He should have based it on military - drawings of tanks, ships, missiles etc. Most people seem completely fine with killing people. But sex? oh my god think of the children!!!
I was just pointing out that we live in a time when some peoples attitudes to sex are ridiculously prudish, compared to other things (Especially in the US).
People should be offended by people being killed. But they aren't. Instead they're offended by some women at the superboll flashing a breast. Or some intern helping to relax the president. Or a tech talk with some scantily clad models in it.
>> pictures of bodies from Iraq with a tagline "CouchDB kills the competition"
I don't think most people would have batted an eyelid at that. If they were 'anonymous' non close-up bodies without any gore. People are pretty desensitized to that sort of thing. Also it's harder to say "This is offensive to <insert minority>".
I think the moral is if you're going to use humor, be very very careful. You might miss the mark for some people, and offend them instead.
Really, I would have been very, very dubious about the speaker if he'd shown pictures of war dead in that context. Actually, I think I would have been more upset than the pornographic imagery situation.
I think your demographic is desensitized to that sort of thing, I would not imply that most people are though. Are you in the 18-34 Male demographic by any chance?
You wouldn't need the gore, just show a few hundred coffins in a airport hanger draped with the US flag and that tagline, and you will have people forming a lynch mob.
Right you are with that last statement, but its how you react when you do offend people that counts, its easy to forgive after all.
Its not the imagery thats upsetting people here, its the fostering of a Macho culture that not everyone wants to opt into that is difficult to accept. And it suggests that if you don't want to constantly get involved in a dick measuring contest to see who can be the most edgy or offensive there is no other alternative than to leave the community (And the community leaders are more than happy to show you the door)
I sort of get your last point, although I can't imagine how it'd work the other way.
Lets say for example I decided to be a primary school teacher/kindergarten - something that is probably about the oposite of 'tech' in terms of males/females.
I would be a complete outsider. It's quite likely I'd be the only male teacher in the school.
Lets then say maybe the women do a staff presentation about the kids that includes makeup or lingerie as a metaphor. Would I be insulted? I don't think so at all. Is this a good analogy? I don't know. I just can't think of many situations where men can get offended and claim 'sexism'.
Your argument is ineffective. The point is not to swap one potentially controversial topic for another in a presentation, the point is to attempt to appease a majority of the audience in an entertaining way precisely by avoiding abrasive topics.
