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Oh yet again another SJW crybaby piece. Stop getting offended. The tech and the crypto world is dominated by men for biological and historic reasons (Read James Damres pro-diversity Google memo and its sources). So obviously they are likely to think a women is +1 at a event. That does not make them evil white men who hate you. How about you stand up proudly and impress them with your crypto knowledge instead of this SJW BS?
Sorry for the angry rant and I know this doesn't follow the general opinion of HN.

But who cares. Why is it important to write an article of women in [Insert X]. Their gender is not important, and quite frankly demeaning of their efforts to further the field.

Try to stray away from ad hominem

You can easily restate the whole blog post and include other categories that are often victims of the same behaviors, because of physical differences, gender, nationality, and so forth. Yes, focusing just on women is not optimal IMHO because this also happens to other persons that should be defended as well, however it makes sense to remark that women are a "notable" category of discrimination. Also for the problems exposed in this blog post, I think the author really nailed it, and certain things are women-specific, like focusing and making a comment on the beauty instead of content, and also this eye contact thing. But in general it should always be remembered that the same happens to other categories.
Absolutely, I included in the post that gender was only one aspect of diversity that I was focusing on in the post but should have made that more clear.
"introduces himself to the men in a group but ignores the women"

A truly terrible thing is that I see this happening even in other contexts that have nothing to do with work. Sometimes women are just ignored for the first part of the conversation, or men will just look at other men when saying something. I hate it, it's deeply offensive, however the cool thing is that it takes just a single person to change the shape of the conversation and include everybody. P.S. the same thing is observed often with teenagers as well, which is equally disgusting.

>I hate it, it's deeply offensive

Deeply offensive, really? You must be exhausted from being so deeply offended all of the time.

It's hyperbolic language like this that is really divisive because it makes people defensive when you're putting their actions in the same category of murders and violence (the "deeply offensive" category).

The "offensive" attribute aside (which I also have issues with in many contexts), doesn't antirez have a point?
Social terror until everyone is on his/her toes and the resources are redistributed not according to achievement/risk&reward - but how high you are on the ladder in the new church of social progression?

Is there a way to opt out of your version of society?

In order for antirez to have a point, let assume we built an experimental environment with cameras to observe how people behave.

Let say we want to observe how eye contact is being made, in which order, and to whom and at what rate when a test person enters a group to introduce themselves. Variables we adjust are among things like hight, age, gender of test subject, gender distribution of the test group, appearance of strength, social economical status signals, gait, posture, and olfaction.

Then we take a base line, and compare that to when we change a single variable. The question to be answered is: which variable has no effect, which variable has biggest effect, and what is the underlying reason when an variable has an effect.

> introduces himself to the men in a group but ignores the women

> makes eye contact with the men while speaking and ignores the women

I'm guilty of this but it's because I'm nervous about interacting with women in general.

That's a good point: some people do it not for discrimination but for other problems. Another variation of what you say is "I'm guilty of this because I'm nervous about engaging in conversations with the woman of another person". And so forth. However with a dedicated effort you can fix this if you recognize is not what you want to do.
I'm not sure if I get your viewpoint right. Considering a woman to be of another person and thus off-limits for talking is already quite sexist and offensive in the West. Maybe that's not what you're trying to say?

(In this vein, everyone is sexist and discriminatory and we just have to work with it, so this is not supposed to pass judgement on the person doing it, just the idea. You're not your ideas.)

Hello, I can speak for Sicily, and here this mechanism can work both sides, simply there are people that avoid to engage too much with the mate of another person, regardless of the sex. While I also think this is unacceptable, at least for my cultural background and my values, I think it is still a simpler to correct and more acceptable thing compared to not making eye contact or speaking with a woman because of not giving her the same importance of the other men. So yes, anyway even not engaging with a person because of its sentimental status with other persons you do not want to upset is terrible, but at least is not so directly sexism.
Doubly so because there's strong punishments (being kicked out due to violating the CoC / making people feel uncomfortable, publicly shamed on twitter / blogs, etc) if you say the wrong thing. Not engaging at all is the safest course of action.
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I'm not nervous about that though. I simply lack self-confidence. As soon as I make eye-contact with a girl I look away.
It’s getting obvious now the scam faux outrage these people are pulling isn’t it? I think it’s transparent more so in this instance because... “the crypto currency industry” if that’s even really such a thing, started like yesterday.

