

Yahoo's 'Dirty Old Man' Shareholders Remind Marissa Mayer She's a Woman - rpm4321
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/06/yahoo-shareholders-meeting-marissa-mayer/66580/

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shanelja
This entire article is an exercise in idiocy, full of loaded comments. This is
what actually happens:

 _Man tells woman she is attractive_ ... _Another woman interprets this as
sexism_

It might be an inappropriate time to say it, but this is rudeness, not sexism.
How often is it that you are talking to someone, anyone, they comment on how
attractive you are and you are _sorely offended_? Never? Because I know from
my personal experiences (as a highly privileged cis male of course) that I
love being complimented.

If we are to interpret every single unrequested compliment as sexism that
feminists will soon find that they are unable to find a boyfriend.

If you want an example of sexism, then here is one, from the very fingers of
the feminist news reporter herself: "that she looks like a woman but acts like
a man." Why should any woman need to act like a man? In this day and age do we
still believe in these traditional gender roles, that only a man can be
effective in a leadership position?

And then some victim blaming: "Mayer didn't [...] [goad] the "dirty old man"
with some low-cut top or skimpy outfit [...] But, of course, you weren't even
wondering that, were you?" No, as a matter of fact, I wasn't. That comment was
an unnecessary attempt to read the mind of the reader. At no point did I
assume that this respected member of her community would be sat in her
shareholders meeting wearing a bikini or a v-neck down to her stomach.

Propaganda, the lot of it.

~~~
mtoddh
_cis male_

cis male? Am I the only one who has no idea what this is?

~~~
meddlepal
I did not have a clue, so I searched on Google... It is apparently the
politically or academically correct way to refer to a male who identifies with
the male gender identity; see 'cisgender'.

~~~
icebraining
Not just males; it's used for females as well.

------
mikegioia
I don't understand why asking for a favorite football team is a "gender based
question". Women clearly watch football, and TBH, calling that a gender based
question is more demeaning to women than the actual question.

~~~
rayiner
It depends on the context. Questions like that can be used to remind people
that they don't have the same background as the other people in the group. For
example, a group full of rich people might as someone from a low-income
background: "where do you summer?" If you don't think that kind of signaling
takes place in the board room, I suggest you read this article:
[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/the-
ironman-...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/the-ironman-
triathlete-executives-ultimate-status-feat).

That said, I don't think that particular question is sexist. Football
(particularly in the midwest where Mayer hails from), is pretty broadly
popular across gender lines to the point where it's not uncommon enough for
women to like football that it would be effective in exclusion signaling.

~~~
aeorgnoieang
Good points, but still ... how can anyone escape the trap you mention in your
first paragraph if our charges of 'sexism!' always reinforce the existing
stereotypes?

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prawks
A very poorly written article. Unfortunate because until now I have enjoyed a
lot of The Atlantic's content.

 _Dude, not even the President of the United States can get away with that
kind of thing._

Not to mention it was written to be as link-baity and "controversial" as
possible, while making sexist remarks clearly without knowing it.

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cpdean
"Like any good woman in power [...] she looks like a woman but acts like a
man."

Rebecca Greenfield was _so close_ to praising Mayer on her career without
completely debasing all female leaders in the world.

~~~
DanBC
I read that as "Marissa Mayer has been forced to prove, by answering questions
about sports, that she is manly enough to run a company. And this is a problem
other female leaders have to go through".

I agree that this article is lousy and poorly written.

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Uperte
Old guy tells Marissa she is attractive, feminist writes article about sexism.
Nothing to see here, move on.

~~~
PavlovsCat
Sexism is waved away with euphemisms, which is exciting and stimulating.

Also, if you're not a feminist by 2013, what are you? This stuff was a no-
brainer the second it was came up with.

~~~
alexjeffrey
you may be confusing feminism with the equal rights for women movement. While
there's a large crossover and the former certainly tries to pretend to be the
latter, there's also an element of male-targeted sexism within the feminist
community that would always prevent me from identifying with them. I'm not
saying at all that feminism = sexism, but I wouldn't want to back a community
that doesn't seem to address these issues.

~~~
shanelja
I couldn't agree more.

We should all be egalitarian: characterized by belief in equal political,
economic, social, and civil rights for all people, rather than feminist:
defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.

~~~
PavlovsCat
The point is they so vastly don't have it, and it's so deeply ingrained, and
Stockholm Syndrome runs so deep, that solidarity and kicking continued ass is
really called for here.

There is a reason John Lennon wrote a song called "woman is the nigger of the
world". I haven't met a sane smart man who felt threatened by feminism. Not
one. Scoffing at the excesses, sure. But not calling it out like some warning
sign.

Do you accuse a group working for the ethical treatment of prisoners of not
wanting _everyone_ to be treated ethically? No.

You see, that's how much I pay attention.

~~~
derpanerb
No sane man is threatened by feminism?

So when feminists pass bills that implement mandatory arrest policies for the
male in any domestic violence calls.... a man would have to be insane to be
threatened by that?

Or when a feminist twists the definition of rape so that over 1 million male
victims of rape are ignored every single year (which then allows them to come
to some nice fancy conclusiosn like "95% of all rape victims are female")...
I'm insane for being threatened by that too?

And then we have NoW, the biggest feminist organization in the entire world...
I must clearly be insane to be opposed to the fact that they constantly rally
against any group or bill that tried to remove the bias from custody trials
(in which mothers get custody 90+% of the time).

And this is only scratching the surface...

I suggest you stop being so ignorant of the many legitimate reasons why people
have a problem with feminism.

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cpdean
This story was nearly a year old the day it was posted.

I want to hear about if the dirty old men have shut the hell up or not since
then.

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mathattack
And as a shareholder he's effectively on the committee that is her boss. Take
two steps forward and one step back.

~~~
tbrownaw
Meh. 2000 shares would be about... $50k or 1.8e-4%. Somehow I doubt that's
enough to really matter.

