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Remember infamous Danish cartoons? Do you think cartoonist had to apologize? Boy, did he offend someone… My point was, if someone is offended by that presentati

Remember infamous Danish cartoons? Do you think cartoonist had to apologize? Boy, did he offend someone… My point was, if someone is offended by that presentation, he (and I mean he) should have his head examined. There are people that can be offended by most ridiculous things and I am not going to consider myself responsible for all their quirks. Too much fear to offend someone just dumbs us down, makes daring thing less likely (I think it has to be someone with DHH kind of personality to create RoR) and generally leads to kind of lukewarm relationships, hypocrisy and "thermal death" of society. I am all for solving real problems, not imaginary ones. I have seen quite a few women in IT, and it did not look like they had any problems with it (suffice to say one was the head of the whole IT organization I was working for, other three - heads of departments). All were judged by the competence, not their sex. It is interesting to see that the mere idea that _maybe_, just _maybe_ women in general are not inclined for this type of work (hint: dealing with abstractions, not real people and relations) is instantly rubber-stamped as sexist. I am going to stretch it here, but why isn't anyone fighting to right the underrepresentation of males among persons giving birth? And I don't buy the reality of some "feelings" that are so much on display in this case.

raganwald 18y ago
Remember infamous Danish cartoons? Do you think cartoonist had to apologize? I never saw those cartoons, so I won't comment. But I will compare this presentation to some of George Carlin's comedy, which I have heard over and over and over again. Quite a bit of it is offensive, and the offense was the point of his art, he was trying to make us take a hard look at ourselves. The difference between "art" that is intended to make us uncomfortable and this presentation is that this presentation is not making some of us uncomfortable about our sexuality as a means of giving us insight into technology. It's simply making some of us uncomfortable. If you care to show me a technology presentation that makes us uncomfortable but does so for the express purpose of provoking us to look at ourselves, I would be delighted to discuss whether it is or is not appropriate to deliver at a conference and whether apologising would or would not be in order. Until then, I do not accept the parallel.
- rimantas 18y ago
  Well, if fully dressed women make you uncomfortable, I cannot help there.
  - raganwald 18y ago
    What I learned in university was that "P implies Q" is always true if P is false. Therefore, I upmod your post for truth.
jibiki 18y ago
If Jyllands-Posten had wanted more Muslim readers, then they probably should have apologized for the cartoons.

raganwald 18y ago

Remember infamous Danish cartoons? Do you think cartoonist had to apologize? I never saw those cartoons, so I won't comment. But I will compare this presentation to some of George Carlin's comedy, which I have heard over and over and over again. Quite a bit of it is offensive, and the offense was the point of his art, he was trying to make us take a hard look at ourselves. The difference between "art" that is intended to make us uncomfortable and this presentation is that this presentation is not making some of us uncomfortable about our sexuality as a means of giving us insight into technology. It's simply making some of us uncomfortable. If you care to show me a technology presentation that makes us uncomfortable but does so for the express purpose of provoking us to look at ourselves, I would be delighted to discuss whether it is or is not appropriate to deliver at a conference and whether apologising would or would not be in order. Until then, I do not accept the parallel.

rimantas 18y ago
Well, if fully dressed women make you uncomfortable, I cannot help there.
- raganwald 18y ago
  What I learned in university was that "P implies Q" is always true if P is false. Therefore, I upmod your post for truth.

jibiki 18y ago

If Jyllands-Posten had wanted more Muslim readers, then they probably should have apologized for the cartoons.