Hacker News Reader

Comment by Tehnix | Hacker News Reader

So what? It's a penis joke? What is so bad about that if it's the case? Honestly, the only thing this (the article) accomplishes is making it appear that women have no humor...

If people are offended by this, I simply would not care. I mean, there is nothing more I'd love than to have more women in the programming world, but having people with no humor? Nah, I'd rather pass that then.

(If this comes off as sexist or anything, it isn't, it's not a thing against gender, it's a thing against peoples attitude)

View on HN

It's not even a penis joke - I and many others didn't notice the penis reference until it was pointed out.

This is just begging for a t-shirt that contains:

a) a male insult, female insult and transgender insult;

b) a christian insult, muslim insult and an atheist insult;

c) a white-trash insult, a black insult and an asian insult;

and a caricature of killing babies for fun to top it off.

So that everybody is offended equally without discrimination and we can leave it that.

The penis joke is not the problem. The perceived offensiveness of the joke is not the problem.

It's the exclusive message it sends: PHP is for people with penises.

The joke itself, and whether or not it is in good taste, is irrelevant. It's the marketing exclusively towards men that is the sexist and offensive part.

Especially in the context where it's hard enough for women to feel welcome and comfortable at conferences that are 90% sausage fest anyway.

I remember a time when shirts and ties were expected clothing for work.

Wanting the right to wear penis joke t-shirts while not allowing others to have the right to complain about those t-shirts feels surprising.

I happily accept that many places just wouldn't care about this t-shirt. It seems pretty harmless.

I must be getting old, or it's late here but I didn't get the "penis" joke till you mentioned it.

Well, considering the phrasing is a bit like what you might see in a viagra add, and the fact that if you say it out loud the Pness part in PHPness is almost literally pronounced penis.

Either way, I would have given it any second thought if it weren't for the article, so I know what you mean.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com