

Apparently We're Not Ready to Be Adults About Anything - davj
http://chriszf.posterous.com/apparently-were-not-ready-to-be-adults-about

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mschuster91
I'm sick of these "oooh no dick jokes" and "political correctness" fascism
applied everywhere.

Come on, there's a difference between saying a woman directly to the face that
you'd like to bang her, and to make jokes about sex in a group of people.

This whole mess of "oh we have to be politically correct in any f __*ing way
to avoid lawsuits" has spread from the US to Europe. 1984 anyone? I'm free to
think what I want and to make jokes to my friends about topics I want. Without
any PC-fascists interfering and waffling about stuff they have no business at.

This does not mean that I dislike women in tech or think of them as free-for-
all or whatever stupid cliché. I don't give a shit about boobs or dicks, I
care about how _good_ someone is at his job only. As we all should. We have to
take care of paying everyone equal, not firing people because they're LGBT
(Don't ask, don't tell dropping was a first step, yay) and to eliminate _any_
gender or sexual related discrimination.

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johnny22
i don't think fascism means what you think it means.

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mschuster91
In Germany the term "Feminazis" or similar is used as a (offensive) title for
extreme feminists (which we unfortunately have a lot of!).

Nothing against feminism, but it has more and more turned into a war on men.

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johnny22
quite familiar with the term. That doesn't make these folks who are upset with
the issue the same as those folks who you are referencing. IMO it is quite
unfair to link them.

EDIT: there are extremes in every viewpoint, and there are probably some
people who actually do dislike men. But does that really make it ok to bring
it up in this context due to all evidence to the contrary in the tech fields?

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cup
I think this issue has been so inflammatory because it covers a lot of
sensitive topics.

\- Women in one of the last male dominated tech fields \- Privacy between two
people having a conversation \- The ramifications stories can have in todays
twitter world (i.e. getting fired over hearsay)

There are so many issues one could discuss its difficult to know where to
start. On one hand no one really knows exactly what joke was said except for
those three individuals involved. At the same time while innocent until proven
guilty, no one wants to be painted as unsympathetic to womens plight against
sexism in the tech field.

Then there is the issue about whether its acceptable to assume there is a
right not to be offended. One persons dongle joke is another person 'trigger'.
Is it understandable that some individuals feel threatened by the heavy handed
consequences that can come with what is assumed (rightly or wrongly) to be
general conference chit chat.

Why is it that as a Muslim I have no right to be offended when people make
jokes or down right derogatory comments about Islam (which are protected by
the oft affirmed free speech shield) yet this person was allowed to be
offended and seek retribution for a comment that she heard.

It's an interesting situation thats for sure.

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mattsah
No one has a "right" not to be offended insofar as such would trump any right
to freedom of speech. That said, any company under the current circumstances
has a "right" to fire an employee who might afford them negative attention one
way or the other, and certainly under the conditions of sexual harassment.

Please note, I am not saying that I agree the company should have done so,
merely that they likely have the right.

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Bryan22
reminds me of a quote... 'It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather
offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a
whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected
as a phrase. "I'm offended by that." Well, so fucking what?' —Stephen Fry

