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> 1) "Fundraising is hard, suck it up you baby." (Some of which are just short of "man up!" - and how isn't that sexist?)

Wouldn't it be non-sexist if "man up" is applied to both men and women? What would be sexist is to only say that men should "man up".

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The implication of "man up" is that anything less than a "man" is inadequate. It's much like "quit playing like a girl" or "grow some balls".

Except nobody actually said the words "man up" — it was the OP's own paraphrasing of a general sentiment they observed, which they then turned around and labeled as sexist for using the word "man", all in the same sentence. I've never seen such an impressive turnaround time on a strawman.

Perhaps a bit of a straw man, I admit, but since the author mentioned several instances of men telling her she should toughen up, yet experiencing less resistance from VCs raising money than she did, I can't help but see the comments as piling it on just a little bit.

Yep, that's exactly why I used the scare quotes too. :)

No, the implication is that men are only valued based on their productivity and as such don't get to complain because nobody cares.

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