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'Shirtstorm' Leads To Apology From European Space Scientist

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Mumei

Member
He did get back at you, the study he posted directly contradicted his original claim about biological differences being the deciding factor. So he tried both revising his claim to just being about women and men achieving different results and also tried to claim that article "probably should" read more like his claim but it was a typo or something. (Also note that he conveniently leaves out the part of the study I quoted where it says that "give us promise that education can play a great role in eliminating or reducing gender differences in mathematical problem solving.)

Ah. I was looking for posts that specifically quoted me in seeing whether he responded, so I missed that.

We're arguing semantics.

No, it doesn't say "Dr Matt Taylor is the sole reason there are no women in STEM". Of course, nobody is claiming that. Now, if I were to say someone "is dressed slutty" because they were dressed like the cartoon girls on the shirt. Technically I'm not calling them a slut, but the implication is there and it's not subtle.

Of course this is all beside the point. Nothing here was sexist at all let alone misogyny, casual or otherwise.

RedShift said, "If you don't think that's blaming him for women not feeling welcome in STEM fields then you might be the one with poor reading comprehension." It wasn't. It was saying that what he did was an example of something that keeps women from feeling welcome in STEM fields. SwissLion and others have already addressed the argument you've made about a woman who "is dressed slutty," so I don't feel I need to belabor the point.
 

Dash27

Member
You've twice now resorted to this ridiculous abstracted situation in which we know nothing but that you think an imaginary woman's manner of dress is "Slutty"

But to roll with it. No. You're not actually "calling her a slut" because English typically works on a distinct object/subject system. The articles weren't calling him a sexist. They say his actions were.

Every one of us, even the most diligent feminist, will occasionally engage in sexist though or action. Most people don't think those small actions make us sexists, and people describing them accurately (as sexist) does not suddenly become an attack on us personally. They're an opportunity to learn, as Taylor clearly has.

You seem to think "slutty" and "sexist" are equivalent manners of describing someone's attire. Is that something you actually believe?

"Let's not call small sexist things sexist because big sexist things exist" might be my new most hated defence of things though.

What he learned is that he can't wear his cool shirt with hot girls shooting lasers that his friend made him because feminists will crap on his day. That would be the lesson here.

Can you tell me exactly why the shirt is sexist? Because women are on it? If it was all fully clothe Ruth Bader Ginsbergs shooting lasers would that be ok?
 

Dash27

Member
Ah. I was looking for posts that specifically quoted me in seeing whether he responded, so I missed that.



RedShift said, "If you don't think that's blaming him for women not feeling welcome in STEM fields then you might be the one with poor reading comprehension." It wasn't. It was saying that what he did was an example of something that keeps women from feeling welcome in STEM fields. SwissLion and others have already addressed the argument you've made about a woman who "is dressed slutty," so I don't feel I need to belabor the point.

Distinction without a difference. I'm not blaming you for women not feeling welcome. I'm saying what you did is making women feel unwelcome and it's pissing me off!

http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallacies/79-distinction-without-a-difference
 
"being playful with eroticized imagery" is not exactly appropriate for work, unless you work in a sex shop or in porn or something where it's, well, appropriate. Not science work. It's not fucking hard.

This right here is the problem. Does every facet of work-life have to be a stiff and stuffy, drab "PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SUIT ONLY" environment? He's not in retail, he's not in some traditional 'customer-facing' type field, and he's not in some office, corporate meeting for a freaking bank or something.

These guys are a bunch of nerds, most probably doing what they actually love among themselves. Heaven forbid we got to see glimpses of their personality during some presentation.

For crying out loud the shirt's pretty tame as it is. They just look like a bunch of badass sci-fi heroines.

Really all the blowback towards the shirt basically comes across like the epitome of

NlmhQcO.jpg
 

KingK

Member
a. I'm not sure you've read any of this thread, since the same points have been made in response to posts like yours over and over again
b. For about the 100th time here: that he was breaking into tears because of mean feminist bullies, as opposed to genuinely thinking he made a mistake, is entirely your subjective interpretation of events

I read the OP and the last page. Sorry i don't have time to read 44 goddamn pages about some guy's dumb shirt.

Tp be fair to you, reading the entire thread would have been daunting, so I don't blame you for not doing so. If you did, you would have some possible answers to your questions.

