5 ms·

I think it's incredibly relevant. Many of the criticisms she's received seem quite gender biased. Let's see. One of the big ones is "she had a baby." Well, tha

by lambda 13y ago

I think it's incredibly relevant. Many of the criticisms she's received seem quite gender biased. Let's see. One of the big ones is "she had a baby." Well, that's something that only a female CEO could do. And she took two weeks of maternity leave for it; no more than many CEOs take for vacation. That entire criticism seems to be "she's a woman", and wouldn't be applied to a male CEO who took a similar length family vacation. Time claims that she has a "princess problem". Would any male CEO be described the same way? And they go on to say "She is one of only 21 female CEOs in the Fortune 500. Doesn’t she owe it to us to tell us how she got there?" Um, why would she owe anyone anything just because she's a female CEO? The problem isn't that she's made enemies in the business sense. The problem is that lots of writers and columnists seem to focus more on her gender, and apply criticisms simply because she's female.

enraged_camel 13y ago
>>The problem isn't that she's made enemies in the business sense. The problem is that lots of writers and columnists seem to focus more on her gender, and apply criticisms simply because she's female. When I said "enemies" I was focusing on people within Yahoo!. Who cares about what writers and columnists say? They will write anything to get readers.
- cantankerous 13y ago
  This article is about what a specific writer says along with a few different talking heads. I think it's totally relevant.
bostonpete 13y ago
I haven't followed the Yahoo saga too closely, but I thought the baby related criticism was related to her revoking people ability to work remotely while simultaneously building a nursery right next to her office so she could be near her own child. I don't recall any criticism of her 2 weeks of maternity leave.
- slurry 13y ago
  I remember it. It wasn't as loud (because anyone with half a brain would be ashamed to say it) but it existed.
briancaw2 13y ago
It's not clear to me that a criticism that is unique to a gender is gender biased. Any person part of a group has things/actions that are unique to that group and criticizing based on those isn't necessarily biased. Re: princess problem...men have many times accused of thinking they're kings. And if you read the next line regarding "owing" an explanation - it's regarding spreading the word to females about how she has had success. It's about female empowerment and inspiring girls/women.
Shivetya 13y ago
identity politics, nothing more. Focus on the inane criticisms of her, things she cannot control or are natural, like child birth, then move onto other criticism that may be valid but with the link established in the readers mind the writer can openly dismiss these as extensions of the previous. It is an all too common mechanism to deflect valid criticism of a person's actions. First by finding the obviously offensive, linking normally unrelated valid, and dismissing as a whole. It is almost always seen in politics when a person in power sycophants line up to bemoan criticism. When they find they themselves cannot support the actions being criticized, let alone rationally defend them, they then in turn portray those who criticize of an offensive behavior, belonging to an offensive class of people, or worse suffering from severe personal defect, usually mental. See it before, will see it again. I am not saying criticism of her is valid or not, I really don't care. What she has been doing does not affect me in any other way. Being on the top of the pile means you get barbs from every direction, she definitely gets them from both sexes does she not? Its part of the game. The only dishonest people are those pulling the tricks I listed.
nawitus 13y ago
Men, on the other hand, face criticism that is never applied to women.
- kamaal 13y ago
  Why even bother bringing this point? As a man, Its assumed I should OK with anything that comes my way. Almost anything! I mean I've put up with some crazy things in the past. I can only imagine the crap storm that would erupt if a women were to held to same standards or if the same treatment were to meted out to them. Its assumed that when it comes to freedom, men are supposed to own up its biggest burden called 'responsibility'. We are judged with a very different definition and standard of freedom.
  - gonzo 13y ago
    What if I said you have a princess problem?
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - kamaal 13y ago
      Look I'm not saying people don't get discriminated or harassed for their identity. People face this issues all the time, some one because of their gender, some because of their skin color, religion, or ethnicity or anything. But if you keep justifying all your failures and problems by saying 'Bad things happen to you because your are X'. Replace X by black, women, muslim etc. The problem is very likely with your and not the world. Having said this I still insist, men are constantly judged by very different standards compared to women. I strictly believe by repeatedly playing the victim card and asking more benefits based on that, women are actually doing disservice to their original cause.
      - lambda 13y ago
        Who is playing the victim card here? I'm male, and I'm saying that I don't think some of the criticisms she's received are warranted. There are definitely some legitimate critical points (the work from home policy, for example), but there also seem to be a lot of criticisms that merely revolve around the fact that she's a woman. You need to distinguish between "playing the victim card" and "calling out behavior which is odious and unacceptable." I think that it's odious and unacceptable to make such a flap about the fact the Marissa Mayer had a kid, or call her a "princess" for not having a better answer for how she got where she was than "worked hard and got lucky." > 'Bad things happen to you because your are X'. Replace X by black, women, muslim etc. The problem is very likely with your and not the world. So, if you're forbidden from going to the same school, and having as much opportunity to learn, that's a problem with you? Remember, many schools were both racially and gender segregated until the 1970s; we've only had a single generation grow up into adults since that happened. Do you think that a single generation can be enough to remove all bias?