And has everyone not been beat over the head with gender bias this, misogyny that.. to an extant that were not gonna buy it this time? Who are these oppressive men running the decentralized crypto industry holding women back?

And from what exactly... buying bitcoin? Running a mining rig? Pretty sure it’s an open market and women’s fiat is as good as men’s.

Oh.. oh people didn’t talk to you at “crypto currency events”.

Ohh... you want men to pay for subsidized tickets. I see.

Does anyone read that blog and, gender aside, feel like that’s someone you’d enjoy hanging out with? Didn’t think so...

My experience so far with women in cryptocurrency as someone who attends quite a few meetups:

The Beginner - Doesn't know much about cryptocurrency or technology in general, wants to learn about it for various reasons. There are men who fall into this category of course. I usually enjoy talking to these people.

The Enthusiast - Knowledgeable and experienced in cryptocurrency topics. Fun to talk to.

The Feminist - Might know something about cryptocurrency, but all she seems to do is plug the various "women in cryptocurrency" groups around the city. Rarely contributes to the conversation. Writes whiny blog/Twitter posts like this one.

I think everyone is getting tired of this browbeating.

I can write blog posts like this one and be knowledgeable and experienced in cryptocurrency topics. Feel free to check out some of my other Medium posts https://medium.com/@linda.xie/
No, she doesn't seem fun. You however seem like a blast to hang out with :)
> makes eye contact with the men while speaking and ignores the women

Maybe they want to avoid accusations of flirting, being a creep and/or sexual accusations? Wouldn't surprise me, in this atmosphere...

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What atmosphere? I can look around right now and see 10+ male-female conversations happening with eye contact and no accusations of flirting, being a creep, etc.
People today get upset about fucking everything.

Lets break the points down, shall we?

> introduces himself to the men in a group but ignores the women

Just bad behavior. Hard to say anything else about such a general claim. I can't say I share this experience.

> makes eye contact with the men while speaking and ignores the women

Well if you make eye contact with women today, some get offended so easily that they write blog posts and even accuse men of being creeps. If we don't, obviously we do not respect you.

> asks a woman if she is a plus one at the event acts surprised to discover a woman knows about cryptocurrencies

Not weird at all, how many women have you met that knows a lot about cryptocurrencies? Seriously, this is just statistics. Of course people are going to be surprised of this. It's like being mad about a person acting suprised in learning that another person never have taken a car ride.

> comments on the woman’s appearance rather than what she is saying

Most men are attracted to women in general, so unless this is in a moment that is highly unprofessional I am not surprised. However, I have pretty much never witnessed this except on psuedo-anonymous places like comment sections on internet, never IRL in a professional context.

Personally, I follow people because what they do / what they have to say. I also believe most men do that. I am very tired of feminism and this constant nagging. In fact, it is my experience that women follow and judges people a lot more based on their looks and not what they actually have to say.

"Not weird at all, how many women have you met that knows a lot about cryptocurrencies?"

Overwhelming majority of men don't know about cryptocurrencies either. It is only people who go to tech events who do. Of people who go to meetups and such, I haven't seen any +1 of any gender. The assumption that if you went to tech event then you know about tech seems safe for anyone.

And dunno, going meta offended over someone expressing that yep, this makes women questioning whether they are treated equally behind back is, well, being special snowflake too. You just explained to me what for construct is instead of reacting to my proposal seriously, do you want me to pretend I think I am treated equally?

I know I am not, you know I am not (because statistics), so why expectation to pretend otherwise? It is just a lie.

Depends completetly on the event. The author doesn't specify any example of what type of event this regards (except that it is a "crypto event").

> I haven't seen any +1 of any gender

Sure this is probably quite uncommon on most tech events and meetups but there are several events where people bring family that is related to technology.

> And dunno, going meta offended over someone expressing that yep, this makes [...]

I am not offended, I am simply tired to hear this over and over when in reality it at least for me seems to almost never happen.

> I know I am not, you know I am not (because statistics), so why expectation to pretend otherwise? It is just a lie.

I think women and men are treated equally, at least where I live and in all the events I've attended. Of course people are going to be douchebags and uncomfortable situations between genders are going to occur, but this is true for everyone. I have been disrespected by both women and men but I do not get upset about all of them because of it.

So your position is:

"I don't experience this so it probably doesn't happen often but others should stop talking about it because I'm tired how often this comes up."

I'm curious what aspect of your contribution you think contributes to anything.

No my position is a tad more complicated than that.