The problem is that this guy is wearing this shirt on TV while representing a STEM field. A field that is notoriously sexist against women, where the culture can be misogynist and keep women away. The fact that no one told him that it might not be appropriate, is also a symptom of the problem.

blahblahblah then we have more talk about it, and other issues like it
Thank you for the non snarky response.
I know from experience that STEM fields are notoriously sexist. I went to Purdue in engineering school for two years before switching. You have a good point that the fact nobody told him that shirt was inappropriate for an event like that may be symptomatic of the larger problem.
My issue with the reactions is the vilification of the dude for a mostly benign fuckup; and the attempts to characterize this guy and his shirt as the symbol of everything that's wrong and sexist in the STEM field when it's really not a big deal (but as you say, may be a symptom of the actual problems). I'm also not entirely convinced that wearing the shirt was a sexist action, and if it is it's to such a small degree that the overreaction and resulting shirtstorm are almost more embarrassing than the hideous shirt in the first place.
 

berzeli

Banned
My intent wasn't to hang the point on the word conciliatory, but the fact that he was saying that you were making interesting posts and that he thought valid points were being made about the difficulty women face in STEM even if he had a difference of opinion on the importance of the shirt itself. To me those are conciliatory gestures, to you they may not qualify, but my point was that they seemed like a good jumping off point for further discussion, but were ignored in favor of dissecting the fascism statement. I was glad to read more discussion on that difference of opinion between you today, because I thought it was an interesting view even if I don't ultimately agree with it.

I wasn't attempting to dissect his statement on how he views a dress code as oppression rather than fascism, I was pointing out that I can't engage with him and his view on "banning" items (even if I ended up doing just that) and how we can address the issue of women in STEM because he had made a post that by now you know how I feel about.

You are reading far too much into your perceived tone of my posts and I'm not enjoying having to defend myself from assertions that are based on your interpretations. I wasn't ignoring any part of what he wrote in that post or in previous posts in this thread.

You asked me why I felt the need to bring up that study regarding geeky items making women feel as though they don't fit in in an office environment. My reason was to respond to that statement you made to me about that point of discussion which I thought was too broad. I don't think that context changes the broadness of that statement.

I was trying describe how I interpreted what was being his point of discussion. And his original point and which he has continues to argue is "I think the benefits of free expression in the workplace oughtweigh the cost of slightly dissuading women from being there" which is a broad statement.

Now can we leave this discussion behind?
 
This right here is the problem. Does every facet of work-life have to be a stiff and stuffy, drab "PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SUIT ONLY" environment? He's not in retail, he's not in some traditional 'customer-facing' type field, and he's not in some office, corporate meeting for a freaking bank or something.

These guys are a bunch of nerds, most probably doing what they actually love among themselves. Heaven forbid we got to see glimpses of their personality during some presentation.

For crying out loud the shirt's pretty tame as it is. They just look like a bunch of badass sci-fi heroines.

Really all the blowback towards the shirt basically comes across like the epitome of

NlmhQcO.jpg

LOL. He was in a live stream on the Internet being seen by the world.
 

Dash27

Member
How would you know? You haven't actually read anything in this thread.

I've read it. It's gibberish.

No, the shirt itself, its creator and the women depicted on the shirt are not a problem.



Yes, the context is key. Again the issue we're concerned about is identified by the fact he chose to wear it and that no one stopped him from wearing it.

The shirt isnt a problem, which i why it's a problem. Because subconsciously, so it's pernicious, and therefore it's not that he's sexist. But the shirt is... because it really isnt but, it is. I mean... HE CHOSE to wear that shirt that's not a problem! Don't you see?
 

Ghostage

Member
This world just keeps getting more bizarre for each day. There are so many fucked up things happening and shit like this gets people upset...

Poor guy. If i were him, i would never apologize.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
This right here is the problem. Does every facet of work-life have to be a stiff and stuffy, drab "PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SUIT ONLY" environment? He's not in retail, he's not in some traditional 'customer-facing' type field, and he's not in some office, corporate meeting for a freaking bank or something.

These guys are a bunch of nerds, most probably doing what they actually love among themselves. Heaven forbid we got to see glimpses of their personality during some presentation.

For crying out loud the shirt's pretty tame as it is. They just look like a bunch of badass sci-fi heroines.

People keep bringing this line of argument up and its really starting to piss me off. I posted this earlier in the thread, but apparently its relevant again: I work in an incredibly laid back office from a dress perspective. My supervisor routinely comes into work in a t-shirt, I've come to work in ripped jeans before, one of my co-workers is a woman in her mid-forties with visible large tattoos on her arms and back. You still wouldn't see a shirt like that being worn by anyone because of genuine concern that other female employees might find it alienating.
 

