Hacker News Reader

Comment by scotty79 | Hacker News Reader

Do tech women identify somehow with this girl in the picture and feel offended?

When guy sees some looser made fun of on some picture he thinks: "Hehe. What a looser!" as he sees almost no resemblance between him and the looser.

Does women feel more strongly connected to other women because of shared gender than men?

View on HN

I'd feel offended if presented with this sort of nonsense at a tech talk. The implication of the picture, given the structure and history of our society, is that women are there to be pretty and submissive and men are there to control women with money. That and it makes absolutely no sense as an analogy for MVC, it's just a cheap shot in an attempt to titillate an assumed audience of sexist men. So yes, women in an audience presented with that sort of image are probably going to feel alienated and offended, and no that is not some special sensitivity or empathy for other women, it's because of all the assumptions which come with using a picture like that (women are not my audience, pretty women are controlled by men with money, women are there to be looked at by men, etc).

PS When referring to losers, use the correct spelling

Thanks for the correction. Sorry. Not native speaker. Spellchecker didn't kick in.

Maybe I'm desensitized to gender issues because I never disrespected a woman for being a woman, and never noticed any adult during my childhood who did that even jokingly but I can imagine conference room of techy women with female presenter showing this picture and all laughing partly exactly because it has nothing to do with MVC and absurd humor is always funny and also because the girl in the picture is obviously inferior to the women in the room even though she could be better off if she learned useful stuff properly like they did and led independent life like they do. I am aware that this probably won't happen anywhere in another 50 years or so.

Personally I hate inappropriate jokes in public appearances because they make presenter look silly and in some twisted form of empathy I feel the shame that presenter should feel.

This joke made me laugh probably because I'm in front of the computer following anonymous link not in the room full of people seeing some boring poor chap desperately trying to lighten the mood. I was mostly amused by the View part, then the Model, not at all at the Controller. I'm so indoorsy (and living in non english speaking country) that when I'm thinking of View the thing that you can see on holidays is one of the last things that come to my mind. I don't own a TV and don't follow celebrity gossip and/or fashion so the connection between what I know as Model and being a model as occupation was also hard for me to make. Controller was I think the easiest (so already least funny) because money is a mean to control a lot (your life for example) also controlling people of opposite gender with money brings "eww.." factor that spoils the joke. 2 out of 3 ... so somewhat funny.

Sorry for trolling you with insensitive question.

But the person in the picture is specifically labeled a model: a profession which - by definition - means they are there to be pretty and "submissive" (in the sense that any employee is "submissive" to their employer).

Would it be better if it were a male model?

This image is implying that women are objects to be bought and sold and "controlled". Thus the currency. That's why it's offensive. Women are not "objects" to be controlled or bought. It has nothing to do with solidarity.

Also, your example talks about "making fun of" someone. The image in the OOP example is reducing a woman's personhood to nothing but that of an object. It is intended to mock her existence and imply that she has no personal agency beyond what a man would choose to control her with.

It's offensive because it's lazy. There are better analogies and ways of conveying these concepts that don't objectify 50% of the population.

If I'm one of the only girls in the room, and that is how a point is being made in a presentation by someone that supposedly has enough clout in the industry to go up in front of hundreds of people and talk, it doesn't make me feel good about my future or the people I will report to down the line, nor does it make me feel comfortable knowing that this type of humor is acceptable and welcomed by the amount of laughs it gets.

There's also going to be a few people in the audience that look at this image and then look at me to see what my reaction is, and I'm there to learn, not stand out.

What have you got against WD-40?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com