Let's stop wasting time on this right now and discuss it on Sunday, as expressed a couple times already.
Thanks, Sylvain On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 07:09:58AM -0400, Deb Nicholson wrote: > On Aug 13, 2014 5:14 AM, "Alfred M. Szmidt" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > It takes a constitution of steel, or a principled rejection of > > relentless input from outside, for a woman to survive and thrive in > > yesterday's hacker culture. > > > > You are claiming that women are feeble persons with no means of > > standing up and saying their voice in `yesterdays culture' and need > > your help in todays, you are also assuming that women are some perfect > > beings that never make equally crude, and funny jokes. How is that > > not offensive? > > The women I know are not going home to have a good cry after hearing > "jokes" about women as sex objects at hacker conferences. They are just > deciding to spend their time with people who don't make them the butt of > their jokes. > > Just because a woman may make a crude joke with her own friends, doesn't > mean it will feel comfortable to hear jokes about women as sex objects in a > room that is 98% men that she doesn't know. The two situations aren't the > same at all. > Cheers, > Deb > > > > > The US, and Americans, in general, are overly sterialized when it > > comes to interaction with other people that have different values. > > And we can see this by this dicussion. They have lived in a society > > where they way to "empower" someone is to diminish their value by > > becoming an over protective bully and assuming that because someone is > > a woman, or whatever, they cannot handle themselves and need help. > > > > The reality is that women can handle themselves just fine if everyone > > (women included!) behaves like normal people. There are already legal > > instruments to reach for when someone is sexually molested, harassed, > > etc. > > > > But we are not talking about the extremes. We are talking about basic > > crude humour, jokes, and pictures! It is NOT normal is to "protect" > > people from jokes that can be construed as tad offensive because > > someone has had humour sterilization at some point... > > > > The mere fact that we are having this discussion means that the > > policy is having an effect, and probably a positive one. > > > > It has a direct negative effect, people are afraid of giving speeches > > and attending the conference, or wasting time writing treaties about > > John Locke and freedom of form, US income tax, and the French > > Revolution. > > > > PS: As this discussion has noted, perhaps the GNU project should > > revise some of the sexist jokes on the website, too. > > > > No it shouldn't. They are jokes are funny, nor offensive.
