If you close your eyes just right you can almost imagine all the shit his wife gives him for all the time he spends on his useless hobby instead of helping out around the house.
[1] Or at least this is the kind of potentially viral videos that can increase his internet presence and his revenue in the live talks and shows.
She is also quite nerdy.
If you don't want to assume a man is heterosexual, don't assume he has a wife.
If your stance is that it's not necessarily sexist, which honestly I respect in part, it's nonsense to argue that the comment may not be sexist, because "wife" may mean "husband". It's not a competition to see who can make the fewest assumptions.
I don't know what malice means to you, but I can tell you on my behalf and on behalf of many queer people (I won't claim to speak for all, but I know I speak for many), you should not assume the opposite gender for the partner, and it is unnecessary to defend someone who makes the mistake. Ultimately, it _is_ a factual error, and it is invalidating.
You: "it might not be sexism because people often assume heterosexuality, but the statement could apply to a partner of any gender"
Me: "well then that's heterosexist"
You: People can make the heterosexual assumption without bad intentions, so it's not heterosexist either"
And that is true only for a narrow definition of sexism and heterosexism. Do you want to give a different name to the assumption that people are straight? Do you want to give a different name to the assumption that someone's wife isn't on board with his technical pursuits? I already have a name for those patterns, heterosexism and sexism, and I can grasp the nuances and subtleties of different forms. What is YOUR intent? To reserve those words for cases where there is ill intent?
Sorry for the long thread and I hope I have not offended you. I'm always interested in having other points of views so I like this kind of discussion. Also English is not my native language, so there might have been things lost in translation.
Zebra: He's a sexist pig who can't fathom the idea of a technical woman working on something with her technical husband.
I ask my wife a lot of questions, for example if I get stuck in a calculation or a result makes no sense. Sometimes about the redaction of a sentence. Sometimes just general questions over diner.
She ask me too. I remember that she was missing a transpose sign in his dissertation, and I found the error. It was a tiny fix, and no worth mentioning.