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Comment by varjag | Hacker News Reader

1. It can be inferred the photo illustrates "caring" for programmers, as accompanying text suggests.

2. The programmer mentioned in the text is male (mentioned once by name and then as "He is seen here welcomed back"). Welcoming back obviously consists of caressing his body, which supports point 1.

Now I make no statements about cultural circumstances, tradition, the zeitgeist of the 60s and so on. Just that sexism is objective concept denoting unequal treatment of genders, and this photo is steretoypically sexist; so much in fact that it's hopeless to even play No True Scotsman here.

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As I said, it is an ad targeted at men, and I admit it plays to some stereotypes. However, I don't think from that it can be inferred that the message is "women are only useful as prostitutes". The message is simply "become a programmer and women will like you" - a message that would appeal to men. For women there would have to be another ad. Probably there wasn't one - I don't claim the 70ies weren't biased.

Probably at the time secretary was still a common job, and most of them were women. In that light maybe it also is less shocking - about as shocking as displaying a female teacher today.

> However, I don't think from that it can be inferred that the message is "women are only useful as prostitutes".

Nor do I. That would've been misogynistic, and my whole initial point was this ad is sexist but not misogynistic.

> Probably at the time secretary was still a common job, and most of them were women. In that light maybe it also is less shocking - about as shocking as displaying a female teacher today.

I disagree, a teacher caressing a student in a college ad would be out of place today (although there's a whole subgenre of porn about it).

"I disagree, a teacher caressing a student in a college ad would be out of place today"

Lol - I meant without the caressing. The caressing part is obviously over the top, which is typical for advertising. I don't think anybody responding to that app would expect to actually be caressed by women.

There are ads were people's clothes fly off because somebody chews a chewing gum. Of course the sexism police will think they are sexist, too, but I'd suggest it is also owed to the shortness of the spots. It's not easy to say "women/men will love you" in a few seconds without being ridiculous.

I'd just like to question the idea that showing a person as sexually attractive is demeaning or reducing that person to whatever. It's just one aspect of life.

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