStars (yep, and I'm not an engineer, either), we found a strong interest there in supporting many diverse types of teams as they also sought to support the strongest teams they could find that year. I left a voice mail for Jessica Livingston letting her know that we were going to do this before we started it, and if I'd been more aware of the deadlines earlier, I would have reached out earlier and started it earlier. There are no factors except culture, comfort and class that make it neccessary for 98% of the applicants and teams selected for YCombinator--or any competitive program--to be male. This mentoring effort, which I started with some friends, is meant to give women who qualify and want to apply some support that they may perceive as lacking in a program that, to date, has been almost exclusively male, as are most programs in the start up world. Will this effort be exclusive to YCombnator? I think not. But you're our first noble experiment, and if you're reading this and are a woman who'd like mentoring or to support this, email us at pinkgaragementors@gmail.com --Susan Mernit

jodie 18y ago
I'm applying for this year's cycle and have sent pinkgaragementors a couple of emails with no reply. Any other way to get in touch?
- pinkgarage 18y ago
  jodie--the email is pinkgaragementors@gmail.com or email me directly via my blog-susan mernit

lemonysnicket 18y ago

shouldn't the mentoring be for your start-up in general, and not just the YC app?

cmos 18y ago

I think this is a great idea! She is offering help. Frankly, this is the first post I've read where someone is offering plain and simple help. It would be great if she could help everyone, but her available 'free helping' time is I'm sure limited, and she choose a filter to limit the pool and to serve her personal goals as well. I say thank you!

arien 18y ago

I'm a girl and found the suggestion interesting. Support when you are starting is apreciated :) Sometimes you need someone to look upon, who you can use as inspiration or for support. The closer they are to you the better you tend to feel. For example, I would look first for a local incubator (Spain) instead of aiming for a foreign one (e.g. US), but that doesn't mean the foreign ones aren't as good, just that I probably will feel more comfy on the one that's closer and consider we will understand each other better. This of course can be true or not, and I will find out eventually. Before thinking about "does genre matter", think of the subject and change genre for something else. Does it sound normal to you? Then why the controversy when it's about genre (or race, politics or whatever)? This is just a proposition to try to bring more players into the game :)

blurry 18y ago

As a female/startup co-founder, I find it rather unfortunate that Christine chose to close with: Let's work constructively to get more bright young women to apply. Why young? Are women over 30 over-represented among start-up founders? Does she feel that we are ticking time bombs waiting to run off to have babies? Is she simply uncomfortable mentoring someone slightly older? What is it? I don't question the intentions. But I do question the quality of a mentoring group where the mentors themselves carry outdated self-defeating stereotypes. Reminds me of an otherwise intelligent Indian friend of mine who is completely hung up about having darker skin.

lisawilliams 18y ago
My sense is that most of the YC applicants are not just male but under 30. Is this incorrect? I am one of the mentors in the group and participated in TechStars at the grand old age of 38 and have two young children, and I can say that our group would be happy to work with applicants of any age. I don't believe that Christine's comment is meant to indicate our support of women within a particular age range (or whether they have or plan to have children) -- it's a reference to what we believe the median age of YC applicants are. Your comment does make me wonder, however: what is that number? Does anyone know?
- spacejockeys 18y ago
  Lisa is correct - the comment was pragmatic, not didactic. I don't know the actual median age of the YC applicant pool, but in my own anecdotal and unscientific experience (e.g., who have I met in person at events, or heard a pitch from) the median YC participant is around 23, and has yet to develop the familiarity with pitching that comes from years in the industry. Also, if program awareness comes from social networking or from university outreach, I'd expect a dominant concentration of 20-somethings in the pool.

webwright 18y ago

Is it ever okay to suggest that a demographic balance is just fine? There is a lack of european-descent long-distance runners in the top tiers. Not too many woman play football. Very few men do much knitting. Do we need outreach and mentoring to change make sure that all groups are a mirror of the world's demographic makeup? Women and men are different, and perhaps the reason that software startups are male-dominated speaks to that difference rather than a social issue. In other words, perhaps our society is that way because of how we are rather than how we are being driven by our society. All that being said, I met Christine at Demo Day was was very impressed-- if she's offering to mentor you, you should take her up on it. If you couldn't/wouldn't have the guts to dive in and kick ass without this mentorship/support group, I'd suggest that you probably aren't temperamentally suited to be an entrepreneur.

pinkgarage 18y ago
So white males are the most affluent, successful class because of their geneitics? ROFL.
- webwright 18y ago
  Feel free to read up on what a Straw Man Argument is at your leisure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

axod 18y ago

Surely this could have been worded to come accross as slightly less offensive: "Y Combinator Mentoring from prominent businesswomen".

misuba 18y ago
And less accurate, yes. Considered asking yourself why something being for women is offensive?
- axod 18y ago
  Sure, for the same reason if something is for whites only it's offensive, or for men only. It's pointless anyway... Why aren't there more white basketball players? Racism? Probably more likely the same reason there aren't more women founders. You have to admit a special school only for white basketball players would be pretty offensive. no?
  - misuba 18y ago
    No no no; I said _ask yourself._ Don't just repeat what you already know; think a little longer and look a little deeper into where the offense, the _feeling of offense in you,_ comes from.
    - axod 18y ago
      heh I don't take life seriously enough to get offended. I'm just looking for a bit of consistency here though. Either every instance of racism/sexism is offensive, or they are all fine.