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One source of these "paper cuts" is that we live immersed in a highly sexual culture. "Booth babes" are provided for men to oggle at tech conferences, but the i

One source of these "paper cuts" is that we live immersed in a highly sexual culture. "Booth babes" are provided for men to oggle at tech conferences, but the idealized female body is also used to sell beer, cars, and hamburgers to us on TV. Cleavage shots are common on highway billboards. "Dongle" jokes are on Family Guy, the Daily Show, HBO, CBS, NBC, and even PG movies (I remember a penis joke in "Shrek"). When guys make sexual comments, they are simply participating in the culture that they live in. While tech has some attitudes that are undeniably sexist, comments that would happen in any industry are perceived as more threatening because the gender ratio is so out of whack. If females felt safer in tech, then they wouldn't notice as much the background noise of cultural hyper-sexuality. It feels unfair or unreasonable to many men to check their American culture at the door in order to make females feel comfortable in tech, which is the source of the recent shitshow over PyCon. Most men are willing to fight blatantly sexist shit - the groping and nasty comments reported from tech conferences over the last few years. I am 100% on PyCon's side with the code of conduct and support resources for women. But males in tech simply don't know how to have a conversation without "that's what she said". That's what they hear at night on "How I met your mother". We have a sexually libertine culture. That is viewed as "progress" by some, including many feminists, but it is not without costs. And there is no easy way to silence it.

walms 14y ago
I think this is a very important point. Why is it that we accept grossly sexual comedy and imagery as means to advertise to the masses. Yet in the work place this same culture is seen as totally unacceptable. Personally I think we have gone way to far with what we accept in the media and it's only getting worse.
- sneak 14y ago
  > Personally I think we have gone way to far with what we accept in the media and it's only getting worse. Personally I think we have gone way too far with what we deem "unprofessional" or "inappropriate". I'm with Louis CK when I find myself being offended by hearing some white lady with nice hair saying the phrase "the N word" on CNN.
  - tiredofcareer 14y ago
    Not only that, I think Americans in particular are way too prudish and offendable when it comes to sex, and this starts bordering on religious influence in my mind. I've had enough rodeos down this line of discussion to know that this will be my only vague comment on these feelings. I think that's the polar opposite view of walms's comment, but I might be wrong.
    - walms 14y ago
      Not really the polar opposite, my personal views are that using human sexual drive as a means of marketing and mass entertainment is corrupt on many levels. But my point was more, the double standard is stupid. Why can we use half naked women in the media but not expect men to think of women as sexual objects? We are told they are all the time. I'm not American so I can't comment on how prudish people are there, but I think you are correct people do get offended way to easy. But we live in an age that tells women to value them selves based on their sexual appeal and men to value them selves on the sexual conquests. And saying that is wrong to me has nothing to do with being prudish.
      - tiredofcareer 14y ago
        Initially read you as applying a prudish view to "sex sells" instead of looking at it more academically, hence my comment. Thank you for clarifying. We are in different paragraphs on the same page. Well written.
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
- wpietri 14y ago
  Why? Because the television comes with an off switch. If you don't like the channel, change the channel. But that absolutely does not apply to one's job or one's profession. You can't change those in milliseconds, and it's unfair to suggest that people should.
tiredofcareer 14y ago
> We have a sexually libertine culture. If only that were the case. We have a long way to go before we're in a sexually libertine culture. Can't even show breasts on television without half the God damned country flipping its shit. Can only hint at it! And those aren't even sexual by nature. One needs only examine Donglegate to see how 'sexually libertine' we are...

walms 14y ago

I think this is a very important point. Why is it that we accept grossly sexual comedy and imagery as means to advertise to the masses. Yet in the work place this same culture is seen as totally unacceptable. Personally I think we have gone way to far with what we accept in the media and it's only getting worse.

sneak 14y ago
> Personally I think we have gone way to far with what we accept in the media and it's only getting worse. Personally I think we have gone way too far with what we deem "unprofessional" or "inappropriate". I'm with Louis CK when I find myself being offended by hearing some white lady with nice hair saying the phrase "the N word" on CNN.
- tiredofcareer 14y ago
  Not only that, I think Americans in particular are way too prudish and offendable when it comes to sex, and this starts bordering on religious influence in my mind. I've had enough rodeos down this line of discussion to know that this will be my only vague comment on these feelings. I think that's the polar opposite view of walms's comment, but I might be wrong.
  - walms 14y ago
    Not really the polar opposite, my personal views are that using human sexual drive as a means of marketing and mass entertainment is corrupt on many levels. But my point was more, the double standard is stupid. Why can we use half naked women in the media but not expect men to think of women as sexual objects? We are told they are all the time. I'm not American so I can't comment on how prudish people are there, but I think you are correct people do get offended way to easy. But we live in an age that tells women to value them selves based on their sexual appeal and men to value them selves on the sexual conquests. And saying that is wrong to me has nothing to do with being prudish.
    - tiredofcareer 14y ago
      Initially read you as applying a prudish view to "sex sells" instead of looking at it more academically, hence my comment. Thank you for clarifying. We are in different paragraphs on the same page. Well written.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
wpietri 14y ago
Why? Because the television comes with an off switch. If you don't like the channel, change the channel. But that absolutely does not apply to one's job or one's profession. You can't change those in milliseconds, and it's unfair to suggest that people should.

tiredofcareer 14y ago

> We have a sexually libertine culture. If only that were the case. We have a long way to go before we're in a sexually libertine culture. Can't even show breasts on television without half the God damned country flipping its shit. Can only hint at it! And those aren't even sexual by nature. One needs only examine Donglegate to see how 'sexually libertine' we are...