The very “sexy lady” from Australia says…

March 12, 2007 by Hobbsee

In relation to this link…

Interesting post.

Guess it raises an interesting point about the way posts often come out differently to the way they sounded in someone’s head.

I’m not sure that the sexiness of the distro is dependant on the number of females, for a start. Surely it’s got better things to be based on. Besides, isnt what’s sexy to one person often not to another?

I have actually posted on planet once before, for the record. But i’m not much of a blogger, i prefer to talk in real time, than on forums, mailing lists, etc. IRC’s great for that. Hence not being terribly eloquent in my posts.

Now, I see Stephan’s point - it’s great to be having more females posting on planet, and getting involved. Most people will agree with that.

It seems that having pictures, having my real name online (instead of a genderless nickname), and various other things that display my gender, becomes a distraction to people, and they write posts like the one above. Perhaps the guys (and the girls), should instead look at what skills a person brings to the group, whether that be the workplace, Ubuntu, or whatever.

Now, i’m not annoyed at being called a sexy lady - if it’s sincere, then it’s a compliment, and I’ll accept it as such…

…But I really wouldn’t want that to be the only thing that people thought of when they looked at me, or what I do - surely I’m more than just my body? I have a brain too, you know…

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

18 Responses to “The very “sexy lady” from Australia says…”

on March 12, 2007 at 5:51 pm1 nixternal

I wish somebody would call me sexy Damn the luck!

/me hurries to avoid the ….

to late, the pointy stick of doom attacked!
on March 12, 2007 at 6:56 pm2 Ubuntu | Dennis Kaarsemaker: Sexy Ubuntu?

[...] Hobbsee, [...]
on March 12, 2007 at 8:45 pm3 Herman Bos

I see Stephans post as being enthausiastic. I don’t see it as something negative. Critical comments on his post are doing much more scary things if you ask me (waving around with HOWTO’s how to encourage women).

Personally I couldn’t care less if someone is male/female in the Ubuntu community. Its about Ubuntu not about dating. But I think it would be healthy thing if there are more women in the Ubuntu community.

Oh and I like political incorrectness. Keeps things lively.
on March 13, 2007 at 12:50 am4 Ricardo Silva

My view of the whole thing: it should not be insulting, it’s just *goofy*.

I think that the fact that English isn’t Stephan’s first language had a whole lot to do with this confusion to start with. Translating what one thinks in real time has somewhat

I think most people here are way past thinking of women as mere ornaments (remember Pamela Courson’s infamous statement “Pam Morrison, band ornament”?).

We’re drifting from what’s really important. It’s not only important to welcome more women to Linux, it’s important to welcome anyone to the whole Linux community in general, Ubuntu’s in particular. We’re on a roll, the Linux movement is gaining momentum and there are way more distractions than there ever should be (Debian vs Mozilla, Ubuntu vs openSuse (Mark’s invitation), Gentoo vs… well Gentoo, etc). United we stand…

Stephan was just goofy, he must surely be surprised with the overall reaction to his post, especially with some fellow Ubuntuists’ reaction. Even so, I also understand your concerns regarding Stephan’s post.

I for one, think women have adapted better to the 21st century than us, men. Women have acquired competence in fields once dominated by men, whereas men are still somewhat dragged by the prejudice of not doing “womanly” stuff. All differences set aside (they exist and must be acknowledged), women are better men than some men, in a few areas, and it is a deep mistake to think that in most things biology has a strain on competence.

All these meaningless things and considerations aside… welcome, Sarah!
on March 13, 2007 at 12:51 am5 Ricardo Silva

… translating what one thinks in real time has somewhat… problematic results? (I forgot to finish that one)
on March 13, 2007 at 1:03 am6 Dan

I’m not sure whether I would be more offended by the words in his post, or the fact that he put “sexy lady” in quotes!

But I must say, I am looking forward to that day when Ubuntu is a rainbow of perspectives. We will of course need some more homosexuals on board in order to add fashion sense to the distro. And also some black people too (articulate ones only, of course) in order to add to the distro’s soul. And what would be fantastic is if we could get a few handicapped folks on board, because then Ubuntu will really be a compassionate distro as well.

So if any of the aforementioned groups are out there, jump right on board, we’re ready to make you feel right at home!
on March 13, 2007 at 1:50 am7 Huygens

@Dan
A bit awkward for your second paragraph
speaking of adding a fashion sense or having a compassionate distro in relation to certain group is a bit simplistic (even could be seen as tactless). Ubuntu is just about making a distro usable for Human beings. As you said, homosexuals, black or handicapped people are all human beings, and Ubuntu is just there to make it easy for all of them and all the other you or I did not mention.
on March 13, 2007 at 2:31 am8 Dan

Thank you Huygens. I see what you mean. I would like to apologize to the homosexuals, blacks, and handicaps. A particularly remorseful apology goes to all the sexy homosexual black handicaps who may have been offended by any posts from me or Stephan Hermann.
on March 13, 2007 at 4:37 am9 Han G. Zombie

[quote]surely I’m more than just my body? I have a brain too, you know…[/quote]
Good point you got there.

BRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIINNNNS! *munchmunchmunch*
on March 13, 2007 at 6:35 am10 Come spaventare tutte le donne della nostra comunità… « pollycoke :)

[...] si lamentano che ci sono poche donne… bah. Ecco alcune [...]
on March 13, 2007 at 11:18 am11 iosononessuno

like man i say: “i’m sorry”
io
on March 13, 2007 at 1:25 pm12 Tamara

I’ve been in the free software community for about 8 years now. I’m not prominent or anything, I just do a few things here and there. Gender comes up more often than I’d like if I am chatting in real life or using a non-ambiguous nick. Usually it’s just “wow, a girl who can code” or something like that or “I’ve never met a female as interested in computers as you”. Just yesterday on a free software-related chat (I’m not going to say where), someone said “it’s so cool to be on an irc channel with females”.

Mostly, I just wish gender didn’t have to get brought up but when it does, it’s usually not an issue. But when a blog post like that gets made, especially when it’s syndicated to Planet Ubuntu, it sends the wrong message. I read the title of that post and I thought it was about why feisty was going to be “sexy”. No, it’s “sexy” because there are women blogging about it? o_0 That’s just silly and almost stretching to be offensive.

Anyway, back to hacking…
on April 25, 2007 at 6:46 am13 CompiledKernel-UFStaff

I certainly know more females that use Ubuntu than males, my sister is one of them.

Of course being an erstwhile dev myself, I run into all types.

=)
on May 16, 2007 at 1:13 am14 無修正

It hasn’t fit so far, and it won’t for a very, very long time
on May 18, 2007 at 11:07 am15 mhb

Heh :o)
Sometimes I wish for a person that would think I am “a nice body, not just a walking, talking brain”.
What I mean is: having people respect you just for your wits and brains isn’t much fun, either.
on September 30, 2007 at 8:52 am16 TearIzUp

Excellent Post. My compliments to the author.
on December 1, 2007 at 5:00 am17 Sexy

nice post ….nice blog
on January 25, 2008 at 6:10 pm18 bittoo

sex depend of the nature