Loss for words

Posted May 8, 2018 9:55 UTC (Tue) by NAR (subscriber, #1313)
Parent article: Who controls glibc?

"Giving birth is far more traumatic than having an abortion"

I'm having trouble being polite and respectful reading this. I know giving birth can be traumatic, but thankfully I know a lot of women who regard giving birth one of their best moments in life. Labeling that far more traumatic than an abortion is not even disrespectful - it's stupid.

Loss for words

Posted May 8, 2018 11:46 UTC (Tue) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861) [Link]

I assumed "traumatic" was being used in a physical sense: giving birth involves more physical trauma to the body. That seems like the kind of statement we would make as engineers: measurable and not subjective. I doubt anyone would try to claim that one was always more emotionally traumatic for all women than the other.

Loss for words

Posted May 8, 2018 19:23 UTC (Tue) by mgraesslin (guest, #78959) [Link] (2 responses)

Terrible and that reminds me of his really bad emacs virginity joke at desktop summit 2009. See e.g. https://mjg59.livejournal.com/113408.html - I was shocked when I heard that. But in combination it kind of makes a pattern.

Church of emacs routine

Posted May 10, 2018 9:06 UTC (Thu) by Nemo_bis (guest, #88187) [Link] (1 responses)

Can you call it a pattern when both examples are from 2009? Do we have a more recent transcript?

The routine is supposed to illustrate the benefits of the church of emacs in comparison to other religions. Is the "virgin of emacs" more or less sexist than the Virgin of other religions? I'd say it's a big improvement, because you can easily substitute "male" and "his" in the sentence and it won't change a thing. I'm male and my partner took my emacs almost-virginity away: we can feel included in this religion too!

Oh, in fact I now see there is a 2014 recording from Modena: https://youtu.be/1jPmnDZ6ab8?t=2m0s
Here he says "virgin of emacs, which means *anyone* who's never used emacs; [...] offering the virgin the *opportunity* to lose emacs virginity is a blessed act" (transcription errors mine; stress on "anyone" and "opportunity" in the original AFAICT).

Church of emacs routine

Posted May 10, 2018 18:26 UTC (Thu) by emorrp1 (guest, #99512) [Link]

Thanks for that, I'm glad it's been changed to be more inclusive. I've come across this one before and squirmed a little, while thinking it would still be a great joke if it said "person". Interestingly, "opportunity" vs. "that uh, that uh, taking" implies it could have been a moment of searching for memory, excluded from the linked transcript. RMS also said explicitly in the reported email thread: "The cult of the Virgin of Emacs is simply intended as a joke about the cult of the Virgin Mary. I assure anyone who perceived derogatory meanings in it that I did not intend them."

Loss for words

Posted May 19, 2018 9:31 UTC (Sat) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129) [Link]

> I know giving birth can be traumatic, but thankfully I know a lot of women who regard giving birth one of their best moments in life. Labeling that far more traumatic than an abortion is not even disrespectful - it's stupid.
Now that's ridiculous. Giving birth involves the most intense pain you're ever likely to endure as a woman. A typical abortion boils down to taking a pill, another one two days later and then getting your period.