My position is that of course people should voice concern over actual discrimination based on gender. But this rant on social interactions in which there is no evidence presented and just big claims that this happens a lot is simply what is is, big claims.

I claim that this don't happen as often as some people suggests, a claim that is just as valid as the authors. My position is that this hurts women in tech and diversity as a whole.

Baseless arguments like the authors contributes to the toxic environment we have today where everything you do is wrong. Just take that conference Github was supposed to have. They picked all candidates from without knowing gender or anything about the authors (blind review) [1] and when it was discovered every presenter picked was a male, the conference was cancelled because meritocracy is appearantly not ok if only men were selected even if their talks were deemed superior [2].

This is just one demonstration about the extreme views that is hurting equality. Another is Brit Ruby 2013 which was cancelled for the same reasons basically: https://gist.github.com/seanhandley/4106776

And it is just the absolute top of the mountain, there are so many stupid things going on in the name of equality and diversity it's unbelievable.

If we are not supposed to care about genders, why do we care if there is more women in tech at all?

[1] https://cfp.githubapp.com/events/electronconf-2017 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14480868

your position is the same as I stated but you have rationale behind it. I get that. the issue I have is still the same though, you're projecting your experience onto others and expecting an argument where none is being made.

as a woman in cryptocurrency, this isn't a valuable resource because it proves our work environment sucks. it's speaking to others like me who already know our work environment sucks and signals to each other so we can at least create spaces where not everything is terrible. don't think there's a problem? cool. it's not a universal experience, just common which is why you hear about it all the time. we're not looking for your help except to do your part or get out of the way.

I'm honestly taken back every time I read opinions like yours since you don't experience this, think these are claims that need evidence, and want to shut down debate over something that doesn't impact you. I can only assume you're somehow threatened but I struggle to see how. men feeling threatened by women talking about their spaces is very strange but maybe that's because you think we're saying something about you when we complain about how we're treated.

> your position is the same as I stated but you have rationale behind it. I get that.

But it is not. Which I just explained why. The difference is that the things I complain about is specific examples with data to back it up. The author and other people similar just throw out random shit that is as provable as a religious experience.

> it's speaking to others like me who already know our work environment sucks

Great attitude there buddy.

> think these are claims that need evidence

I provided evidence for the examples I brought up, the rest is just as the authors anecdotal with no evidence. This is my whole point.

> I can only assume you're somehow threatened but I struggle to see how. men feeling threatened by women talking about their spaces is very strange

Why do people always resort to this jargon? I am not "threatened" I just do not like discrimination based on gender and I believe that is happening more towards men than women in tech today. It is happening in the name of diversity and equality.

> I just do not like discrimination based on gender

if you feel that way then maybe don't drop into a conversation women started to tell them their likely misinterpreting situations and need to provide better evidence before you'll take their claims seriously. maybe don't go point-by-point refuting their experiences as conjecture then center discrimination concerns against men. maybe don't engage others who, like you, don't like discrimination based on gender with the opening line:

> People today get upset about fucking everything.

The converse of that is exactly what these blog posts are - constant wide-ranging criticisms based on a few anecdotes, usually wrangled together from others who write similar blog posts.
You just said that it makes sense to treat women differently in events, because statistically women know less about crypto. Now you are saying that you said the above just as off-topic remark unrelated to discussion, since men and women are treated always the same?

Being made uncomfortable is less of a problem then being assumed less competent. It has bigger impact and you said it is reasonable assumption, but bulk of it is either behind your back or only indirectly visible (by having to push more when I say something or by being ignored or assumed wrong by default while someone else is assumed correct even after he stated multiple wrong thongs before). It just so happen that the bigger problem is impossible to talk about, but when someone is open enought about his bias that I can point to it, I should not talk about it because it makes ppl feel tired.

No I didn't say that. I wrote that it was not weird. It is simply a common reaction everyone has and it doesn't have to be negative.

I have never met a woman that knows a lot about cryptocurrencies, of course I would be surprised (maybe not at a cryptocurrency event) if someone I met did actually know more than me. Context matters and just because I am surprised by it doesn't mean that I assume the woman in question to be less competent, it is just unusual knowledge for women to have.

You wrote that a majority of men doesn't know about cryptocurrencies and while that is true I have still met a lot of men that invests in it and know a whole lot even if they aren't working in tech in any way. Of course I understand that experiences may vary a whole lot, but the fact is simply that women are generally less interested in cryptocurrencies than men.

