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Sexist Presentations At Startup Competition Prompt TechCrunch Apology
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."
I would have thought that their talk was satirical with an ironic twist, thereby not being sexist at all in the given context.
How wrong the political correctness freaks have proved me once more!
That is not sexism, poor taste at best.
So it's wrong for a guy to talk about "taking a picture of yourself staring at tits" and to simulate masturbation in public, but it's perfectly all right for Miley Cyrus to do the same (and more!) on national television in front of millions of people? I guess they should have done it on MTV; then it would have been ok.
It would have been just as sexist without her there.
Nonsense. This is an isolated incident. The people putting women off technology are those going around claiming that all men are like this, and that it's a widespread problem.
Giving a 24-year-old man and a 28-year-old man free passes on creepy behavior you might gently correct in a 10-year-old boy? Yeah, that's pretty sexist.
If you're going to give a presentation at a tech conference, yes, a certain level of maturity is required. Letting that go because "boys will be boys" is privileged bullshit.
Yes, women need a dickstare app for balance.
Submitted by beaverdownunder Perhaps!
Silence is a state of mime.
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"
Breaking news: men are fascinated with breasts. It is pretty much universal and isn't sexist.
Obviosuly their display in front of children was uncalled for.
But something to do with gender doesn't mean it is sexist. It is killing what true sexism is, real discrimination.
Here is her story and app.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
I've never been quite so insulted in a manner that made quite so little sense in my life.
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:
Yes, women need a dickstare app for balance.
By all accounts, the whole audience was staring at two of them...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
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!
How do we stop racism? Stop talking about it.
Yeah, Martin Luther King Jr should have just STFU about his dreams.
IOW sometimes shutting up is not the right choice.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Umm, I don't know about you, but when I stare at tits, I prefer them to be female tits. Moobs are just nasty.
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.
They are probably the future creators of, "Ow, my balls!"
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.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
In what way is staring/commenting on a womans tits "not treating them like a human being"? Its very easy to know that women are humans and still admire a nice set of tits. Just like a woman can know a man is a human and still admire his pecs or his dick or whatever. Youre an idiot.
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...
No True Adult would tell tit jokes to a mixed audience. They must not be... True Adults!
Now, that's just vague. Who are you to decide that people who tell certain types of jokes don't act like adults (Whatever that means; it's subjective nonsense as far as I'm concerned.)?
I agree it is hard to set unambiguous rules on what it takes to be a respectable adult. The complex nature of social human interaction is one reason why creating human-like AI is so hard.
But luckily humans are not restricted to robot-like rule sets when determining appropriate behavior. Anyone who has trouble understanding why tit jokes in a professional mixed audience are a bad idea has some serious developmental issues. Either that or they are just an argumentative ass.
Just because something is subjective (like respectable behavior) does not mean people should disregard that it exists.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Congratulations Jethro Batts, 28, and David Boulton, 24 for showing young women interested in technology exactly what assholes they have to look forward to growing up.
You mean it's only 'technology' people who do/say things like this...? Thanks for the warning.
No sig today...
But luckily humans are not restricted to robot-like rule sets when determining appropriate behavior. Anyone who has trouble understanding why tit jokes in a professional mixed audience are a bad idea has some serious developmental issues.
Wait, but you just said...
So.. humans aren't restricted to robot-like rules, but any person who doesn't understand why they should have to adhere to an arbitrary set of robot-like rules "has some serious developmental issues?"
Second thought - if this is a "professional mixed audience," why the fuck was a 9-year-old in attendance? Are child labor laws a bit more lax down under, or am I missing something here?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
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.
The 9 yr old had a better app & presentation than the 20 something immature idiots did.
She was more professional than they were.
So why shouldn't she be there?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
why the fuck was a 9-year-old in attendance? Are child labor laws a bit more lax down under, or am I missing something here?
This struck me immediately. This was clearly an adult event. I have no problem with parents deciding that their child is mature enough to handle going to an adult event, but it is ridiculous to get upset that someone at the adult event presented material that was offensive because your child was too young to see it.
Of course, I highly question whether Titstare is anything more offensive than this nine year old girl sees on a regular basis. It certainly isn't any more sexualized than the rack of women's magazines that she would be seeing while standing in line at the grocery store with her parents. It certainly isn't any more sexualized than the 8 foot posters in the windows of Victoria Secrets at the mall. And it certainly isn't any more sexualized than the commercials that play on TV either in her own home, or in the many places outside her home that have TVs playing.
This isn't about offensive material being presented to a child. This reeks of the same kind of misandrist behavior that we saw with the Adria Richards situation. A situation where 'sexual jokes are fine if your a woman, but if you have a penis, sexual jokes make you evil'.
No, it was clearly a professional event. Learn the difference between age and professionalism.
I would have been offended by the lack or professionalism they had. As someone who has been in the industry for over a quarter a century, this shit needs to stop. It's hurting the industry.
"This isn't about offensive material being presented to a child"
Correct, its about the completely lack of professionalism, and offending half the population. It's about idiots like these making women uncomfortable, and it's about ending the boys room attitude rampant in the industry.
'sexual jokes are fine if your a woman, but if you have a penis, sexual jokes make you evil'
did the girl tell a sexist joke? no? then it's not the same fucking thing, is it?
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