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Sexist Presentations At Startup Competition Prompt TechCrunch Apology

Posted by samzenpus on from the lets-try-this-again dept.

beaverdownunder writes "Silicon Valley technology conference organizers TechCrunch have been forced to apologize after two Australian men pitched a smartphone app called "Titstare" in front of a nine-year-old girl. The Sydney duo's presentation had the mainly male audience laughing, but angered Twitter users and reignited a debate about sexism in the technology sector. The two entrepreneurs — Jethro Batts, 28, and David Boulton, 24 — pitched their 'tongue in cheek' idea at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on Sunday after winning expenses for the trip to the US in a similar competition, AngelHack Sydney. In their pitch, Boulton explained to an audience of hundreds (plus thousands online) that it would allow users to 'take photos of yourself, looking at tits'. 'It's science my good friend, science,' Boulton said. TechCrunch also apologized for another pitch for a product called Circle Shake, in which a man simulated masturbation."

12 of 762 comments (clear)

  1. eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is not sexism, poor taste at best.

    1. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Objectification is conventionally considered sexism even when it doesn't contain explicit stereotypes, because it's implicitly dehumanizing.

      Would it have been sexist if the talk were given by a woman? I don't know about you, but I know a few women (yes, mature adults) who would use that app. Objectification by members of the opposite sex is considered sexism by the PC crowd. When my wife does it, it's OK. Or when a woman gets breast implants so her tits will get noticed, it's OK. When my lesbian friends do it, it's OK. But when a young man does it, somehow it is now sexism?

      I call it bullshit.

    2. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Once upon a time these things had a meaningful definition but now everything that's bad or insensitive gets clumped there even though it's miles away from the original concept. Thus, now we get to live in a world where making stereotypical joke is conventionally considered the same as genuinely claiming that some groups of people are inferior to others and discriminating against them is okay.

    3. Re:eh? by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If men in general were politically dominant, then it wouldn't be the case that 75% of all homeless people are male

      Homelessness is often correlated with mental illness, which is preponderant in men. Next.

      there are numerous homeless shelters that cater strictly to women.

      Those are battered women shelters. Domestic abuse is still heavily skewed towards women being victims, largely because they are on average physically weaker.

      If men in general were politically dominant, then we wouldn't have men being forced to pay child support for children that the courts acknowledge aren't even theirs.

      A single anecdote based on a time frame where men where so dominant socially and politically that a divorced mother would be condemned to a life of abject poverty. The reason for these laws is because it used to be that women were incapable of finding jobs anything other than secretaries or nurses. Add to that that mothers were in the vast majority of cases "home makers", being divorced was close to a poverty sentence.

      If men in general were politically dominant, then Title IX wouldn't instruct colleges to kick out men on the mere allegation of sexual misconduct (the "preponderance of evidence" clause) rather than requiring actual evidence.

      You watched too much CSI. Preponderance of evidence is the standard for any civil case. Which is what Title IX cases fall under.

      I agree that some feminist claims, as well as laws designed to deal with male supremacy need to be revisited. But your examples aren't helping your argument.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  2. Re:Should have done it on MTV by catfood · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If he wants to make the statement that feminists were all cool with the Cyrus performance, he should check and do his damn research first. Knowing what you are talking about is important.

  3. Please just get over it! by Pikoro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Women have boobs. People jerk off. Stop trying to hide obvious human sexuality issues from everyone. EVERYONE does this stuff. Why hide it? This puritan crap needs to go away.

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  4. Re:Should have done it on MTV by djlemma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What, exactly, makes you think that people consider Miley Cyrus' behavior to be "perfectly all right"? Seems like the overwhelming reaction to her performance was one of disgust.

  5. Re:Congratulations by Myu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, ffs, the reason you don't make category-targetted jokes like this isn't because it causes offense (it does, and people are entitled to be offended, but that's neither here nor there), but because it's a pointed act of exclusion. Some people are offended by my use of the term "ffs", and that's fine, they are right to be offended, and I'm being offensive here for a reason. But I'm not in the process of making this point telling those same people that they're not welcome in this discussion. Approvingly presenting a product about staring at women's chests in a technology conference very much is.

    --
    Myu: ... The map's upside down...
  6. Sadly, they're looking at symptoms. by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real problem is that we have reached the point where the puritanical values have caused men's reactions to breasts to become national news, and to where breastfeeding mothers are made to feel they are doing something shameful.

    Stupid, stupid Americans. I doubt the Aussies even considered America's hypersensitivity in the process.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  7. Re:Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, Martin Luther King Jr should have just STFU about his dreams.

    IOW sometimes shutting up is not the right choice.

    Martin Luther King Jr. lived in a vastly different time.

    It's 2013 and a black guy's President. Not that black people - or rather, people in general - should not be on guard for it... But the current media frenzy over making every single goddamned thing that happens a racial issue? Time to put Sharpton and Friends into the closet. Keep picking at a wound and it won't heal. Keep pretending we're still in the 60s and we'll never leave them.

  8. Re:Congratulations by ImdatS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Feminism, Sexism, Machoism, ...ism, ...ism, ...ism...

    I'm still searching for Humanism, believing that that would be the solution. But, alas, it seems I'm always searching in all the wrong places...

  9. Re:Power trip and nothing more. by LateArthurDent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Part of being a functional adult is being able to navigate the society you live in. Telling tit jokes to a mixed audience is not adult behavior.

    Mixed audience? What is this, the 1950's?

    Part of the whole thing about treating women equally is giving up on the ridiculous concept that women aren't interested in sex and that, as a result, sex jokes are only appropriate around males. Women have tits, men sometimes stare at them, pictures that catch them in the act is funny. There's no reason women shouldn't hear this joke, or feel threatened by it.

    The problem isn't that these people weren't "acting as adults." The problem is that a society that freaks out when a boob is shown for half a second in the middle of the superbowl aren't acting like adults. It's a fucking body part. It's not going to scar children for life. They've all seen it before and sucked upon it.