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Comment by kevin_thibedeau | Hacker News Reader

Don't think I can take Ms. Notopoulos seriously when she doles out dreck like this:

> The Power Vest flaunts a very cruel male privilege: being comfortable.

> The Power Vest is a form of male privilege, a hideous fleece totem of the patriarchy’s oppression of non-cis-male people in the workplace.

Seriously? It's just a vest.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/i-wore-...

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It's pretty clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In "researching" power vests she wore a L.L.Bean fleece vest from 1995, I wouldn't exactly call it overly subtle. Maybe a bit of introspection about why you found the writing upsetting instead of funny is in order?

>Don't think I can take Ms. Notopoulos seriously

i'm not entirely sure you were supposed to.

Well, that's the thing, isn't it? It's Poe's Law but with reputational damage if you guess wrong in the wrong situation. Take it seriously and it wasn't? You're a buffoon. Take it as a joke when it's serious? You're an insensitive asshole and a bigot, and nobody can make the case you were acting in good faith and made a mistake.

The dangers of engaging with satire are very real. However the costs paid are generally short-lived and to the open-minded and those able to find humor in themselves, repaid in full if not in excess.

not offering a comment is always an option.

That's her writing style. I think it's a bit of satire. She once wrote an article about something I did and it was as hyperbolic. It was a mix of "WTF are you talking about?" and "Well, that's actually kind of funny".

The article is rather tongue-in-cheek, but it's also not wrong.

> The Power Vest flaunts a very cruel male privilege: being comfortable.

That's written to get a chuckle out of you, but it's also touching upon a real truth. Men are allowed to dress a lot more comfortably than women are in the same situation.

> Ms. Notopoulos

An obviously fake name, BTW.

> Ms. Notopoulos

Plus... Notopoulos

Not O'Poulos.

Not of the chicken.

Not afraid.

We can conclude this isn't a real person, as they're not afraid to be outed, as in having their arms out wearing a vest.

Clever indeed.

Bit odd - obviously the author has never worked in a factory or a lab in the winter.

And I would have thought something a bit more up market from Barbour or Burberry - those vests in the pics just look so fugly.

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