Harvard dating app under siege

[Deleted]

From: http://heatst.com/culture-wars/harva...y-two-genders/

Members of the Harvard Computer Club just wanted to have a little fun for Valentine’s Day, so they created a system called “Datamatch’ that would help students find companions for the holiday. But unfortunately for the HCC, they included only two genders in Datamatch’s options—and now they’re in big trouble.

Twenty six members of Harvard’s Undergraduate Council signed a letter admonishing the dastardly programmers for not including other genders (including “genderqueer” and “non gender-conforming”) in their list of options.

Instead, Datamatch simply had a small box in the profile allowing students to elaborate on their sexual identification and preferences, if they first selected either “male” or “female.”

Students said that such a setup was insufficient because it implied that the “gender binary” was “normal.” “Calling gender non-conformity or any gender non-binary identity ‘extra’ is sort of tactless nomenclature,” one student told the Harvard Crimson.

This is tragicomic. I actually dare any American call Europe "leftist" when progressivism is eating you up. This is literally so sad and hilarious at the same time.

Folks, before you release an app on the market, make sure you name every single gender there is. You must also spell it correctly because there are obviously striking and important differences between nongender and agender, and Two-Spirit and intersex and all that.

Remember just how great of a deed you are doing by naming every single scientifically proven and indisputably existing gender wherever possible. Not only are you helping to improve the happiness of 0.001% of the people with a gender under siege by primitive social standards, but you are also setting a wonderful example for all the third world nations currently fighting corruption, poverty and disease. If you can fight primitive social standards that prevent every single individual from automatically knowing when to mention a hundred genders, so too can the children in Africa unite and rebel against their corrupt leaders!

[Infracted - Forbidden Topics]

[Wyrt]

Wow, 26 students out of 22,000 enrolled there. Clearly we have a massive epidemic on our hands!

[Grimbold21]

Wow, 26 students out of 22,000 enrolled there. Clearly we have a massive epidemic on our hands!

Total representiveness is often hard to achieve.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Would it be the end of the world if they added an "Other" option?

[Skroe]

Let me translate this arcticle for you:

Club at prestigious university engaged in minor controversy with student council. You really shouldn't worry about it though because it's a university you almost certainly can't get into, and if you could, almost certainly can't afford.

Okay everybody, go about your day. Nothing to outrage at here. No "regressive left" dragons to slay worth your time, deplorables.

[Deleted]

Wow, 26 students out of 22,000 enrolled there. Clearly we have a massive epidemic on our hands!

If you care to do a little analysis, you would know that it says 26 members "of Harvard’s Undergraduate Council", which you can read more about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvar...aduate_Council If you also care to do a little analysis there, it says there are 51 council members. 26 is a very significant number. They represent thousands of students there.

It is not an epidemic in Europe, but this sad continent not having a backbone makes it susceptible to the sick and hilarious American ideals that always find a way here.

- - - Updated - - -

Let me translate this arcticle for you:

Club at prestigious university engaged in minor controversy with student council. You really shouldn't worry about it though because it's a university you almost certainly can't get into, and if you could, almost certainly can't afford.

Okay everybody, go about your day. Nothing to outrage at here. No "regressive left" dragons to slay worth your time, deplorables.

As usual, you never come to my thread with an intelligent comment.

Is it because I'm Slav?

[Wyrt]

If you care to do a little analysis, you would know that it says 26 members "of Harvard’s Undergraduate Council", which you can read more about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvar...aduate_Council If you also care to do a little analysis there, it says there are 51 council members. 26 is a very significant number. They represent thousands of students there.

It is not an epidemic in Europe, but this sad continent not having a backbone makes it susceptible to the sick and hilarious American ideals that always find a way here.

It's still just 26 people.

[Spectral]

As I often think when I hear these sorts of stories - we don't actually have to pay attention to these people. From the original Harvard Crimson article:

“I’m proposing an undersigned letter, a statement of support with the gender non-conforming and gender queer community after Datamatch implicitly excluded them from the experience,” Whittaker said on Sunday. “The idea of it being romantic does not necessitate the idea that it be stuck upon strict gender bearings.”

OK, fair enough, if someone wants to write software that's "inclusive", it's not hard to make a field a drop-down menu with lots of options instead of a binary switch, so if they want to do that, it's fine. However, they shouldn't actually feel the need to kowtow to every ridiculous made up identity and/or mental illness. It's actually OK to just say, "sure, we could have made it that way, but we just focused on the 99% of our population that have one of the two standard, normal genders".

[Deleted]

It's still just 26 people.

Typical Anglo-Saxon response... alright, so here is the deal.

