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Comment by xarien | Hacker News Reader

Aside from all of the other possibly insulting remarks from the post, this particular one caught my eye:

"And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads"

I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup.

To reiterate, this form of sexism needs to stop.

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> I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup.

Can you spot the irony in this statement?

There is no irony because as I stated, "I'm sure I'm not the only one." This sentence conveys that in "some" not "all" cases women make better entrepreneurs.

Irony would only exist if I made a sweeping comment about all women being better as entrepreneurs, which I assure you, I did not make.

Well I don't want to play professor here, but I don't think you understand the meaning of irony. The fact that you find fault with the implication that women aren't just as likely as men to pursue startups but then say that your girlfriend would do much better than yourself at them if "only she had the inkling to do one" is ironic.

You see, you resent the implication that women don't do startups. Your girlfriend doesn't do startups and doesn't have the inclination to do them. You are using her as an example (albeit a poor one) of why that implication is false.

hilarious!!!!

The amount of assumptions you stuffed into the reply is simply mind boggling.

I'll start by dispelling a simple one:

Better half doesn't necessarily equate to girlfriend.

Furthermore, the condescending tone and verbiage used in the reply is nothing more than inflammatory. I would disservice myself to continue responding past this point.

>Better half doesn't necessarily equate to girlfriend.

The original post was talking about girlfriends, so contextually it sounded like you meant girlfriend by "better half". You're a terrible spokesman for ending sexism as you seem to replace one form of ignorance for another combined with hypersensitivity (having said that, yes the original "joke" was a lame one).

Since you chose to take the "some... not all" defense of yourself, let me point out that the poem said "a few" not "all" girlfriends.

Is that irony? (I've always had a hard time with that question)

I'm not bothered by much as a female in tech (and believe me, I hear a lot of ignorant, sexist remarks), but this comment really rubbed me the wrong way.

it was a joke

I am almost certain there are more gay male (and thus might have boyfriend) startup founders than female startup founders (who might also have boyfriends), too.

It's probably better to use something generic to represent the general case.

It infuriates me because it implies that I'm abandoning my fiancee for a start-up fantasy.

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