Byte Me #5: Facebook’s prude policies, ‘LinkedIn’ for LaDiEs, and #unwantedivanka

Welcome back to Byte Me, our feminist newsletter that makes everyone mad <3

Sorry we’re late this month… we had women stuff to do.

We have a new feature! Each month, our gloriously talented designer, Saïna, will illustrate one of the many shitty replies, comments, or tweets we receive from one of TNW’s misogynistic readers. Here’s this month’s featured comment:

So Saïna made this:

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Muahaha! Onto the news…

the bloody news

The repulsive app that generated nudes from photos of clothed women was shut down, but it still managed to do some damage.
A secret US Border Patrol hate group has been exposed on Facebook. The group included xenophobic and sexist messages and comments, some of which targeted US Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
Vice wrote about how this year’s World Cup should drive a lasting interest in women’s football. (Or soccer, if you’re an American neophyte.)
Beyoncé looking at her competition… pic.twitter.com/JRng6cQz1M

— Kalen Allen (@TheKalenAllen) July 2, 2019
Gaming company, Razer, dropped streamer for tweeting ‘men are trash’ in response to sexual harassment.
Virginia outlawed deepfakes in its efforts to curb revenge porn.
The female-founded podcast network, Earios, released its first shows this week. Get ready for women-hosted podcasts on hobbies, beauty and wellness for women of color and immigrants, and weird internet things.
NY1’s anchorwoman Roma Torre spoke to Fast Company about how she was the face of NYC news for 27 years — but now she’s being pushed aside because she’s a 61-year-old woman.
An Alabama woman was charged with manslaughter after someone shot her in the abdomen, killing her baby. Yeah, you read that right. The New York Times reported the charges against her were finally dropped.
Boobies for a good cause: Naked protestors redress Facebook’s prude and sexist nudity policy.
Mosaic reported Rwanda could be the first country to wipe out cervical cancer.
The New York Times interviewed prominent black directors of the ’90s, including Julie Dash, Darnell Martin, and Leslie Harris, on why they were set up for failure.
This keyboard app spell-checks gender bias to challenge how we talk to girls.
Vice wrote about why, thanks to a new wave of women’s health books, we’re finally starting to take women’s hormones seriously.
Girlboss launched its first-ever social network, a ‘LinkedIn’ for women. No men allowed. Kidding, men are allowed, but we can dream…
Ivanka Trump shook things up this week (read: pissed people off) when she attended the G20 Summit, hobnobbing with the likes of Kim Jong Un. A lot of people were confused as to why the fuck she was there, sparking the hashtag #unwantedivanka. (Wired)The New York Times wrote a blistering op-ed on it: Oh, to Be Ivanka!The BBC made a handy video explaining what exactly her role is, because we’re all confused.
This feminist chatbot challenges AI bias in voice assistants.
Cosmopolitan wrote about ‘Killing Eve’, ‘Dead to Me’, and the confusing state of queerbaiting on TV.
Dame, a sex toy company that aims to close the gendered “pleasure gap,” is suing the MTA over censorship of its NYC subway ads.
Longreads (ironically?) wrote an ode to Natasha Bedingfields’ ‘Unwritten.‘
thank u daily mail! new framer!! pic.twitter.com/F9SdrDCOLf

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 2, 2019
Buzzfeed published an in-depth explainer of the drama between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun for people who are confused AF.
Quartz: French lawyer, politician, and Managing Director and Chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund (we’re out of breath) Christine Lagarde says women should use the “glass cliff” to their advantage.
Tech pioneer Dame Stephanie Shirley joined Emma Gannon on her podcast ‘CTRL ALT DELETE.’In the 1960s, Shirley went by the name “Steve” which she used to sign business letters to potential clients when they were not responding to her. Fast forward to now, where she points out sexism and racism so much in business meetings, that all she needs to say is “ahem,” and men start apologizing. Goals.
Motherboard reported on how Google’s Jigsaw was supposed to save the internet — but behind the scenes, it’s a toxic mess.We had Patricia Georgiou, Jigsaw’s Head of Partnerships and Business Development, host a TNW Answers session a few months back, which you can read here.
Variety reported Halle Bailey was cast as Disney’s Live-Action Little Mermaid.
Credit: Getty Images

And obviously, racists of the internet got mad that a black woman is playing a make-believe mermaid. But some great memes came out of the idiocy:

WHO DID THIS ?? #NotMyAriel pic.twitter.com/jPRcaT1AY0

— Perri ? (@Per_Bearr) July 4, 2019
Us researching for Byte Me and finding more things to be angry about:

Tired: Women laughing while eating salad

Wired: Women eating laptops pic.twitter.com/A6aAcEw6bS

— Fresh Wiggins (@TheBlackNerd) June 19, 2019

that’s what she said: is “guys” sexist?

