Comment by yeukhon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yeukhon | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Sorry, risking a crusade comes to my doorstep and downvote me to the minimum, here is a true rant:

I want to express my paranoia here.

I really hate when people have to bring up this gender issue in every discussion a name that sounds male-only. I am just saying: "stop raising the issue like we are on a crusade."

The author has the right to choose a name and it can be that the author's geninue intent to use the name bro.

Stop taking it as a joke or as a sexist comment.

If this is the case we'd ban every single-gender word on this filthy ugly planet already because someone is going to be super conscious and going to cause a world war 3 one day.

No I am not ignoring sexism, I am saying the only reason we have sexism is because we are so conscious and so paranoid about it. A true equality is when we forget the hell gender we are in and we see no difference in any genders.

When people make comments about another gender and use that against people, that's discrimination. When people make comments about another gender and use that to his or her own entertainment, that's sexism. I can name the project bropage because the software I am making is new and feels more modern. It's like a friend asking me "yo bro you got cigarette?" If that's where I have the inspiration to call it bro page, how is that even sexist!? You are essentially making me a war criminal, against humanity...

Please, stop.

The use of [Debatably Volatile Term] (hereafter DVT) is poor branding for a project or product, unless the cultural baggage associated with DVT aligns with the purpose of the project/product.

Assume that DVT has different connotative definitions to different audiences. If some of those connotative definitions are negative, then the use of DVT as a brand name will repel people who primarily associate DVT with that negative connotation.

Let's say that you decide to publish a project, and you choose a DVT that has positive connotations to you. If people point out that DVT has negative connotations they are not necessarily associating you with those negative connotations, they might merely be pointing out the weakness of DVT in branding.

There will always be people who don't agree with you. Someone even said that Python can be thought of a slang for male sexual organ. In Chinese, turtle head is slang for the head of the male sexual organ. If I name it turtlehead, I can called sexist by some Chinese feminist. But in my example that's probably a bad name to start with anyway. But is bro-page in the same category as turtle head? My opinion is not.

I really don't see the name bro-page being sexist or evidence of ignoring feminist audience. It sounds genuine. It isn't like the author have a female model in the bro page documentation.

Rather than spending the first 50 comments on this gender flame war, why don't we talk about what makes man page useful and not useful. What makes sites like explainshell and bropage useful and not useful.

To me it's not a gender issue, it is that bro is synonym for obnoxious, annoying, stupid, disrespectful among others.

We have different opinion and if that's how you feel then it obviously is not sexism then.

I am not sure how it's disrespectful. If the annoying and stupid part comes from the popular culture use of "bro" in movie and street, well maybe it's the environment the person is in. I have met a girl from another country and whoever she talks to she would address the person as sir or madam. It sounds respectful but after a while it sounds annoying and stupid because she can just call the person Mr. X or Mrs. X.

> No I am not ignoring sexism, I am saying the only reason we have sexism is because we are so conscious and so paranoid about it.

So if we just stop complaining, things will magically get better.... because that has worked so well for marginalized groups in the past.

No. I said it is ridiculous to turn everything into a sexism discussion. Look, I said if people are making fun of female, like "sudo make me sandwich" that's sexist and we better make sure we correct that idea. It might be okay with a close friend but a public statement like that is obviously not acceptable.

bro-page is not in the same category as "sudo make me sandwich". There is no sexism in that name. Just because it is named "bro" doesn't mean it's sexist. We have girls who like to be called bro. I remember in one of the earliest episode in Family Guys, Lorie said "I respect your feminist initiative and being feminist means I have a choice and I choose not to be like you."

If you force people to feel like the name is sexist, you are making it sexist. If you are so paranoid about sexism that's because we have made many things sexist. Do people ever call a poem using masculine words sexist when some are just completely fine and have nothing to do with people degrading female or male? Ever heard of that?

I never noticed that "sudo make me a sandwich" is sexist. Maybe I missed the memo. It always conjures, for me, the idea that the computer will make me a sandwich. And if I were to go with the XKCD where most of us heard of it the first time, the image is without gender. It never occurred to me that only a woman would make a sandwich for someone. I guess that messes up when my dad would make me a sandwich. Or when I made some for my sisters and brothers. Maybe you are projecting your own sexist bias here?

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/make-me-a-sandwich

Reply on news.ycombinator.com