An Open Letter to Brogrammers | Hacker News Reader

An Open Letter to Brogrammers

tacit.livejournal.com

5 pointstester_jay14 comments

It's not a very good letter. I don't think most "brogrammers" are ignorant and unaware of Grace Hopper or maintain that girls can't code. Rather, they create and celebrate a workplace culture that no women (and only certain men) should be expected to tolerate.

Klout advertising for programmers to "bro up" isn't saying "yo, us men are better than women", it's saying "let us hang around like it's a fraternity, have some beer, ogle some sexual imagery and make crude jokes". (On the plus side, there's some camaraderie there for those who do fit into the culture, I guess.)

I get the feeling that they didn't get many female applicants to the position... That's a bonus for those who fit the 'culture' though, because they had a better shot at getting a job.

I don't get the point of this article. There some smart women in technology, ok, and that is being used as a club to hit men with? Please explain.

It's not being used as a club to hit men; it's being used as a club to hit misogynistic idiots who feel big when they make other people who happen to be women feel small.

Klout's vacancy ad to "Bro down and crush code" is sexist and the article is pointed at the misogynist culture that the ad exemplifies.

What part of the content constitutes a 'club to hit men with'?

Please kill the term "Brogrammers" with fire.

You know, using the arse picture at the top makes it really quite hard to take the article seriously. Especially at work.

The author is sharing actual ads for coding services and vacancy announcements from companies, in order to highlight examples of misogynist culture in the tech/startup sector.

I don't see how that tells anything about culture of tech/startup sector at all.

Klout's ad clearly tells women that they don't want to hire them. There is no part of "bro" that implies gender neutrality. More subtly, it expresses the idea that women are probably not worth hiring. Even more subtle is its message that gender-specific hiring is acceptable. Klout outdoes itself in undermining the clause, common in many hiring documents, that the company "will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, or age".

I don't know that this can be expanded to characterize the overall culture of the tech/startup sector – I've never observed it (thought it does have a reputation for misogyny). In any event, the author's intent is to respond to the "bro" discourse that actual employers and companies included in their public-facing materials, by satirizing it with similar language.

> There is no part of "bro" that implies gender neutrality.

Some of my best bros are women.

The article isn't using that picture, it's mentioning it. It has to mention it in order to complain about people who are using it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction

It could mention it without putting it in the article and forcing me to close it at high speed because I made the mistake of opening it at work.

Whenever someone flags a post with a respectful title, I urge them to write a comment.

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