Because we’re all magical and unique snowflakes who don’t always agree on feminist issues — and subsequently feel like we’re “bad” women — we’re going to discuss something we found online in each newsletter.

For this month’s that’s what she said, we’re discussing whether or not referring to a mixed gendered group as “guys” is sexist. We’ve linked to our full discussion here, and included the TL;DR below…

Cara: Personally, I don’t think twice if someone addressed me in a group with “Hey, guys.” It’s not something I see as worth fighting over, especially compared to other issues in the workplace. But it’s definitely something I’m trying to remove from my vocabulary.

Anouk: But why do people argue we shouldn’t use “guys?” What’s their reasoning?

Georgina: That it’s exclusionary, especially in professional spaces which are typically male-dominated.

Cara: It comes down to the question of why men, or at least their pronoun, should be used as default in situations.

Georgina: My boss at a previous job was the only woman in the management team, and said she often felt talked over. She also said being referred to as “guys” increasingly made her feel invisible, so she asked them to stop saying it.

Anouk: So the broader issue here is semantics: everyone knows “hey guys” doesn’t mean “hey you people with penises” — it means “hey people in the room.”

Georgina: I also do think that while the three of us aren’t bothered, we can’t dismiss it as PC hysteria. Gender pronouns aren’t as sensitive a point for me as it could be for gender non-conforming people. “Guys” could be really triggering for trans women, and while there are articles written about this worth reading, it isn’t something the three of us can assume or really talk about.

You can check out our full discussion here.

Feel free to comment on the document with your thoughts, or send us an email!

the best and the worst

In this section, we ask women much smarter than us about the best and worst piece of professional advice they’ve ever received. This month’s are from, award-winning feminist adult filmmaker Erika Lust and Stack Overflow’s Data Scientist Julia Silge.

Erika Lust:

Best? DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT (I have this hanging in my office to remind me every day!)

Worst? Someone actually told me, “Women will never pay for porn, drop your business idea…. you pay women for sex.

Julia Silge:

Best? The advice I think about the most right now is to think about the *impact* of my actions instead of my *intent*. It can be easy for me to think something like, “But that’s not how I meant that person to interpret that graph!” but the impact of what I did is the thing for me to consider.

Worst? I grew up a girl in Texas in the 80s, so there was tons of bad advice that I think I’ve blocked out at this point, out of self-preservation. I grew up with a narrow understanding of my options as a young woman interested in math, science, etc, and I started university planning to teach high school physics when I finished. Teaching high school physics is a fantastic career, but I defaulted to it because it was the only option I saw as open to me, with my interests. It wasn’t until my senior (last) year in university that I thought about other options and decided to apply to graduate school.

tweets of the month

The Straight Pride Parade should end at a giant clitoris so they just end up walking in circles until they die because they can’t find it.

— Meg Bee (@onedankmom) June 4, 2019

All this time I thought I hated football; turns out I just hate men!

— Lauren Bravo (@laurenbravo) July 2, 2019

word of the month: Abropriation

Next up in our new and improved Dicktionary (sorry): Abropriation.

Also known as “bropropriation,” this is what happens when a bro appropriates something made by women.

So it’s like cultural appropriation? When white people dress up as Native Americans for Halloween, that kinda thing? Also shit, but no!

Men doing or wearing ‘women’ things, totally cool. Men making things that are traditionally female, male — like this guy who loves to draw male harpies (those mythical bird women) — also cool.

Abropriation occurs when a man takes an idea or thing created by a woman and presents it as his own. It happens all the time, and often the man in question doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. It’s just that when Karen brought up the idea ten minutes ago, no one was listening. Now that Keith is repeating the exact same thing, people are all ears.

What to do?

Amplify ideas voiced by women, for example by repeating them, and give credit. “I think Karen’s idea to [INSERT SOMETHING FUCKING AMAZING] definitely has potential, we should look into this.”
Call a man out for he-peating, but don’t be a total dick about it. “That’s a great idea, Keith, Karen already brought it up earlier this meeting — maybe you missed that?”
If a woman gets interrupted while trying to get her point across — try to de-interrupt and move the conversation back to her: “That sounds interesting, Keith, but I think Karen was just getting to that. Karen, what was it you wanted to say?”

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