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."

Comments

eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

That is not sexism, poor taste at best.

Re:eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:eh?

[stdarg]

Well, you're wrong, so that's the end of your line of reasoning.

Case in point, I was watching UK X-Factor this weekend and one of the hosts (Nicole Scherzinger) acted inappropriately when a 17 year old boy began yodeling. She acted overtly flirtatious towards him, started swaying and dancing and touching herself suggestively and commented on his looks (calling him hot, delicious, etc). Her comments and her "female gaze" and the disparity in power (host vs contenstant, age, social status, etc) made the whole thing very objectifying.

As far as I know, nobody has made a big deal of it.

Now if one of the male judges acted the same way towards an underage female contestant, it would be an outrage and accusations of sexism and pedophilia would fly about.

Re:eh?

[NeutronCowboy]

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.

Re:Should have done it on MTV

[catfood]

Try to keep up. Feminist blogs were full of criticism of that performance. I realize that ruins your little rant and your fantasy of persecution, but there it is.

Re:Should have done it on MTV

[catfood]

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.

Please just get over it!

[Pikoro]

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.

Re:Should have done it on MTV

[djlemma]

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.

Re:Should have done it on MTV

[QilessQi]

Me. And a number of my married male friends.

Supporting feminism has nothing to do with your gender or sexual preference. It's about recognizing that women are still not treated with equal regard and respect in certain spheres -- the tech sphere being one of them.

If you support the rights and reproductive freedoms of your sisters, daughters, female friends, girlfriends, wife, and mother, then you might find interesting news and political writing on feminist blogs. If you're unconcerned about these issues but are curious about why so many women are angry at the treatment they get in society, you might want to read a few of those blogs to get an idea.

Re:Congratulations

[Myu]

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.

Re:

[clickety6]

Yes, women need a dickstare app for balance.
By all accounts, the whole audience was staring at two of them...

Sadly, they're looking at symptoms.

[intermodal]

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.

Re:Congratulations

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Really?

[orthancstone]

They are probably the future creators of, "Ow, my balls!"

Re:Funny

[arth1]

The ones at fault here are the ones bringing 9 year olds to a Techcrunch conference. Much more "adult" stuff than this could have been discussed, and within context too.

Re:Congratulations

[ImdatS]

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...

Re:Power trip and nothing more.

[LateArthurDent]

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.

Re:Power trip and nothing more.

[NatasRevol]

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?