4 ms·

I'm obviously the minority here but I feel that this backlash is way over the top. Sure, the comment was sort of stupid and shouldn't be a part of any official

I'm obviously the minority here but I feel that this backlash is way over the top. Sure, the comment was sort of stupid and shouldn't be a part of any official communication from a company (although part of what I love about startups is that the communication is more human and doesn't feel like it's been screened by legal and marketing before published). To me, it pokes more fun at geeks than anyone else. "A real woman!" The idea that the underlying message is that women are supposed to be servants to men and that's all they are good for is imo quite a stretch. Does anybody really believe that they meant something like that?

mr-ron 15y ago
I think the underlying message is that only male geeks would ever go to a hackathon.
xsmasher 15y ago
Looking past the "women servants" message there's the implication that "developers are men, and we'll have women there to serve them beer." DO you think a female developer would feel welcomed by that message? The servants bit is a joke, the unspoken assumption that devs are men is the insidious poison.
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knowtheory 15y ago
Even if it did mock geeks, how does that excuse the dehumanization of women? Just because you're saying shitty things about everyone doesn't mean it's okay that you're saying shitty things.
- kristiandupont 15y ago
  This is how I see it: claiming that A can "dehumanize" B implies that A is over B somehow. I find your statement and the like elsewhere in this discussion ("Women are not a perk!" etc.) more demeaning and patronizing that the original line. Women are not weak souls who need protection from evil sexist geeks.
  - knowtheory 15y ago
    /me grins. You're backing yourself into a corner rhetorically here. I'm not (just) white knighting here to defend all the poor helpless ladies. I am actually offended and disheartened by the comments. The things that Sqoot said makes me not want to be part of the community they belong to. Secondly, the ladies have been more than capable of communicating that they felt this was demeaning. This isn't smoke without fire. Here's the thing. Sqoot are obviously dumb kids, because the ad for the event was clearly written in dumb-kid-speak. I have hope that they do grow and learn from this experience, and they better understand that they should be more mindful not to be jerks to others. What I genuinely can't abide (either rhetorically or ethically) are the mealy-mouthed defenses of Sqoot's writing. What they did was not okay, there's really no justification of it. And to their credit they have tried to apologize. I'm still not convinced that they have (yet) internalized why everyone is upset at them, and I think that's why the controversy has continued. But the fact that you are willing to accuse others of being more demeaning than Sqoot simply because they are explaining their grievances is mega-weak. I hope you too grow and at some point come regret the defense of Sqoot's behavior you have offered here.
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mr-ron 15y ago

I think the underlying message is that only male geeks would ever go to a hackathon.

xsmasher 15y ago

Looking past the "women servants" message there's the implication that "developers are men, and we'll have women there to serve them beer." DO you think a female developer would feel welcomed by that message? The servants bit is a joke, the unspoken assumption that devs are men is the insidious poison.

deleted 15y ago
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knowtheory 15y ago

Even if it did mock geeks, how does that excuse the dehumanization of women? Just because you're saying shitty things about everyone doesn't mean it's okay that you're saying shitty things.

kristiandupont 15y ago
This is how I see it: claiming that A can "dehumanize" B implies that A is over B somehow. I find your statement and the like elsewhere in this discussion ("Women are not a perk!" etc.) more demeaning and patronizing that the original line. Women are not weak souls who need protection from evil sexist geeks.
- knowtheory 15y ago
  /me grins. You're backing yourself into a corner rhetorically here. I'm not (just) white knighting here to defend all the poor helpless ladies. I am actually offended and disheartened by the comments. The things that Sqoot said makes me not want to be part of the community they belong to. Secondly, the ladies have been more than capable of communicating that they felt this was demeaning. This isn't smoke without fire. Here's the thing. Sqoot are obviously dumb kids, because the ad for the event was clearly written in dumb-kid-speak. I have hope that they do grow and learn from this experience, and they better understand that they should be more mindful not to be jerks to others. What I genuinely can't abide (either rhetorically or ethically) are the mealy-mouthed defenses of Sqoot's writing. What they did was not okay, there's really no justification of it. And to their credit they have tried to apologize. I'm still not convinced that they have (yet) internalized why everyone is upset at them, and I think that's why the controversy has continued. But the fact that you are willing to accuse others of being more demeaning than Sqoot simply because they are explaining their grievances is mega-weak. I hope you too grow and at some point come regret the defense of Sqoot's behavior you have offered here.
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