5 ms·

That made no sense at all.

by rll 10y ago

jhall1468 10y ago
It wasn't about gender. It was about "incompetent about technology." Your mom, grandma, dad, grandpa, dumb cousin or incompetent friend would all work as well. You made it about gender.
- rll 10y ago
  Don't you see that you just proved the point? You read "your mother" and you understood "incompetent about technology." That is the sexist stereotype we get irritated by.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    The point was about metadata. It's modern to cry about other feelings nowadays though.
  - jhall1468 10y ago
    Except I would have made the exact same assumption about "your father". The idea is that our parents, grandparents or whatever are technologically incompetent. It had nothing to do with gender. Again, the only sexist thus far, is you.
    - gemma 10y ago
      It's heartening to see this thread land so solidly on the intersection of sexism and ageism. You're right, assuming older generations are technically incompetent is wrong, mean, and unnecessary--just like assuming the same thing about women. When you combine the two with phrases like "so simple your mom could understand", you end up with a big bucket of nope. My mom has a STEM degree, and her mom had a bleeding edge Thinkpad when the rest of my family was married to a beige box. My dad is a system administrator, and his dad is a chemical engineer. I have a postgraduate degree in software engineering. To assume any of us are technically incompetent because of our age or gender is insulting, and exclusionary. Thanks for pointing that out.
  - gluelogic 10y ago
    If your experience was anything like mine, then you grew up regularly handling technology (fixing computers, hooking up VCRs, etc.) for and explaining it to people older than you. That's the stereotype at play in the title--old person won't understand tech. It would be quite different (and have a totally different effect) if the title said "3 minute video even a girl will understand"
    - DanBC 10y ago
      Google searching shows very many more hits for "your mother would understand" and "your grandmother would understand" than for father / grandfather / grandpa / etc.
      - jhall1468 10y ago
        The number of query results from a google search aren't evidence of anything except that your argument is weak enough that you couldn't find actual evidence.
  - NegatioN 10y ago
    So your goal by making people not write titles like this is to completely exterminate people's connotation of it? We all agree sexism is bad, and there are real issues to overcome in all countries, but sometimes I would feel more supportive of the case if it focused on what really is unfair, and a hindrance to a gender.
    - forgetsusername 10y ago
      >We all agree sexism is bad, and there are real issues to overcome in all countries, but sometimes I would feel more supportive of the case if it focused on what really is unfair, and a hindrance to a gender. Thank you. This is so indicative of the internet generation, where talking about something ridiculous and missing the point is seen as actually doing something. Look where the downvotes are occurring; every comment that doesn't think the title is a big deal. God forbid someone's opinion is different. Remember that when this crowd expresses how great and open to debate HackerNews is as a community.
- DanBC 10y ago
  > You made it about gender. No, the long history of the phrase used to stereotype someone who knows nothing about technology made it about gender. EDIT: pointing out that the phrase is sexist and unwelcome is a good thing.
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    >EDIT: pointing out that the phrase is sexist and unwelcome is a good thing. I love how you felt the need to clarify your comment to ensure you're on the right side of the HN hivemind. Gotta earn them upvotes!
  - jhall1468 10y ago
    > No, the long history of the phrase used to stereotype someone who knows nothing about technology made it about gender. No, it was age ageism. But the STEM field has an enormous gender gap so now we're actively looking for every single sentence that might be gender-biased and pretending that our feelings are facts. This is just another example of having a hammer makes everything look like a nail. The title was very clearly biased... that "older" generation can't understand modern technologies. But we had plenty of people here to defend women, even when they don't need it.

That made no sense at all.

by rll 10y ago

That made no sense at all.

It wasn't about gender. It was about "incompetent about technology." Your mom, grandma, dad, grandpa, dumb cousin or incompetent friend would all work as well. You made it about gender.

rll 10y ago
Don't you see that you just proved the point? You read "your mother" and you understood "incompetent about technology." That is the sexist stereotype we get irritated by.
- tdkl 10y ago
  The point was about metadata. It's modern to cry about other feelings nowadays though.
- jhall1468 10y ago
  Except I would have made the exact same assumption about "your father". The idea is that our parents, grandparents or whatever are technologically incompetent. It had nothing to do with gender. Again, the only sexist thus far, is you.
  - gemma 10y ago
    It's heartening to see this thread land so solidly on the intersection of sexism and ageism. You're right, assuming older generations are technically incompetent is wrong, mean, and unnecessary--just like assuming the same thing about women. When you combine the two with phrases like "so simple your mom could understand", you end up with a big bucket of nope. My mom has a STEM degree, and her mom had a bleeding edge Thinkpad when the rest of my family was married to a beige box. My dad is a system administrator, and his dad is a chemical engineer. I have a postgraduate degree in software engineering. To assume any of us are technically incompetent because of our age or gender is insulting, and exclusionary. Thanks for pointing that out.
- gluelogic 10y ago
  If your experience was anything like mine, then you grew up regularly handling technology (fixing computers, hooking up VCRs, etc.) for and explaining it to people older than you. That's the stereotype at play in the title--old person won't understand tech. It would be quite different (and have a totally different effect) if the title said "3 minute video even a girl will understand"
  - DanBC 10y ago
    Google searching shows very many more hits for "your mother would understand" and "your grandmother would understand" than for father / grandfather / grandpa / etc.
    - jhall1468 10y ago
      The number of query results from a google search aren't evidence of anything except that your argument is weak enough that you couldn't find actual evidence.
- NegatioN 10y ago
  So your goal by making people not write titles like this is to completely exterminate people's connotation of it? We all agree sexism is bad, and there are real issues to overcome in all countries, but sometimes I would feel more supportive of the case if it focused on what really is unfair, and a hindrance to a gender.
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    >We all agree sexism is bad, and there are real issues to overcome in all countries, but sometimes I would feel more supportive of the case if it focused on what really is unfair, and a hindrance to a gender. Thank you. This is so indicative of the internet generation, where talking about something ridiculous and missing the point is seen as actually doing something. Look where the downvotes are occurring; every comment that doesn't think the title is a big deal. God forbid someone's opinion is different. Remember that when this crowd expresses how great and open to debate HackerNews is as a community.
DanBC 10y ago
> You made it about gender. No, the long history of the phrase used to stereotype someone who knows nothing about technology made it about gender. EDIT: pointing out that the phrase is sexist and unwelcome is a good thing.
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >EDIT: pointing out that the phrase is sexist and unwelcome is a good thing. I love how you felt the need to clarify your comment to ensure you're on the right side of the HN hivemind. Gotta earn them upvotes!
- jhall1468 10y ago
  > No, the long history of the phrase used to stereotype someone who knows nothing about technology made it about gender. No, it was age ageism. But the STEM field has an enormous gender gap so now we're actively looking for every single sentence that might be gender-biased and pretending that our feelings are facts. This is just another example of having a hammer makes everything look like a nail. The title was very clearly biased... that "older" generation can't understand modern technologies. But we had plenty of people here to defend women, even when they don't need it.