Assignments given to me in the comments.

1. "The hula hoop thing was github. Google github and hula hoop. It was a story with lots of hidden stuff, office romance, etc., so don't take any one article as definitive. I don't trust my memory enough to tell the tale, but my take away was that hiring the lady in question was a mistake. I'll add that the two women who did the hula hoops, did them at a company party and were not the ones who complained. The lady who complained cited it as a horrible example of the sexist atmosphere at the company when she quit."

2. "Go ahead and elaborate on your (brief!) 12:24 PM statement, and describe some scenarios and how you think they might play out under various levels of 'character' or the lack thereof." And, 2 days later after no response from me: "Yeah... so I guess when a student tries to give the professor an assignment, it doesn't usually work?"

Answers:

1. Okay, I read "Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism And Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit." This is a long, complicated story, but it does have an incident with 2 women hula hooping in the office. Horvath professes to "adore" the women and to have no problem with their hula hooping (to music) in the office, but she had a big problem with the men looking at them. It reminded her of "a strip club." When she confronted her male coworkers, "they didn’t see a problem with it." I presume that means she expected them to accept the characterization of the men as looking like men in a strip club and to make the distinction that she did, absolving the women from any role in creating this strip-club-like atmosphere and blaming only the men. The men failed to meet her expectations, and she decided to quit. She said she "felt unsafe." So, how does this relate to my post yesterday saying "And for all I know there really were 2 ladies with hula hoops who took offense when the men in the office seemed to enjoy their girlish fun in a way that wasn't the precise form of appreciation they sought. How terrible is it to want to secretly say to them: Lighten up?"? Clearly, I mistakenly thought the hula hooping women complained that their attention-getting behavior was getting attention, but it was an on-looking woman who was offended by what felt like a sexual atmosphere in the workplace.

2. If you, the commenter, want me, the blogger, to answer a question, show that you've understood my (brief!) response to the issue you'd already raised, and don't give me a complicated assignment that demands that I follow a (long!!) format and that seems to flag your plan to reject whatever I come up with. And pay attention to resonance with upthread comments. In this case you tried to get me to write "scenarios" and, upthread, someone else, responding to a concrete example I'd written, said: "Can you continue your description of that scenario in a little more detail? It's starting to turn me on. Now I know why women read those bodice-rippers."