KHarvey16

Member
I've read it. It's gibberish.



The shirt isnt a problem, which i why it's a problem. Because subconsciously, so it's pernicious, and therefore it's not that he's sexist. But the shirt is... because it really isnt but, it is. I mean... HE CHOSE to wear that shirt that's not a problem! Don't you see?

No see clearly you didn't actually read those words. Your response proves it.
 
I've read it. It's gibberish.



The shirt isnt a problem, which i why it's a problem. Because subconsciously, so it's pernicious, and therefore it's not that he's sexist. But the shirt is... because it really isnt but, it is. I mean... HE CHOSE to wear that shirt that's not a problem! Don't you see?

Just because you refuse to or cannot understand something doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. You're weirdly frustrated by nuance and peoples' attempts to explain it to you.
 
LOL. He was in a live stream on the Internet being seen by the world.

Which is different from interviewing an applicant for a loan in a bank, selling someone clothing at a place like Men's Wearhouse, etc.

People keep bringing this line of argument up and its really starting to piss me off. I posted this earlier in the thread, but apparently its relevant again: I work in an incredibly laid back office from a dress perspective. My supervisor routinely comes into work in a t-shirt, I've come to work in ripped jeans before, one of my co-workers is a woman in her mid-forties with visible large tattoos on her arms and back. You still wouldn't see a shirt like that being worn by anyone because of genuine concern that other female employees might find it alienating.

That's the culture of your workplace then. Not the rest of the working world.
 

Jak140

Member
I wasn't attempting to dissect his statement on how he views a dress code as oppression rather than fascism, I was pointing out that I can't engage with him and his view on "banning" items (even if I ended up doing just that) and how we can address the issue of women in STEM because he had made a post that by now you know how I feel about.

You are reading far too much into your perceived tone of my posts and I'm not enjoying having to defend myself from assertions that are based on your interpretations. I wasn't ignoring any part of what he wrote in that post or in previous posts in this thread.

I was trying describe how I interpreted what was being his point of discussion. And his original point and which he has continues to argue is "I think the benefits of free expression in the workplace oughtweigh the cost of slightly dissuading women from being there" which is a broad statement.

Now can we leave the discussion behind?
You said you couldn't engage with him more constructively because of that post, but I thought you guys had an interesting discussion after the fascism statement was put aside. That's really the only goal I had in mind with my response, and this is getting increasingly tangential to the thread, so I agree there's no point in continuining to go over it.
 

Dice//

Banned

Dice//

Banned
Okay... :c

Sorry, but it's like the 200th post like this that also ignores a lot of the discussion surrounding it is kinda like:
*walks in*,
*tl;dr*,
"Well this is silly!",
*leaves*.

See the ASA statement I quoted for a quick summary of what KHarvery is sort of refering too. The OP has been updated as well. Indeed, it's not just about "being offended" for the sake of it (this topic is really exhausting in fact for all sides of debate)
 
Tp be fair to you, reading the entire thread would have been daunting, so I don't blame you for not doing so. If you did, you would have some possible answers to your questions.

The problem is that this guy is wearing this shirt on TV while representing a STEM field. A field that is notoriously sexist against women, where the culture can be misogynist and keep women away. The fact that no one told him that it might not be appropriate, is also a symptom of the problem.

blahblahblah then we have more talk about it, and other issues like it


Maybe they were busy landing a probe on a comet? After all, isn't that why we were watching in the first place? I think it's fair to give people the benefit of the doubt, that they were focused on the unique task in front of them, not "what gender related negative messages can be implied by wearing this shirt".
 
Maybe they were busy landing a probe on a comet? After all, isn't that why we were watching in the first place? I think it's fair to give people the benefit of the doubt, that they were focused on the unique task in front of them, not "what gender related negative messages can be implied by wearing this shirt".

But not too busy to make an allusion to "she's sexy but she's not easy" :>

Besides the interview was done not whilst they are actually landing the probe in real time?

:x
 

KHarvey16

Member
Maybe they were busy landing a probe on a comet? After all, isn't that why we were watching in the first place? I think it's fair to give people the benefit of the doubt, that they were focused on the unique task in front of them, not "what gender related negative messages can be implied by wearing this shirt".

