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Comment by econgeeker | Hacker News Reader

New Rule: If you're going to show a sexy, naked, or scantily clad woman in a slide, you damn well better be making a self deprecating joke.

If you show a derogatory slide about an innocent bystander (such as an ex-girlfriend) whatever you say about them is a reflection on you, not them. (Of course, making fun of your legitimate competition is always a risk, as well.)

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New rule: if a presenter shows a sexy, naked or scantily clad woman in a slide, and tries to justify themselves by making a self-deprecating joke, the audience is supposed to say "oh yes you are", spray them with hot sauce, and leave.

Could it be justified by a similar picture of opposite gender on the next slide?

No.

Certainly not without two bottles of hot sauce, anyway.

What if it is a conference of the porn industry? Or even just the fashion industry?

I have special place in my black dead heart for porn and fashion industry. But you could point out eg. an anti-violence or feminist conference. I doubt there would be any self-derogatory comments in those cases, though.

I'm not sure what your point is. If all you mean is that there might exist some conferences where nobody would notice then yes (also: sky is blue.) But what does it have to do with this discussion?

The point was that the rule might not be useful everywhere. Sorry for adding a pointless point to a pointless discussion. I figured at this comment depth it might be OK to insert some humor.

I guess my bigger point was really that this discussion is pointless on such a general level.

The point is that the rule should not actually be a rule. At least, I took it to be a simple reversal of the original 'rule' post.

In almost every professional context (except those few outlying context which directly relate to sexy, naked, or scantily clad people) this is inappropriate. I just hang my head when I see posts like this. The tech industry has a reputation for being nerdy and socially awkward, nothing proves that for outsiders faster than a stupid, immature stunt like the topic of the original article.

This behaviour is never appropriate and is completely unjustifiable. It not only embarrasses you and demeans your target(s), but it sends public opinions of our entire industry backwards.

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