7 ms·

He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?

67726e 13y ago
Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".
- tapworthtg 13y ago
  Fuck you cunt.
  - 67726e 13y ago
    You might want to give the guideleines a read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - officemonkey 13y ago
    Stay classy, ponyboy.
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.
  - 67726e 13y ago
    I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.
    - DanBC 13y ago
      defending a sexist assumption by claiming a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to read the whole pages feels sub-optimal.
      - 67726e 13y ago
        Again, I don't really see using "he" as sexist. It's just the English language. From Merriam-Webster: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially : discrimination against women 2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex I can understand an argument that the author of the comment said "he" because of some assumption that anyone doing stats must be a man. However I'm making the counterargument that using "he" is a standard default in English and that such usage is not sexist, but rather as a result of how the English language is used.
        moocowduckquack 13y ago
        That's an astoundingly crap argument. You are saying that using he as a default isn't sexist because it is a default. However saying that a default position is a default position tells us very little indeed and nothing whatsoever about if that default position is sexist.
        67726e 13y ago
        Perhaps we're coming at the situation from different viewpoints. You appear to be judging the situation based off of how "he" came to be a default while I'm coming at the situation from the viewpoint of intentions. Honestly, I caught myself using "he" several times writing this response but went back and "refactored" my response. Does the fact that I use "he" automatically make me a sexist? No. That's just how everyone around me spoke English and thus how I learned to use it.
        moocowduckquack 13y ago
        Honestly, I caught myself using "he" several times writing this response but went back and "refactored" my response. But you didn't use the word she in any of your response, so how could have you have needed to refactor anything from he? You might make at least some effort to keep your story straight from one sentence to the next. Honestly. Also, you have a sexist learned behaviour as part of your language, you know about this and can decide yourself if it is worth giving a shit about. Learning the behaviour doesn't make you sexist, but not giving a shit about it might.
coldtea 13y ago
He probably wanted to pad the stats.
MaulingMonkey 13y ago
Personally, once the site stopped 500ing on me outright, I certainly didn't pick out her face in the sidebar full of social networking icons, random facebook faces, and navigation links until I went looking for it. Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar. I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic. Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...
PencilAndPaper 13y ago
I totally relate to your frustration here, but you are being petty in your reaction. If you would like to change the way the language works, hostile personal attacks are more likely to turn people against your cause.

67726e 13y ago

Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".

tapworthtg 13y ago
Fuck you cunt.
- 67726e 13y ago
  You might want to give the guideleines a read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- officemonkey 13y ago
  Stay classy, ponyboy.
moocowduckquack 13y ago
It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.
- 67726e 13y ago
  I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    defending a sexist assumption by claiming a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to read the whole pages feels sub-optimal.
    - 67726e 13y ago
      Again, I don't really see using "he" as sexist. It's just the English language. From Merriam-Webster: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially : discrimination against women 2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex I can understand an argument that the author of the comment said "he" because of some assumption that anyone doing stats must be a man. However I'm making the counterargument that using "he" is a standard default in English and that such usage is not sexist, but rather as a result of how the English language is used.
      - moocowduckquack 13y ago
        That's an astoundingly crap argument. You are saying that using he as a default isn't sexist because it is a default. However saying that a default position is a default position tells us very little indeed and nothing whatsoever about if that default position is sexist.
        67726e 13y ago
        Perhaps we're coming at the situation from different viewpoints. You appear to be judging the situation based off of how "he" came to be a default while I'm coming at the situation from the viewpoint of intentions. Honestly, I caught myself using "he" several times writing this response but went back and "refactored" my response. Does the fact that I use "he" automatically make me a sexist? No. That's just how everyone around me spoke English and thus how I learned to use it.
        moocowduckquack 13y ago
        Honestly, I caught myself using "he" several times writing this response but went back and "refactored" my response. But you didn't use the word she in any of your response, so how could have you have needed to refactor anything from he? You might make at least some effort to keep your story straight from one sentence to the next. Honestly. Also, you have a sexist learned behaviour as part of your language, you know about this and can decide yourself if it is worth giving a shit about. Learning the behaviour doesn't make you sexist, but not giving a shit about it might.

coldtea 13y ago

He probably wanted to pad the stats.

MaulingMonkey 13y ago

Personally, once the site stopped 500ing on me outright, I certainly didn't pick out her face in the sidebar full of social networking icons, random facebook faces, and navigation links until I went looking for it. Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar. I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic. Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...

PencilAndPaper 13y ago

I totally relate to your frustration here, but you are being petty in your reaction. If you would like to change the way the language works, hostile personal attacks are more likely to turn people against your cause.