So, this has to be said.<p>These fucktards are the people representing our profession on NPR. NPR doesn't run stories about the other apps presented at TechCrunch Disrupt. The public won't here about that, or really, much of the cool tech that goes on. They'll hear about this, and that's what they'll remember.<p>Why the hell doesn't someone go up on that stage and kick those idiots off? Who's the goddamn moderator that is in charge and standing their watching this go on, instead of walking up, killing the power, and getting them an escort from the building.<p>I don't want to be an apologist for my profession, nor my passion. Right now, I am, so it's up to us to put this shit down. Start now.
Interesting that HN keeps killing threads on this topic:
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6360328" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6360328</a><p>A stubborn refusal to confront the problem is what helps these attitudes fester.
Where I live a very out, flaming gay dev once presented an app as a joke to detect what he called gaydar and was pointing it at uncomfortable suit guys and saying stuff like "you're a faggot dude, math doesn't lie". I thought it was a hilarious small moment of anarchy in an otherwise very dull conference full of banking apps.<p>A Jewish programmer also had a lol app to determine holocaust survival and the outcomes ranged from 'Nazi comfort boy' to 'gassed immediately' after analyzing your picture. This was a tradeshow/conference for payment solutions. Lots of uncomfortable silence. Later found out the presenter was a comedian some casino had hired. If he had done that at a US tradeshow all of twitter would've exploded in faux outrage<p>I don't get the Business Insider troll tweets though. I think he forgot Twitter isn't 4chan
Best comment on the article from Bob Costas...<p>For years people (and yes, mostly guys) who were involved in the tech industry and engineering in general were shunned and dismissed by culture at large to be losers and sexual non-entities and therefore lacking in social currency. As a result of this mass dismissal and social rejection, and since most women aren't raised or brought up to deal with rejection and social stigmatization, while some actively participated and reinforced the stigmatization, women in general didn't feel comfortable being in or pursuing a career in a field that garnered such negative attention for a very long time.<p>To this day people in the tech field are often marginalized and in order to attract women to the field companies like Google have to produce promo videos that try to convince women to join the industry by suggesting that there aren't that many weirdos in the industry and that most people in the industry are "normal" as opposed to celebrating the beautiful weird male personalities that achieved great things because of their weirdness not in spite of it and helping women realize and embrace the male nerd ethic the went into building this new world:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.." rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..</a>.<p>Notice the attention given to showering and how they gloss over the fact that in reality, the current leaders in the tech world didn't bath regularly when they were building their companies. Bill Gates comes to mind.<p>The reason why you get push-back from males from the industry when it comes to involving more women in tech isn't because they have some "jock, locker room, and frat" mentality that women are somehow mentally inferior to males and aren't capable of understanding tech. Actually, women in science and engineering classes at major universities tend to be the top students in those classes. Its because they don't think women in general have the fortitude nor the willingness to not shower for days and be content with not going outside while living off cold pizza. While most tech experiences these days don't involve this sort of lifestyle, the anti-social behavior and culture that are associated with the lifestyle still exist and instead of women decrying these prevailing attitudes in tech they should embrace these traits.<p>Case in point, Elon Musk's ex-wife. Instead of dealing with his borderline autism for what it was, in her blog she attacked him being arrogant and uncaring. Elon Musk is a weirdo and natural introvert who forces himself to be an extrovert to be able to do the interesting and unique things he wants and needs to do in life.
> TechCrunch issued an apology Sunday for the "two misogynistic presentations,"<p>app is sexist yeah, but how is looking at tits <i>misogynistic</i>?
These guys are idiots and there is definitely sexism in the IT industry. But every time I see these stories saying there is sexism in IT I think compared to what? Finance (Wall Street!)? Marketing? Law? Government? Military? Manufacturing? Construction?<p>I guess the disturbing part is what makes these guys think they can be this open about it. Wall Street has rampant sexism but I'm thinking they are smart enough not to show it is a public forum.
Not sure this adds much to the story, but I think it's noteworthy that this was covered in a mainstream news program. I heard it on the radio yesterday.
Commented earlier on another Women In Tech thread (seems to be the meme of the day).<p>The question is not "Why are there so few women in IT?", it's "Why are so many men in IT such jerks?"
On top of being embarrassed for doing this on stage, these people should be embarrassed for presenting such a fucking dumb idea for a hackathon.<p>On an 100% unrelated note, Adria Richards has transitioned from "Technology Evangelist" to "Programmer"?
The only thing I found offensive about this story was the environment in which the app was presented, which was definitely inappropriate. If the app was presented by Daniel Tosh on his TV show, we'd probably all have a chuckle and move on.
I consider my profession fantastic, with a lot of beautiful and exceptionally smart people. I haven't encountered this nearly as much. It must be happening more in Silicon Valley and NY more, but generally I can't see sexism as a part of culture in our profession. I am in Chicago if that matters, as a consultant I changed a lot of companies.<p>On other hand, developers, both male and those few females are not the most eloquent people, however women were always welcomed, especially developers.
"Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex."<p>Talking about sex or using crude sexual humor is NOT sexism. It may be inappropriate for a professional environment (especially if kids are around) but it is not sexism; there is no discrimination nor an intent to put someone else down.
So while the Business Insider story was just in tech circles I can image everyone's favourite brogrammer Pax Dickinson may have been able to casually sidestep into another sector.<p>With it hitting NPR, I suspect this has irreversibly damaged his professional reputation.
I don't think they should make such broad generalizations about the tech industry because of three 20-something guys from San Francisco, New York City, who aren't even employed by any large, reputable technology company.
Unsurprisingly, the guys who demoed "Titstare" are part of AngelHack - they are from the "Hate-You Cards" team which was accepted into AngelHack's "pre-accelerator" program.