

OH HAI SEXISM - tannerburson
http://storify.com/charlesarthur/oh-hai-sexism

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MartinCron
From the official apology:

 _We apologize as well if our handling of the tweets offended anyone._

One of the things that I hate most in the world is when people use the word
"if" in an apology. You should either make a real apology about being
offensive, or stand your ground.

~~~
lomegor
This. The same thing happened with the Boston Jam thing, and many other cases.

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EvilTrout
I'm not sure why, but this article and supporting discussion was removed:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3739913>

~~~
whyleyc
It was removed twice - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3740378>

I don't know why it keeps being flagged - there are loads of relevant issues
at play here:

\- Why sexism is a real issue within I.T.

\- How Twitter can amplify customer criticism

\- How (not) to handle complaints

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asto
I felt they're _all_ behaving rather immaturely.

~~~
b0sk
I agree, though, as founders of geeklist.. the two gents are held to a higher
standard and they utterly failed.

It seems Shanley interviewed with them initially and didn't get the job?
Maybe, that's the start of the issue.

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JS_startup
Oh hey, a stupid slapfight on Twitter.

Frankly, Shanley was really offensive in her approach and Christian's
responses seem pretty measured. Not sure what the big deal is.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Christian's responses are measured, but they're a long way from being the
correct response.

The first big paragraph in the article is right. Christian had a perfect
opportunity to turn this into a PR SUCCESS and instead decided to attack the
method of criticism and attempt to shift the blame of the tasteless ad onto
someone else.

It's tacky and easy to see through. He could have ended the conversation there
by offering to take a look at the video and instead decided to turn it into a
meta-"you're being mean" discussion that so often happens on reddit where...
sure enough... 30 minutes later, people are bickering about meta aspects of
the discussion instead of the original issue.

~~~
JS_startup
I agree that it was a PR blunder, but I don't agree with the accusations of
sexism (anyone else noticed the sexist witchhunt that's been started since the
Boston code jam fiasco?)

The story should have been framed as a PR misstep, not a calculated attack
against women. I'd say Shanley's crass behavior gives women a much worse name
than the girl who showed some skin for a commercial.

~~~
jtheory
Here's a relevant question:

Were they hiring any male waitstaff to serve beverages? Or any women waitstaff
over 40, for example?

I'm pretty sure they weren't doing either of those things.

Which makes it more than just a PR flub.

About overreactions -- well... these problems are so pervasive, and ignorance
is so persistent, and _under-reaction_ is so easily brushed aside, that it's
very well worth it to make some noise.

Some people (not most) will change their behavior because they actually
understand the problem and realize they're part of the cause. Other people are
going to change their behavior because the femi-nazis will start a witch-hunt
otherwise (damn, there seem to be more and more of them around!), and will
feel that way about it until the day they die.

Either way: better than no change in behavior.

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moizsyed
I don't know how anyone in the right mind can defend the geeklist guys.. the
video is offensive but worse, the response on twitter is subtly threatening
and childish. Sad.

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rabble
So the video in question got pulled offline, so now none of us who missed it
can tell if it was sexist or not. Kind of ironic.

~~~
MartinCron
Because a woman dancing to dubstep music in her underwear to promote a
technology brand _may or may not be sexist_?

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josefnpat
The video in question has been made private, but somehow one can still access
it via the group.

<http://vimeo.com/groups/eos7d/videos/27758336>

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mayneack
Loading this article was a colossal fail on my android. All I could see was
the title, a bunch of floating random boxes, and the facebook comments at the
bottom.

~~~
asto
Same problem on my blackberry.

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ryandvm
The world would be a better place if people spent less time being offended.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Or doing offensive stuff. Using sex appeal to promote non-sexy things is kind
of a dark side move.