And as has been stated the ideal level of awareness wouldn't allow the task at hand to be a barrier to recognizing the wearing of the shirt as a problem.
 
Yeah I'm actually surprised this wasn't brought up more.

This, combined with the shirt, was really just not well-thought out at all. Also, a little revealing of inner bias (which we all have).

It's really unfortunate that he screwed up while in such a huge spotlight. No one is perfect.

Ya. But it is an honest mistake. None of us can really be 100% aware of our biases. Agreeeeee.

I think the most frustrating thing that has come out of this for me is how defensive some men can be, and how unwilling these particular men are at acknowledging that there are inherently gender-biased issues with a certain choice of images / clothings.
 
It does seem as if feminism as a word is becoming increasingly toxic even among young females. When I passed the admission test to law school and there was an introduction class to gender studies, most girls raised their hand (this was a clear majority, around 100 people or more) to signal that they perceived modern feminism as something negative. This is obviously based on my personal experiences so I don't have anything substantive to back up my statements. Most girls I know, who work in business life or for the public sector, just do not want to have anything to do with these shirt scandals and believe it is nonsense.

I don't really have strong opinions one way or the other but this just feels like another distraction from real issues.
It's always been like this. That's why people like Beyonce, Emma Watson, and others just acknowledging the f-word is such a big deal when it happens. People tend to stick to middle grounds and have negative thoughts about being associated with political extremes.
 
BTW people insisting (as though it were objective fact) that he was only apologizing because he felt bullied into it do not strike me as arguing in good faith. Hence my annoyance.
I wonder if the people continually bringing it up have even watched the tearful apology. It doesn't come off in any way as being a forced reaction or something different than what is being presented, which is just him acknowledging and apologizing for the situation.

I also read through Twitter retweets that one lady involved had talked to him personally and believes his apology is genuine.
 

Gotchaye

Member
This world just keeps getting more bizarre for each day. There are so many fucked up things happening and shit like this gets people upset...

Poor guy. If i were him, i would never apologize.

This is a really strange take on the whole thing. Like, this fails to make sense to me in just about every way possible.

Let's go over what happened. A guy wore a stupid shirt and said a stupid thing, and lots of people saw it because he was representing the ESA and talking about a really big scientific event, so this provided a really clear example of the culture problem in STEM fields. People commented on this, because people talk about stuff that they see that is noteworthy. Because it was such a clear example of the problem, it was used as a sort of teachable moment.

Most of the fireworks afterwards were not really about the shirt. As is often the case when we're talking about issues of sex or race or orientation or whatever. People are not primarily upset by the shirt itself. They're upset about people like you - people who for whatever reason feel the need to deny that there's any legitimacy to the criticism. It's really hard to figure out what you want to have happen here if not a big, loud fight where people who want to make STEM more welcoming to women lose. This kind of event totally fizzles when everyone nods and says "yeah, that was an embarrassing thing to do, let's try not to have that happen again". You can construe this as SJWs being really upset about a tiny issue, I guess, though I don't think that's accurate, but surely what's even weirder than that is being really upset about SJWs being upset about a tiny issue. Like, there's not much at stake here for people with your take on things, right? You want... this guy to not get pushed around? But all people were asking from him was an apology. Unless someone's done absolutely nothing wrong at all, surely an apology is a pretty reasonable thing to want. Things blow up just because there's this bizarre desire to not acknowledge that something so small as an apology is warranted.

I mean, look at what you're advocating. You feel bad for the guy, and, sure, it sucks to be at the center of anything like this. But what you want to happen next is for him to fight. You want him to stay at the center of all this, rather than conceding that the criticism is legitimate. You want him to go from having probably just thoughtlessly done some stupid stuff and revealed some embarrassing attitudes to actively setting himself against the idea that what he did was embarrassing. This sounds like a wonderful way to convince lots of people that he's a big asshole and an out-and-out sexist, and it sounds like a wonderful way to make sure that people keep talking about him. You want people to be even more upset about this, and you want to keep the outrage going. Why?
 

freddy

Banned
This is a really strange take on the whole thing. Like, this fails to make sense to me in just about every way possible.

Let's go over what happened. A guy wore a stupid shirt and said a stupid thing, and lots of people saw it because he was representing the ESA and talking about a really big scientific event, so this provided a really clear example of the culture problem in STEM fields. People commented on this, because people talk about stuff that they see that is noteworthy. Because it was such a clear example of the problem, it was used as a sort of teachable moment.

