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Comment by rfreytag | Hacker News Reader

Noted caption on photo "A hirsute Sebastian using autopilot in a Tesla Model S." If this was said about a woman it would be sexist. Imagine if it said "Good looking Mary ... etc." outrage would be reasonable and forthcoming.

I believe if we're going to be alert to sexism towards women we need to tune up our antennae to all sexism and have simple and clear standards that have a hope of applying cross-culturally.

I welcome your alternate views below. I am genuinely interested in learning why you think I'm out of line here. :-)

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That's just because "hirsute" is considered to be an undesirable trait in women, but desirable in men. Pick an adjective that's flattering to Mary and I don't think anyone would care.

Considering that Sebastian is also credited for taking the photo, I'd speculate he approved of the caption, or even came up with it.

Thank you for your reply. I think any body-reference to Mary where that wasn't relevant (is hirsute relevant?) would be sexist and should be called out.

I imagine that Sebastian is proud of his beard, or embarrassed, or both, and wanted to call attention to it.

Just for context, Sebastian Anthony is the editor of Ars Technica UK.

Thanks for your reply. But how does that make my criticism of written sexism here mistaken/inappropriate/wrong?

Do you like sex? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs3OWJ53rHE

General rules that you use for strangers don't really apply to anyone you have a personal relationship with. And sexism is usually a problem of power mismatch between the two people, which doesn't really apply here either.

Thanks for your reply. I don't know these people and don't know their history. My opinion is that their comment should be clearly non-sexist or clearly relevant.

Captions are often descriptive of what is actually in the picture, not merely the most relevant thing in the picture but also incidental details.

It just makes it irrelevant. The website has a long-running relationship with Sebastian, who only recently developed a beard. The adjective was highlighting the novelty of his appearance to a readerbase that is more familiar with a depilated Sebastian.

In short, your criticism would have been valid in many circumstances, but does not really apply to this specific caption.

Thank you for your reply. I just didn't get the joke - that makes it a bad joke IMHO. Its the kind of comment that condones irrelevant body references that distract from the point and would likely suppress discussion if the subject were a woman. My point is that we need to get out of that habit entirely.

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