If you had shit to do, Clippy was the digital equivalent of some annoying pest of a person throwing out random numbers when you're trying to count cash.
If that's not enough, he specifically creeped women out according to that article:
Generally, Atteberry’s character tested well in focus groups—the best of any assistant in some cases. Yet its massive eyes could be buggy. Some women in the cohorts deemed Clippy a man, and the constant male gaze creepy. “There were comments about how Clippy was leering,” says Roz Ho, who worked in product planning for the PowerPoint team then. When Ho raised that concern, she says the men in the room—everyone else, basically—couldn’t process it. “It really wasn’t about, like, these guys were bad guys, or anything. It was just they had a hard time picturing that feedback.”
Of all the reasons to criticize Clippy, the notion of it evoking a sense of the “constant male gaze” is… something.
Clippy didn’t have a gender, how could something like this possible be avoided? I’m asking with a bit of snark, but I’m genuinely open to a serious answer. I’m worried that the solution would just be an attempt at making the dialogue even more obtuse, or making the avatar overtly feminine.
> how could something like this possible be avoided?
Give up on trying to accommodate everyone.
> making the avatar overtly feminine
In the 90s, I spent plenty of time around the type of person who might see Clippy is a male predator, and they would certainly have had a problem with the assistant being feminine.
As a confident person with bad eye-contact tendencies I must admit I take a bit of personal offense at this, but, based on my opinions about taking offense: no action necessary.
>Timothy: "Don't Bah me! I want to know what you're up to."
>Nero: "This is ridiculous. I like eyes at a level. If you will only blather at me, Mister Goodwin will put you out. If you will take that chair, change your tone, and give me an acceptable reason why I should listen to you, I may listen!"
>Timothy: "I know about you. I know how you operate. If you want to hook Missus Altos for some change, that's her business. But you're not going to drag Miss Hinkley into ..."
>Nero: "Archie, Fritz will open the door."
>Timothy: "Get your hands off me! Get your paws off of me! Awk! Aah!"
If that's not enough, he specifically creeped women out according to that article:
Generally, Atteberry’s character tested well in focus groups—the best of any assistant in some cases. Yet its massive eyes could be buggy. Some women in the cohorts deemed Clippy a man, and the constant male gaze creepy. “There were comments about how Clippy was leering,” says Roz Ho, who worked in product planning for the PowerPoint team then. When Ho raised that concern, she says the men in the room—everyone else, basically—couldn’t process it. “It really wasn’t about, like, these guys were bad guys, or anything. It was just they had a hard time picturing that feedback.”