Most of the fireworks afterwards were not really about the shirt. As is often the case when we're talking about issues of sex or race or orientation or whatever. People are not primarily upset by the shirt itself. They're upset about people like you - people who for whatever reason feel the need to deny that there's any legitimacy to the criticism. It's really hard to figure out what you want to have happen here if not a big, loud fight where people who want to make STEM more welcoming to women lose. This kind of event totally fizzles when everyone nods and says "yeah, that was an embarrassing thing to do, let's try not to have that happen again". You can construe this as SJWs being really upset about a tiny issue, I guess, though I don't think that's accurate, but surely what's even weirder than that is being really upset about SJWs being upset about a tiny issue. Like, there's not much at stake here for people with your take on things, right? You want... this guy to not get pushed around? But all people were asking from him was an apology. Unless someone's done absolutely nothing wrong at all, surely an apology is a pretty reasonable thing to want. Things blow up just because there's this bizarre desire to not acknowledge that something so small as an apology is warranted.

I mean, look at what you're advocating. You feel bad for the guy, and, sure, it sucks to be at the center of anything like this. But what you want to happen next is for him to fight. You want him to stay at the center of all this, rather than conceding that the criticism is legitimate. You want him to go from having probably just thoughtlessly done some stupid stuff and revealed some embarrassing attitudes to actively setting himself against the idea that what he did was embarrassing. This sounds like a wonderful way to convince lots of people that he's a big asshole and an out-and-out sexist, and it sounds like a wonderful way to make sure that people keep talking about him. You want people to be even more upset about this, and you want to keep the outrage going. Why?
It seems obvious to me you're on opposite sides of the spectrum as far as ideologies go. Ask yourself this though. Given my first sentence are you capable of seeing any answer that poster gives objectively?

I'm making an assumption here that you're on opposite sides of the spectrum and asking you to answer to it based on that assumption. You did a whole lot of assuming in your post also and then asked him to answer to it.
 

Gotchaye

Member
I've been trying to catch up on this, what was his stupid comment?

His answer in the interview to why Rosetta was important started out: "Rosetta is the sexiest mission that's ever been. She is sexy. I never said she was easy."

It seems obvious to me you're on opposite sides of the spectrum as far as ideologies go. Ask yourself this though. Given my first sentence are you capable of seeing any answer that poster gives objectively?

I'm making an assumption here that you're on opposite sides of the spectrum and asking you to answer to it based on that assumption. You did a whole lot of assuming in your post also and then asked him to answer to it.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "objectively" given that I'm talking about motivations and feelings and all that. But in my post I sort of sketched out what I expected would be the answer to why the poster would refuse to apologize. The idea would be something like that it's important to stand up to bullying, that the response to what he did, even if what he did was dumb, was hugely disproportionate, etc. Possibly there'd be something about how this is bigger than just the one incident, and it's a mistake to apologize to make it all go away because if the people demanding an apology win this time, they're just going to demand more and more as time goes on.

But I'm not really expecting an answer that acknowledges that the poster was advocating a course of action that would guarantee more upset about something that he thinks it's ridiculous to be upset about, and which he seems to think it's actually bad to spend time on given that there are much worse things going on in the world. The questions were largely rhetorical, with the point of the post being to show the tension between thinking it's silly to be upset about "shirtstorm" while not thinking it's silly to be upset about people who are upset about "shirtstorm", and to show that it's hard to think that the right course of action was to not apologize unless you also think there's basically no legitimacy to the criticism. Most of what I would want that particular poster to take from my post is that he was misunderstanding what it was that people were upset about, which I think I'm qualified to speak on since you're right that I'm ideologically a lot more like the people who are upset.
 

devilhawk

Member
Sexy is a common term in science to denote intriguing and novel. As I type this comment in my lab, I can recall hearing it said in such a way earlier today. By a female scientist no less.

Not my first choice in work vocab, however.
 

Gotchaye

Member
Sexy is a common term in science to denote intriguing and novel. As I type this comment in my lab, I can recall hearing it said in such a way earlier today. By a female scientist no less.

Not my first choice in work vocab, however.

Sure, "sexy" gets thrown around a lot and isn't going to raise eyebrows in casual settings, though I don't know that I've ever heard it in a conference presentation or similar. But the use of sexy in that scientific sense was used to set up a joke where "easy" had a double meaning, which I think would have felt pretty off in even an informal presentation, especially given the gendered personification of Rosetta.
 

