Codebabes.com : Real or Troll | Hacker News Reader

Codebabes.com : Real or Troll

techcrunch.com

19 pointshashx15 comments

Wait, why should the default public position be “This is unacceptable and unwelcome here.”? As long as (i) this site is accessed in privacy, without bothering other people's sensibilities and (ii) the models are willing and well-paid (which, as the article itself states, seems to be the case), what is the problem? It's clearly one dumb-witted idea, but that doesn't make it automatically unacceptable.

If, in a porn movie, you have a guy who came in to fix her computer rather than the mythical pizza guy showing up, should SV be ashamed, because, you know, it's related to tech?

Its a good question. Imagine if the situation were slightly different. Imagine if, like porn, this site became mainstream. Then, if a girl would want to learn about CS this would be the place to go. Consequently, she would be subject to all of the objectification of women that this site puts forth. That is definitely a bad thing.

If there were a competitor which didnt have that aspect and people were split: men would go to this one and girls to the other, it creates a division between the genders. The situation then would be eerily similar to the idea of "separate but equal" and we all know how poorly that turned out in the past.

I have to say, that's a pretty big piece of mental gymnastics to justify why this would be objectionable.

Because context.

Because the programming world is overwhelming male dominate and is widely perceived as harboring an undercurrent of latent sexism and is generally seen as being dismissive, condescending and unwelcoming to women.

Taken against that background, a site like this does nothing to dispel these notions or help attract women into our field.

Apparently there is a http://codedudes.com coming as well. This is what is shown on that site currently:

"We've always planned on CodeDudes.com too, just thought CodeBabes would interest more people, which it did, for all the wrong reasons.

CodeBabes.com was a Rage Marketing Case Study, times 100. We're happy to provide link bait for as many people as possible.

If you were disgusted by it, we're sorry, but just wait until you see the banana hammocks we've got in store for you ;)"

As I mentioned in the comments on the article, I hate it when startups use trolling or deliberately-shocking PR as a marketing technique. Marketers and growth-hackers justify it with "shock value works, and it's the only way to get attention when there are thousands of startups out there!", but that's not a justification, that's an excuse to compensate for a product that wouldn't otherwise speak for itself.

At the least, it's self-correcting: shock value only gives 15 minutes of fame for a startup, and then it fades away soon after.

nerds censor pornography => nerds are sex-negative misogynists

nerds create pornography => nerds are objectifying women

Kind of a stretch to assume that just because the owner lives in SF, "we've all been trolled".

As the article says though: I think it's pretty clear that whether it "seriously" intends to teach programming, or is just intentionally irksome to attract more attention, it's not satire or a parody (and if it was I could at least understand it to some degree).

the problem isn't that it's offensive per se, the problem is that it's sad.

> As for Codebabes, the site itself will eventually fail because its business model sucks.

Whole article is a feminist rant. Moving on.

I don't get why people are so appalled by this. Given rule 34 we can assume that sites like this will pop up eventually. I would understand if people were upset by a legitimate organization in the tech industry promoting the use of this site - that would be a real problem. But as far as I can tell, nobody is saying this site is fit for real use in education.

Deleted comment

codedicks is an obvious parody. In fact, it only has two pages, no real content. Just try to click "Sign Up" or "Log In". You can't. The videos and education don't exist.

Both genders are far from equal victims. Even if codedicks was a equivalent version of the site, objectifying men (rather than a parody) your assertion would still be wrong.

When we're trying to promote equality in a male dominated field, the objectification of women does more harm than the objectification of men in that context. I'm not suggesting we go out and objectify men, but trying to point out that the effects of this objectification of women has the ability to cause far more harm than an equivalent site objectifying men.

A site objectifying men would do very little to change the status-quo, codechicks has the very real potential to (when put in context with the daily shit throw at girls and women in this field) to make someone think twice about getting into it.

Whilst discussion of male issues are important, the "but what about the men" argument that comes up almost universally in topics like this is so tiring. Can we not just be able to discuss issues of gender equality & the exploitation and objectification of women without constantly having to inject our gender (yes I'm a dude) into the piece? It de-rails the conversation about women's issues, re-focuses it on the men, and silences those who may wish to speak out against the objectification of women.

It's not the same people. From the codedicks.com website:

   Disclaimer: CodeDicks is in no way affiliated, nor condones the beliefs of CodeBabes. This is satire. None of the dudes on this site approve of sexism and would like to see people of all genders treated equally and respectfully, particularly in our industry.

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