by lambda 13y ago

enraged_camel 13y ago

>>The problem isn't that she's made enemies in the business sense. The problem is that lots of writers and columnists seem to focus more on her gender, and apply criticisms simply because she's female. When I said "enemies" I was focusing on people within Yahoo!. Who cares about what writers and columnists say? They will write anything to get readers.

cantankerous 13y ago
This article is about what a specific writer says along with a few different talking heads. I think it's totally relevant.

bostonpete 13y ago

I haven't followed the Yahoo saga too closely, but I thought the baby related criticism was related to her revoking people ability to work remotely while simultaneously building a nursery right next to her office so she could be near her own child. I don't recall any criticism of her 2 weeks of maternity leave.

slurry 13y ago
I remember it. It wasn't as loud (because anyone with half a brain would be ashamed to say it) but it existed.

briancaw2 13y ago

It's not clear to me that a criticism that is unique to a gender is gender biased. Any person part of a group has things/actions that are unique to that group and criticizing based on those isn't necessarily biased. Re: princess problem...men have many times accused of thinking they're kings. And if you read the next line regarding "owing" an explanation - it's regarding spreading the word to females about how she has had success. It's about female empowerment and inspiring girls/women.

Shivetya 13y ago

identity politics, nothing more. Focus on the inane criticisms of her, things she cannot control or are natural, like child birth, then move onto other criticism that may be valid but with the link established in the readers mind the writer can openly dismiss these as extensions of the previous. It is an all too common mechanism to deflect valid criticism of a person's actions. First by finding the obviously offensive, linking normally unrelated valid, and dismissing as a whole. It is almost always seen in politics when a person in power sycophants line up to bemoan criticism. When they find they themselves cannot support the actions being criticized, let alone rationally defend them, they then in turn portray those who criticize of an offensive behavior, belonging to an offensive class of people, or worse suffering from severe personal defect, usually mental. See it before, will see it again. I am not saying criticism of her is valid or not, I really don't care. What she has been doing does not affect me in any other way. Being on the top of the pile means you get barbs from every direction, she definitely gets them from both sexes does she not? Its part of the game. The only dishonest people are those pulling the tricks I listed.

nawitus 13y ago

Men, on the other hand, face criticism that is never applied to women.

kamaal 13y ago
Why even bother bringing this point? As a man, Its assumed I should OK with anything that comes my way. Almost anything! I mean I've put up with some crazy things in the past. I can only imagine the crap storm that would erupt if a women were to held to same standards or if the same treatment were to meted out to them. Its assumed that when it comes to freedom, men are supposed to own up its biggest burden called 'responsibility'. We are judged with a very different definition and standard of freedom.
- gonzo 13y ago
  What if I said you have a princess problem?
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - kamaal 13y ago
    Look I'm not saying people don't get discriminated or harassed for their identity. People face this issues all the time, some one because of their gender, some because of their skin color, religion, or ethnicity or anything. But if you keep justifying all your failures and problems by saying 'Bad things happen to you because your are X'. Replace X by black, women, muslim etc. The problem is very likely with your and not the world. Having said this I still insist, men are constantly judged by very different standards compared to women. I strictly believe by repeatedly playing the victim card and asking more benefits based on that, women are actually doing disservice to their original cause.
    - lambda 13y ago
      Who is playing the victim card here? I'm male, and I'm saying that I don't think some of the criticisms she's received are warranted. There are definitely some legitimate critical points (the work from home policy, for example), but there also seem to be a lot of criticisms that merely revolve around the fact that she's a woman. You need to distinguish between "playing the victim card" and "calling out behavior which is odious and unacceptable." I think that it's odious and unacceptable to make such a flap about the fact the Marissa Mayer had a kid, or call her a "princess" for not having a better answer for how she got where she was than "worked hard and got lucky." > 'Bad things happen to you because your are X'. Replace X by black, women, muslim etc. The problem is very likely with your and not the world. So, if you're forbidden from going to the same school, and having as much opportunity to learn, that's a problem with you? Remember, many schools were both racially and gender segregated until the 1970s; we've only had a single generation grow up into adults since that happened. Do you think that a single generation can be enough to remove all bias?