Shosai

Banned
So, to clear something up for me, do we know if the shirt and the language is a problem within Taylor's specific workplace? And is it a good thing or a bad thing if none of his own coworkers have a problem with it? Because I've been trying to keep up with this thread and I've been reading posts suggesting both of these things.
 

Mindwipe

Member
Most of the fireworks afterwards were not really about the shirt. As is often the case when we're talking about issues of sex or race or orientation or whatever. People are not primarily upset by the shirt itself. They're upset about people like you - people who for whatever reason feel the need to deny that there's any legitimacy to the criticism. It's really hard to figure out what you want to have happen here if not a big, loud fight where people who want to make STEM more welcoming to women lose. This kind of event totally fizzles when everyone nods and says "yeah, that was an embarrassing thing to do, let's try not to have that happen again". You can construe this as SJWs being really upset about a tiny issue, I guess, though I don't think that's accurate, but surely what's even weirder than that is being really upset about SJWs being upset about a tiny issue. Like, there's not much at stake here for people with your take on things, right? You want... this guy to not get pushed around? But all people were asking from him was an apology. Unless someone's done absolutely nothing wrong at all, surely an apology is a pretty reasonable thing to want. Things blow up just because there's this bizarre desire to not acknowledge that something so small as an apology is warranted.

There are those of us who think he didn't, and more importantly think trying to marginalise sexual imagery out of the mainstream is intrinsically harmful to society.

I don't want to push women out of STEM. I want more women in STEM. I believe that ultimately is assisted by economic changes, and I believe that attacking cultural factors discredits and slows down the process of that happening effectively.
 

SwissLion

Member
So, to clear something up for me, do we know if the shirt and the language is a problem within Taylor's specific workplace? And is it a good thing or a bad thing if none of his own coworkers have a problem with it? Because I've been trying to keep up with this thread and I've been reading posts suggesting both of these things.

Not sure about specific members of his team but plenty of people in the greater scientific community commented on it.
 
Related!

Barbie Book Titled 'I Can Be a Computer Engineer' Tells Girls They Need A Man's Help To Code

http://www.businessinsider.com/barbie-book-tells-girls-they-need-a-mans-help-to-code-2014-11

Barbie is known for her career ambitions, but in a new book called, "Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer," Barbie can barely do her job.

She is portrayed as an inept programmer who inadvertently plagues her friend’s computer with a virus and can’t fix a bug without help from a man.

The book implies that Barbie can only contribute to the design of the game she’s working on, rather than its more complicated technical structure.
This has always been a real thing that goes far beyond just a shirt, guys.
 

SwissLion

Member
There are those of us who think he didn't, and more importantly think trying to marginalise sexual imagery out of the mainstream is intrinsically harmful to society.

I don't want to push women out of STEM. I want more women in STEM. I believe that ultimately is assisted by economic changes, and I believe that attacking cultural factors discredits and slows down the process of that happening effectively.

He clearly thinks he made a mistake. All this talk of "He did nothing wrong!" always seems to ignore the fact that those people are calling his by all accounts pretty genuine contrition a mistake.

Also, believing certain types of sexual imagery (largely objectifying) are harmful when over-represented in wider society does not necessarily indicate a desire to see all sexual imagery, or even all objectification removed from wider society.

It's a complete straw man. People asking for less sexualised and objectified women to be used as tools for marketing and advertising does not follow directly into a desire for a sexually repressed public life.

And you may believe that the vague idea of "Economics" has more of an affect on gender disparity in STEM fields than culture, but your assertion isn't supported by much research as far as I can tell.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
It seems obvious to me you're on opposite sides of the spectrum as far as ideologies go. Ask yourself this though. Given my first sentence are you capable of seeing any answer that poster gives objectively?

I'm making an assumption here that you're on opposite sides of the spectrum and asking you to answer to it based on that assumption. You did a whole lot of assuming in your post also and then asked him to answer to it.

I don't get what's so hard about seeing a single accidentally misogynist or racist thing as something that's not a big deal but still worth mentioning.

If I was doing something that made people feel uncomfortable, I'd like for them to tell me so I can apologize and make a small change. You can say their complaint is silly, but getting defensive about it is also silly. It's not like a quick apology and a change of clothes is such a big deal.

