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Comment by eli_awry | Hacker News Reader

This problem starts early, too - in my undergrad institution, many of the lectures and programming assignments taught OOP with examples employing beer and women-as-objects-of-seduction. The lecturers - not just TAs, but also adjuncts - would go out drinking with guys in the class from their old frats while ( I was alerted ) speculating as to how I got into Algorithms by sleeping with the professor. TAs discussed with guy students which of the female profs were 'bang-able' and which 'needed to be laid' so someone would 'have to take one for the team.'

No wonder these same people think this behavior is acceptable once they enter the workforce. They're getting it from authority figures from day one. I never experienced anything like this in any other department at uni.

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Account created 45 minutes ago, to post a wildly unlikely and almost certainly embellished if not entirely fictitious anecdote.

What is it about sexism on HN that brings out every troll, sock puppet, white knight, astroturfer, and any other internet message board cliche?

The most sexist thing I've ever heard in a decade of real world work and interactions in the software industry can't hold a candle to what anonymous internet posters apparently see on a daily basis.

Or it could be a real thing, that is common but not absolutely pervasive. I never SEE all sorts of problems that I care about (murders, rapes, etc) but I don't assume all reports are bogus.

Nothing in the post above sounds unbelievable to me.

Yeah, I did create this account because this is an issue very dear to my heart.

I blogged about some of this when it happened about a year ago on livejournal, and that post made it to the front page of hn back then. I've experienced a lot of bullshit from brogrammer types. Of course, sometimes there's no bullshit. Some of my fellow CS grad students are awesome to work with. I'm dating one, and he's a champ. Others have 'calendar girls' up at their offices, or make lame jokes like "Do you taste pineapple? That's funny, cause I've been eating it all week." (Which is an oral sex joke, kids). When people gossiped that I'd been sleeping with the Algorithms prof (who was like 65) because I got into the class without taking the prerequisites, other guys came to my defense. There's good and there's bad, and it's certainly not all bad. But some people are really, really awful, even in the real world.

Edit: And to be fair, I go out to the bar on Fridays with my coworkers (fellow grad students), which is where some of these things happen. At my undergrad institution, some of this happened while bowling on our weekly bowling night. Most of this stuff didn't happen at work - it happens at events that are guy programmers and me. If I had kept in social circles outside of my field and only interacted with these people in a professional setting, and never ever networked, I would have been fine.

Where is this? I went to college at a place where while there are 50/50 in the freshmen class, by graduation it's more 75/25 men women (I'm talking the whole school).

I have never seen this sort of behavior and was TA as well as a student. What campus did you see this at?

University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

When was all this? I just graduated from there last May. I didn't see a lot of this, but I also didn't look and fore the most part didn't socialize with people in my major. And I did avoid certain professors.

>... discussed with guy students which of the female profs were 'bang-able' and which 'needed to be laid' so someone would 'have to take one for the team.'

That's just fratboy behaviour. It doesn't have anything to do with the class or the department itself.

It goes the other way often enough as well.

This was by a grad TA (a school employee) in a public forum. The one female professor who expressed any concern was told basically to stop. If it was just students, that would be one thing. This kid continued to be employed by the department.

"That's just fratboy behavior" and "It goes the other way" aren't excuses. Certainly not when women are severely underrepresented in the tech industry.

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