I would say men generally like women that shares their interests and it is quite obvious that those women that do often gain a lot of attention. I cannot sympathize with the author at all because my experience is the reverse of what she describes. Women in tech get an unreasonable amount of attention even if their contribution is smaller than that of men and they are favored in all kinds of ways.

I never deny that sexism exists towards women, I am simply stating that I personally do not buy this mindless nagging of that women are so unequal etc. when the reality I live in is so different.

I should not need to be best of the best to be accepted/treated equally. The "if you are like the most capable men in a room then ... we will be surprised but accept that" is not equality and strawcase.

Equality is that beginner women is also treated the same way as beginner men. It means that women who knows enough to bluff the same way semi knowledgeable men bluff is treated the same way as them. Nobody is born knowing it all and pretty much all highly knowledgeable men started as confident dudes who did not knew much, but were assumed to be participants. I personally started that way and pretty much lucked the environment. Seen other environments too and yep, it is a difference.

The masses of people who just knew whole their life they are good and never been beginners are just adults with low self awareness.

> I should not need to be best of the best to be accepted/treated equally

I agree and I think that is exactly how it is for the absolute majority.

The blog post is not about cryptography but crypto currencies. This should be mentioned in the title.
front page article, loaded with comments opposing its position with vitriol. HN as ever.
I mean, there is one comment that disagrees? As much as I disagree with that one, calling it vitriol is an overstatement. And one that claims bitcoins are scam which is attack on bitcoins not on women?
One comment? The only positive one I saw was antirez's at the time I wrote this, and as of now the top comment calls it "scam faux outrage," the reply to which insinuates that this person is not worth listening to on this subject and/or is less experienced because they're a feminist, accusing feminists of "browbeating."

The second comment from the top is your typical "kids these days" trope about snowflakes and says they're "very tired of feminism."

Further down people imply you can't talk to women anymore because you'll be accused of harassment for no reason ("Wouldn't surprise me, in this atmosphere..."), dismissively ask why this needs to be discussed, blame the humanities for killing America with the cult of identity politics, claim all powerful women in tech are frauds, bemoaning this being "another SJW crybaby piece," and finally, above that one, someone who noticed the same thing I did ("As for other comments, I am really annoyed that mostly people come just here to complain that such article exists, and take all the space.") and someone who agrees with them.

the main problem in the crypto or tech industry is not the misogyny it is the fact that the few women that have public visibility and power are scammers or frauds at best, just look at marissa mayer, ellen pao, Elizabeth holmes and now for crypto just look at paragon coin, google the ceo, breaking eggs on her half naked body in a tesla car on a clip and taking selfies in front of a pile of cash to promote her ICO.

When women will stop blame men and stop idolizing a woman in tech just because she is a woman and not because she is doing great things (and there are legions of women in tech with no public exposure doing that) then we will move forward.

A counter-argument: majority of visible anything in cryptofin is a fraud, or shady at best.
Thanks for the article ! I enjoy reading testimonies about misogyny in science and tech industry as it gives interesting insights on what concrete problems I can address.

As for other comments, I am really annoyed that mostly people come just here to complain that such article exists, and take all the space. Just drop it ! The atmosphere is becoming as bad as reddit regarding misogyny. Can't you just admit you are not interested/don't get it for the moment and go somewhere else ?

> The atmosphere is becoming as bad as reddit regarding misogyny.

As long as I've been on HN, it's been a pretty misogynist place but yeah, it's definitely getting more toxic.

Thanks for the support! A lot of negative comments here..
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Is it just me or do others out there also get angry when people refer to "crytocurrency" as "crypto"? I know perhaps in their circles it's a handy abbreviated word for "cryptocurrency", which admittedly is a mouthful, but this just makes me angry that they would conflate "crypto" (upon which the whole basis of the modern internet is built on), with a form of currency that people have no idea about and are just mindlessly speculating on. Perhaps it's because I've taken some classes on cryptography and understand how beautiful a subject it is, that I find it demeaning for people to use "crypto" to mean "cryptocurrency".
I wish the whole cryptocurrency trend would die just so they quit saying it.
"Crypto" has been used as the abbreviation in the space but note taken and will refer to "cryptocurrency" in future posts to not conflate the two.
The humanities professor would be very proud. A+ grade work here.

Once you are empowered to use the sexism lens by your professor, life becomes uncomplicated. Ready answers available to any question at hand. "Why did this happen, of course, because of my identity." This is almost like religion or cult with all the answers. The similarities are overwhelming.