You don't have to act like they're calling you a hateful person down to your very core every time someone says you've done a mysoginist or racist thing. Basically everyone has done something mysoginist or racist and probably will again, and that's ok. People don't have all the information make the right choice about every last thing they do. But when you are given new information about how your actions are making people feel unwelcomed, you should take it to heart, not complain about it.

He responded exactly how he should. He took the criticisms to heart, changed so it wouldn't happen again, and we can move on. It's not like he's being extremely oppressed because he now chooses to wear an attire that wont make people feel unwelcomed.

This all is just common sense and common decency, not ideology. There's certainly a possibility of going too far and asking for too much. But like you said, it's just a shirt and a shirt isn't a big deal.

Of course, the combination of social media and click bait media might go too far with their criticisms of this guy by being too harsh in their wording, and the anti-"sjw" crowd might go too far in defending this guy with harassment campaigns of their own, but don't fall into the trap of thinking the whole thing is about extremists. That just spawns more extremism as the extreme actions of one side promotes extreme actions of the other.
 

Mindwipe

Member
He clearly thinks he made a mistake. All this talk of "He did nothing wrong!" always seems to ignore the fact that those people are calling his by all accounts pretty genuine contrition a mistake.

I'm not sure why what he feels is terribly relevant.

Also, believing certain types of sexual imagery (largely objectifying) are harmful when over-represented in wider society does not necessarily indicate a desire to see all sexual imagery, or even all objectification removed from wider society.

As before, objectification doesn't exist. There is only sexual imagery and non sexual imagery. We repress sexual imagery to a disturbing extent, and that causes huge problems. We need a massive expansion of sexual imagery in all areas and walks of life to start ending that harmful repression.

It's a complete straw man. People asking for less sexualised and objectified women to be used as tools for marketing and advertising does not follow directly into a desire for a sexually repressed public life.

Yes it does. Intrinsically.

And this isn't an advertising or marketing concept. It's an argument that sexuality must be eliminated from work life, and that repressive "social contracts" are good. Read the thread.

And you may believe that the vague idea of "Economics" has more of an affect on gender disparity in STEM fields than culture, but your assertion isn't supported by much research as far as I can tell.

What? Economic factors disproportionately affecting women isn't supported by research????

Hahahahaha.
 
It's a tacky shirt that was definitely inappropriate for an interview, but given who made the shirt and the general fashion sense of the people involved (I'm gonna go out on a limb and say these are some rockabilly-ass rockabilly fans) I'm gonna say that the tackiness is the point. It's meant to be ironic. That airbrushed art is hilarious.

That being said, yeah, not exactly a professional work situation shirt and I can see why people are upset. That's a Kreeps or King Dude concert shirt. "It's ironic humor!!" doesn't play so well at work where people are already (rightfully) on edge about gender issues.

This. That shirt is so rockabilly. Dude looks like he's about to leave the local Sunday car show and head to a stray cats show. Not very professional.

The overreactions are absurd though. Then there's the overreactions to the overreactions.

Multiple layers of stupidity in this scenario.
 

Shosai

Banned
Related!

Barbie Book Titled 'I Can Be a Computer Engineer' Tells Girls They Need A Man's Help To Code

http://www.businessinsider.com/barbie-book-tells-girls-they-need-a-mans-help-to-code-2014-11

This has always been a real thing that goes far beyond just a shirt, guys.

In what scenario is it appropriate for someone studying code to ask for help? When I was in college, I was too stuck-up to ask for assistance from my classmates or professors, and it set me back. Despite one of the first lessons of coding being to "Ask questions!", because some anti-social students would waste time trying to research everything on their own.

Anyone who is studying CS is going to need the help of another human being at some point, and until we solve the problem of the gender imbalance in STEM fields, there's an 80% chance that the person will be male. While in a certain context, the implication here may seem problematic, the inverse solution of "don't turn to a man for help" is one that is even less helpful

Not sure about specific members of his team but plenty of people in the greater scientific community commented on it.

Right, but some posters are tying this shirt to a larger problem of ingrained attitudes which are preventing women from entering this particular workplace. Since my question has probably already been answered in this thread, I was hoping someone could link me to a helpful post. I feel like there's been a venn diagram drawn, with one circle encompassing permissive attitudes toward the shirt, and another representing sexist barriers in STEM, and we haven't quiet placed Taylor's shirt in the overlapping area yet.
 

SwissLion

Member
I'm not sure why what he feels is terribly relevant.

I just think that it's important to note that a lot of people "Defending him" are effectively shitting on his experiences and feelings. That's it.

