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Comment by sgentle | Hacker News Reader

I dunno, I'm sure for some people there's a great crime against women hidden in there somewhere, but all I see is a great crime against good taste. I think something has to pass a certain muster of sophistication before it can be genuinely offensive. This isn't the doctrine of coverture, it's a penis scrawled near the entrance to the ladies' room.

What I really want to know is, is it so hard to get decent entertainment for a developer event? There must be a lot of performers and artists out there willing to provide a more interesting experience than "girls dancing to loud music". I don't think I've ever been to a developer event with a jazz band, or magicians, or a contortionist with "XSLT" stenciled on their leotard. Now that'd be worth watching.

One last note, did "I'm a software developer, I'm developing for the rest of my life" creep anyone else right the hell out?

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Just to clarify: That atrocity wasn't organised by the conference, they'd just agreed to give Microsoft (their biggest sponsor) the stage for a bit to do their big Azure announcement. There's certainly a lesson for conference organisers in there about how much you let your sponsors get involved in the conference, but what happened on stage was still all Microsoft's fault.

Also just to clarify: As a woman who was actually present in the room when Microsoft decided to jump the shark, I don't feel especially offended by this (with the exception of the line about Lea Verou, which is beyond creepy). As a developer, though, I'm deeply offended that someone in Microsoft's marketing department could imagine we'd go for this kind of trash. That performance speaks volumes about the developer stereotypes sales people nurture, and that is especially offensive coming from a company like Microsoft, where you'd think company culture should perhaps lean a little more towards respecting the people who create the actual value the company thrives on.

Thank you for speaking up. Just as it's crucial that women not be silent when being excluded from tech, it's just as (if not more) imperative we hear that you're not feeling discriminated against. Especially when there is a rallying cry from men saying that you should be, or that we should hold Microsoft responsible for this great sexist faux pas.

This community is overcorrecting in a bad way and starting to identify sexism where it isn't. Usually, women don't correct this assumption. Please keep doing so. I hate that the definition of the word "sexist" is starting to evolve to mean "offensive".

Oh, don't get me wrong, there was a fair bit of sexism in that performance, in the sense that whoever wrote it clearly has a very specific idea of what his audience is like: socially inept males. You know, developers. I was just too busy being offended as a developer being faced with proof of what sales people think of us to consider being offended as a woman, but the sexism is definitely there and should be addressed.

Some of the details I've heard described as sexist, though - like how the dancers are apparently "scantily clad" - seem to be more the result of mob rage than any form of rational thought.

I hate that the definition of the word "sexist" is starting to evolve to mean "offensive"

Sexism is always offensive.

Yes, but not all offensiveness is sexism. This, for example, offends me as a software developer, and as someone who appreciates the effort the real guys developing Azure are putting in to supporting node. I, however, do not get the sense of being discriminated against based upon my gender. All the women I know who've seen this video think it's incredibly lame, but not particularly sexist.

I do agree :-) but IMO, the video was sexist. The point being made by jsprinkles is that all forms of offensiveness appear to being called "sexist" - he said "I hate that the definition of the word 'sexist' is starting to evolve to mean 'offensive'." which is what I'm responding to!

A bit OT, but we had a jazz band for our reception at indieconf last year, and it went over better than going cross-town to a nightclub. The jazz trio had an ipad propped up with their contact info - that was about as techie as it got. I don't think they'd have worn anything with XSLT on it, but I can check with them again for this year :)

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