Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 11:19:37 -0800, Russ Allbery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
>> Er, I thought it was offensive because it was sexist, not because >> there's anything wrong with being lesbian. > Umm, the fact that the phrase "You like looking at > hetrosexuals" is sexist just flew below my radar. I'm not sure this is the place, but, well, since several people have said they didn't understand.... The message that started all this is sexist because it ties into and reinforces a presentation of women as sexual objects for men to stare at in a context where this is entirely inappropriate. It plays into the conception of lesbians as eye-candy for men, thereby demeaning and belittling a sexual choice in a way that isn't done to gay men. It's sexist because it specifically uses women in a sexual situation to make its point, thus addressing readers differently depending on their gender in a forum where gender should be irrelevant. It's sexist because it brings gender and sexual orientation into a context where there was absolutely no reason to discuss it, in exactly the same way as making jokes about lesbians in a professional workplace environment would. That it wasn't intended as sexist, but rather was being used to make a completely different point, actually makes it worse. That such a message would be considered appropriate to make that sort of point is an expression of casual, subconscious sexism, rather than anything conscious. It's exactly the sort of behavior that, in sum, across many such supposedly "harmless" individual instances, makes professional technical environments uncomfortable for women. I don't mean to make a huge deal about this. I'm only posting this because you essentially asked, and because I think other people honestly didn't get it and maybe someone will understand. It is, by itself, not particularly overwhelmingly horrible, and I expect pretty much everyone who read it went "wow, that was stupid" and went on with their lives, but it *is* the sort of thing that sets the wrong tone and over time, with repetition, creates a more hostile environment. (If you don't agree with me, please, please, *please* don't argue about it here. It's really not at all relevant to this mailing list, and talking about it at length just makes it worse. I promise I won't post any more on the topic; I'm sure that we would all like to put the whole stupid thing behind us and get back to doing the technical work that this mailing list is actually for.) -- Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