As before, objectification doesn't exist. There is only sexual imagery and non sexual imagery. We repress sexual imagery to a disturbing extent, and that causes huge problems. We need a massive expansion of sexual imagery in all areas and walks of life to start ending that harmful repression.

If your argument in most places comes down to "Obectification doesn't exist" then I gotta say, unless you can back that up with something you're not going to be taken particularly seriously.

Do you really not think that there are many varieties of sexual content? That there are no differences in how exploitative or base different examples of content are? Do you really think sexualised imagery is a zero sum game where you're either for all of it or against all of it?

Should I be able to wear a polo shirt with erect cocks all over it, purely because it's "Ending repression"? Your entire premise seems disconnected from reality. We have sexualised depictions of women and to a lesser extent men plastered all over television, billboards, bus stops, magazines, and you think we need more public sexual imagery, no matter the variety?

And this isn't an advertising or marketing concept. It's an argument that sexuality must be eliminated from work life, and that repressive "social contracts" are good. Read the thread.

I have read the thread plenty. I know what we are talking about. The issues are related. Whether it's in the public or the workplace, the concept is the same. The level and variety of sexual imagery and discussion needs to be appropriate for the context.

Ideally yes, healthy discussions of sexuality would be allowed and encouraged by wider culture, but on the flipside maybe extremely detailed bragging about your latest sexual encounter when co-workers clearly are being made uncomfortable is something that is to be avoided. Fun sexy inclusive calendar sale for charity, ideally, yeah, cool! Wearing a shirt many find denigrating and emblematic of a greater lack of respect on international television while representing a team and project, maybe not so awesome.

Do you see how we, as complex organisms can filter sexual imagery, content and discussion into more than one giant, homogeneous mental bucket, and treat the different elements differently?

What? Economic factors disproportionately affecting women isn't supported by research????

Hahahahaha.

This isn't what I said. At all. And the fact that it's what you read out of that post doesn't give me a tonne of hope for potential productive communication going forward...

What I actually said is that Cultural factors are pretty universally considered more relevant to the problem of gender disparity in these areas than "Economics" which again, is extremely vague to the point of meaninglessness.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
This right here is the problem. Does every facet of work-life have to be a stiff and stuffy, drab "PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SUIT ONLY" environment? He's not in retail, he's not in some traditional 'customer-facing' type field, and he's not in some office, corporate meeting for a freaking bank or something.
Yeah, he's only working for a space agency...

These guys are a bunch of nerds, most probably doing what they actually love among themselves. Heaven forbid we got to see glimpses of their personality during some presentation.

For crying out loud the shirt's pretty tame as it is. They just look like a bunch of badass sci-fi heroines.

Really all the blowback towards the shirt basically comes across like the epitome of

http://i.imgur.com/NlmhQcO.jpg
rofl. I am a programmer and wear heavy metal t-shirts to work. I've worn the shirts with the following design at work:
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-c...89087_535625993142576_934965446_n-572x748.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/MercyfulFateDBTO.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31h85S9Ly6L.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0acW3KsJLGY/S_VOUe7030I/AAAAAAAADHU/9orpIS-1RWk/s1600/20052010095.jpg
http://www.truemetal.org/metalwallpaper/images/stormofthelightsbane.jpg

So yeah, I'm pretty damn laid back about dress codes. Very much so. Yet, you know what kind of shirt I wouldn't wear on international TV, if I had it? These (NSFW for sex, gore imagery):

http://www.metal-is-forever.com/images/COF4.jpg
http://s71.photobucket.com/user/From-the-Cradle-to-Enslave/media/Shirts/RIMG0948.jpg.html
http://tshirtslayer.com/files-tshir...708b6677f22a01098ce56ba2b15.jpg?itok=4UAq5dlh
http://www.t-shirtzone.co.uk/images/detailed_images/marduk_christ_L.jpg
http://www.jrrzz.net/~jorrizza/pics/marduk_fuck_me_jesus_shirt.jpg
http://www.eblastshop.fr/11268-productZoom/t-shirt-cannibal-corpse-butchered-at-birth.jpg
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/7/7/0/770.jpg?0959

I'll let you guess as to why I make that distinction... and it has nothing to do with "no fun allowed".

That's the culture of your workplace then. Not the rest of the working world.
lol, yeah right. That kind of shirt would not be permitted in a great many formal professional environment. Be real.
 
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