

How To Fight Sexism in Silicon Valley - chrisyeh
http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2012/04/speak-up-silicon-valley.html

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nullflux
Why are we are focusing consistently on a short-term solution to what seems
like a larger issue? I personally don't see a quick fix to all of this, and it
seems to me that the real solution is more holistic than we seem to be pushing
for.

In every one of these that gets to a couple hundred comments, we end up with
two big groups that appear: "bros" that are "just having fun" and y'all need
to "lighten up", or some stereotype of a misogynistic engineer that hates
women because women consistently slighted the character throughout his life.
In the first case, you have to fight a subculture that commoditizes women; in
the second, you have to fight years of maladaptive behavior, and negative
feedback from a cycle of sexual and social ostracization, where their defense
became vilification.

Both of those cases are going to be really tough to change in the short-term.
In the best case scenario we'll get a few to see the light, but when there are
emotional ties to this type of behavior there is a lot of cognitive dissonance
that has to be cut through before any change is truly realized. In the tougher
cases all we will actually do for the present generation is bury sexist
sentiment into a back channel somewhere, which doesn't help the end cause.

Yes, let's lead by example, but let's also try to start at the origin and get
things sorted out before such discriminatory practices can get deeply rooted.
Go talk to some college engineering teams. Let's get more women involved in
the things that these guys are doing, and give them equal opportunity to show
their abilities; the culture is often more meritocratic than not. Take it one
step further if you have kids, and teach them that gender roles are just as
bad as racism. The bros will realize that their actions are slowly being
obsolesced, and the shunned will be proportionally less so. It takes work from
both ends and we are really only ever pushing one angle hard.

EDIT: Drastically rewritten in hopes of being clearer.

EDIT 2: Minor bits and pieces, again.

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gaius
I'm imagining a hypothetical News.YC frequented by primary school teachers,
getting worked up every few days about that field's lack of men. Or nurses. Or
librarians. Or maybe gender imbalances in certain professions are actually a
complete non-issue?

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chrisyeh
It may be that at teaching/nursing/library science conferences, there are
presentations that feature images of Chippendales dancers and fireman
calendars and are met with hoots of approval. If I were a man sitting in the
audience at these hypothetical conferences, I'd feel pretty uncomfortable.

The fact that a field lacks gender balance isn't the point. The point is that
whatever the field, people shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable.

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japhyr
He is right. If enough people speak up, and interrupt sexism when and where it
happens, people will change. Their values might not change right away, but
behaviors will change.

If flashing pictures of bikini-clad women starts to consistently bring
negative attention, people will stop doing it. I am happy to see this meme
(talking about sexism, and what people can do about it) continue.

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rimantas
Please, someone, tell me how to fight this stupid tendency to see sexism
everywhere? What if the picture was of a guy in shorts? Would that be sexism
too? What if the said guy was black? And gay? Would that be rasexomophobia?

How long before we start to censor any depiction of a human everywhere?
Destroying "sexist" art?

Picture has nothing to do with the app? Who the fuck cares? Let's just all cut
out all wiring in our brains that makes us to pay attention to one of the
"four Fs" and die out.

~~~
chrisyeh
It's not always easy to tell what is and isn't offensive. But when a roomful
of women suddenly applauds, I suspect that they felt it was.

I'm not saying people should run around flashing a thought police badge. But
if you see something you think is wrong, speak up.

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mark_integerdsv
We need to focus back on the inherent meritocracy that is tech and
entrepreneurship.

Every time I see this tired old trope trotted out again it has two distinct
effects on me personally:

1.) I start worrying about my own interactions with the females in my team 2.)
I stop thinking about technology and innovation

...and I'm tired of it.

Take the feminist struggle such as it is in 2012 to the world of politics from
whence it comes.

You have something of value to contribute to the world of technology? Do it.

It is not in the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to complain about
and dissect the words and actions of those who clearly know no better, it is
in the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to Do.

This squabbling is for children and politicians. Leave it to them.

Go and Do.

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Tsagadai
You want the meritocratic and entrepreneurial spin? Here it is. Unless your
business is selling sex or trying to gain lots of adolescent boys you are
doing your brand, your product and your career damage. There is no merit in
displaying pictures that will marginalize part of your audience in a
presentation unless you are aiming for a narrow market and you have no
aspirations of long term growth into other markets.

    
    
      You have something of value to contribute to the world of technology? Do it.
    

Yes, do it but with some maturity and professionalism.

If you want to be respected start by acting respectfully towards others.

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nosse
I really can't judge this as none of the original "offensive" material is
accessible.

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nosse
I feel that the problem isn't necessarily discriminating against women. I
think the problem is the fact that these guys think their audience to bee so
stupid that they fall for sexual appeal.

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carguy1983
Sexism doesn't even have to be the issue here, it's just breathtaking how
unprofessional some tech presenters are.

The real solution is to be ruthless and fire or eject anyone immediately for
doing as something as incredibly fucking stupid as putting sexually
provocative pictures in a presentation. The level of professionalism that
conveys is indescribably embarrassing.

The author of the post was way too nice. I would have stopped the presenters
in the middle of their deck and humiliated them publicly in front of everyone.

Can you imagine if a presenter did this at a sales meeting at a high end
client? Say a financial institution, or Google? It would be the end of their
career.

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LinXitoW
I'd imagine that in the presenters' mind, this picture wasn't worse than
people inserting lolcats or funny pictures into their presentation. I'm not
saying it's the same, just that those creating the presentation see it so.

Whether inserting reddit into presentations is an appropriate means of
lightening the mood or plain immature is another discussion.

~~~
adaml_623
I agree that the presenters probably just didn't think. And somebody said
something at the end to try and make them think.

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MediaSquirrel
+1

