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Comment by Jun8 | Hacker News Reader

What does "white dude" even mean? I hate this label and always mark "other" in forms (to the extent that I can, some only have "white/black/asian/hispanic").

What does it mean to bring it up in the context of this article, other than merge all people with skin spectral signature falling in a cluster. But then there's this idea: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-is.... You can't have it both ways.

I'm not "white", I'm not a "dude" and I hate to be labeled as such, probably as much as these people hate to be treated as clueless just because they are women. Unfortunately, it's a sad fact that people who are on the receiving end of abuse usually practice it themselves when they get a chance.

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I've only ever seen anybody write "white dude" in a condescending and insulting tone, this article is no exception.

So... the author claims she doesn't like any special treatment that women sometimes get... but also doesn't want to be like a common, boring, ordinary "white dude"?

"Dude" is used when the man has not made an attempt to signal to others that he is different from everybody else by altering his appearance or habits.

For instance, if a man tells his barber "just a regular cut", he may be described as a "dude". On the other hand, if he shaves his hair into a mohawk and dyes it hot-pink, he loses his dudehood and becomes an individual.

Whenever you hear somebody use the word "dude" in a tone that makes it sound disparaging, what they are basically telling you is "I am bothered by my perception that this man conforms."

I have a good understanding what dude means, my question was a rhetorical one to try to deconstruct what the author meant by "white dude". How do you know a person you see for the first time at a hackerspace is a "dude"? If we accept you explanation of the disparaging use of dude, how does the woman in the hackerspace perceive what a given person conforms to?

But why keep the discussion philosophical, after all a word's meaning is its use, right? As a simplistic experiment google "geek dude" and "geek" and look at the image results to try to figure out what the extra dude adds.

> how does the woman in the hackerspace perceive what a given person conforms to?

Stereotypes, basically. Visuals/fashion play a very large role, as you can see in those google queries.

How they interact with others also is a factor. In my experience, shy people are less likely to be considered "dudes", while extroverts are much more likely to get the label.

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