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Comment by jsmith0295 | Hacker News Reader

So who gets to decide that it's sexist? Anyone who feels that it is? If thats the case, I think that assuming its sexist is itself sexist, and now we're in the same boat. I'm sure if someone took offense and mentioned it to the investor he would've apologized. There's no need to turn it into some kind of political campaign and publicly mock the guy.

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> So who gets to decide that it's sexist? Anyone who feels that it is?

Yes.

Everyone gets to decide whether things are sexist, whether and when that's a problem, and whether another person having different opinions about any of that should effect the way they act towards that person.

As another commenter mentioned, would it have been appropriate for him to direct a question to "the black CTO"?

No, but that's really not the same thing at all. It's common to refer to people in the context of their gender (Mr., Ms., etc) but you just don't do that with race.

Really, the fact that this is even being focused on as sexism is crazy. In much of the world women are actually being brutally oppressed, and I would assume that the overwhelming majority of people involved in complaining about minor events like this have not and probably never will do anything to address that. So do they really care, or are they just virtue signaling?

No one complained by unnecessarily gendering "Mr." Drummond and downgrading his Juris Doctor's title to "Mr". Why not?

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