I would call supporting the objectification of women misogyny. Sure, it's not traditional "hatred" (But really, how many people hate all women in the traditiona

I would call supporting the objectification of women misogyny. Sure, it's not traditional "hatred" (But really, how many people hate all women in the traditional sense? Is that all people think misogyny means?), but it's a failure to value women as people. Regardless, it's more than just bad taste. At a professional event for a group that has terrible gender balance, glorifying the objectification onstage only further creates a culture where it is hard for women to feel welcome. It's bad taste that is Part of the Problem. And even a sexualized environment (eg. the stupid CircleShake presentation) can make a lot of people feel uncomfortable, especially women since society views male and female sexuality very differently. Plus women are overwhelmingly the ones who have had very bad experiences with sex (sexual assault, etc), or have worried about it even if it hasn't happened. So both presentations contributed to the status quo that makes tech/startups feel like a boys club, making it harder for women to feel comfortable joining the communities. I think that supporting these unjust, sexist status quos is misogyny, so both presentations were--in effect, if not in intention--misogynistic. But it also doesn't matter. He's the CTO. If he were a random dev, firing him would probably be extreme. Talk to him, ask him to avoid touching controversial subjects online for awhile and be more careful and considerate. But this is the guy who leads the technical team. He has a lot of impact on the culture. If he thinks the right response to stupid guys who support the objectification of women onstage at a large, publicly-broadcast professional event is to defend them as "not misogynists," then I don't trust him to be very sensitive to how his work environment may need improvement to make women feel more comfortable. And I doubt many prospective female engineers would either.