No, they are not merely 26 people. They are 26 significant people. They represent others. Hundreds. Probably thousands. They are also neither the originators nor the most prominent proponents of their ugly ideals, which is why we need to be on alert. They are the drop in the filthy ocean.

[Spectral]

Let me translate this arcticle for you:

Club at prestigious university engaged in minor controversy with student council. You really shouldn't worry about it though because it's a university you almost certainly can't get into, and if you could, almost certainly can't afford.

Okay everybody, go about your day. Nothing to outrage at here. No "regressive left" dragons to slay worth your time, deplorables.

Harvard is highly culturally relevant. Over the past few decades (or maybe century), it's been a decent heuristic for what the major cultural battlegrounds will be to look at what the minor controversies at Harvard are. It seems like you're writing about the eliteness of Harvard as a reason to ignore their lunacy of their student leadership, but I think it actually runs the other direction - the nation's tastemakers and highest caste are engaged in absolutely inane arguments that are likely to become mainstream battles going forward.

[Wyrt]

Typical Anglo-Saxon response... alright, so here is the deal.

No, they are not merely 26 people. They are 26 significant people. They represent others. Hundreds. Probably thousands. They are also neither the originators nor the most prominent proponents of their ugly ideals, which is why we need to be on alert. They are the drop in the filthy ocean.

I'm not anglo-saxon. I'm Irish, which is Celtic, and Austrian, which is Germanic.

Did these 26 people poll the rest of the student body to see what they thought about this app? No? Then it's just 26 people out of 22k making a complaint.

[Deleted]

As I often think when I hear these sorts of stories - we don't actually have to pay attention to these people. From the original Harvard Crimson article:

OK, fair enough, if someone wants to write software that's "inclusive", it's not hard to make a field a drop-down menu with lots of options instead of a binary switch, so if they want to do that, it's fine. However, they shouldn't actually feel the need to kowtow to every ridiculous made up identity and/or mental illness. It's actually OK to just say, "sure, we could have made it that way, but we just focused on the 99% of our population that have one of the two standard, normal genders".

Actually, you do. Their ideals are already ingrained in the minds of idiots who have nothing better to do but pretend to be heroes of our times. You need to resist them at every opportunity.

[TwoNineMarine]

Born with a cock and balls? You're a male.

Born with a vagina? You're a female.

Born with both? Your choice.

Seems about as complicated as it needs to be.

[Dhrizzle]

How big is the "big trouble" the article refers to - are we talking fines, jail-time, death-penalty?

[Deleted]

I'm not anglo-saxon. I'm Irish, which is Celtic, and Austrian, which is Germanic.

Did these 26 people poll the rest of the student body to see what they thought about this app? No? Then it's just 26 people out of 22k making a complaint.

So, Saxon... alright.

No, they don't need to poll them. They know very well they speak on the behalf of thousands of the others. They know they have the backing, and they know that they have the influence to draw on their side those who are not yet there.

The only reason I even bring this topic up is because Europe is amazingly great considering all the propaganda about us being "far-left" (which is not true in the slightest sense; only economically we are more left than America). However, that might not last long. Europeans always become Americanized. That's just plain sad.

[Knolan]

Would it be the end of the world if they added an "Other" option?

Yes, they made their app, they do whatever they want with it.

Would it be the end of the world if the offended people write their own app and tried to compete with the other one?

The saying goes: "be the change you want to see", not "whine and try to shame others to do the change you want, but others don't give a shit about."

[I Push Buttons]

Born with a cock and balls? You're a male.

Born with a vagina? You're a female.

Born with both? Your choice.

Seems about as complicated as it needs to be.

That's racist!

[Felya]

Actually, you do. Their ideals are already ingrained in the minds of idiots who have nothing better to do but pretend to be heroes of our times. You need to resist them at every opportunity.

So, your idea is to seek out a mole hill, to pretend it's a mountain, because you need to stop what is ingrained in our minds?

[Skroe]

As usual, you never come to my thread with an intelligent comment.

Is it because I'm Slav?

It's because you're an eastern European picking fight on a social issue in a country on the other side of the planet at a university you will never attend, among an issue that involves about twenty people that doesn't concern you.

Do you need a better hobby or something? Like... this is your life? To worry about this shit? Really? That's you?

Is that what they do in Slavic land? Always look for the dumbest and most pointless fucking dragons to slay?

[schwarzkopf]

Seems about as complicated as it needs to be.

I'm pretty liberal and I see three questions:

Hardware (bits) : Male [_] Female [_] <-- only question needed for public knowledge, used to determine which loo to use
Software (brain) : Male [_] Female [_] <-- only needed for psychological and personal knowledge
Targets (preference) : Male [_] Female [_] <--- noone else needs to know.

That's it ... there isn't any more options ... PS - all options above are checkboxes.