Hacker News Reader

Comment by skizm | Hacker News Reader

To anyone who did not bother to read the article, the comment was something along the lines of "adding more women to the board will ensure more talking."

The remark wasn't directed at an individual, wasn't harassing, wasn't despairing, wasn't sexual, wasn't crude, and definitely wasn't in any way malicious. I realize it's trendy to get offended now-a-days (one word? three?), but come on. Seriously? This is what we've been reduced to getting worked up over?

To be honest, the context of the meeting makes this extremely tame joke kind of funny. I have zero problems with this and am actually a little salty I spent the time to type this reply about a non-story.

View on HN

"Women talk so much, am I right?" is a sexist statement, and it's particularly egregious when interrupting a fellow (edit: female) board member at an event announcing the new, non-sexist culture of the company.

Also, the person he was interrupting was Arianna Huffington, the only woman on the board.

Why do you interpret it as being negative? It might as well be a positive thing?!

I guess it depends a lot on the context and how it was said/meant.

Whether or not positive and negative sterotypes are used are kind of besides the point, its the fact that a stereotype was used at all. Let me give an example, if you say im a jew so I have money, os that negative or positive? Even if you think its positive, the fact that the stereotype is validated implies that other stereotypes are true.

Now this particular joke is pretty tame, certainly. If he wanted to he could have add the qualifier " more talking, bringing more perspectives to the table" or something. But the way he said it could have been interpreted as a stereotype, and therefore is problematic

Thanks for your reply, good point!

i appreciate it when people do that instead of just downvoting - which doesn't exactly stimulate communication :) (It would be cool if downvoting on HN would only be permitted if also commenting...)

That is not how I interpreted talking and couldn't understand why everyone was so offended. Now I get it, thanks.

>[As a man], I have zero problems with this and am actually a little salty I spent the time to type this reply about a non-story.

Added additional context to your statement.

Why is the question you are asking is "Why are we getting upset over this?" instead of "Why do people say unnecessarily sexist jokes that aren't actually funny?"?

The assumption that a woman is not capable of holding that opinion is sexist.

I'm not making that assumption. The only assumption I'm making is that the parent is a male, which is based on Hacker News demographic and the type of person who usually makes these arguments.

Fair enough.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com