Post #1549319

2026-04-22 23:04 UTC

Men, take a moment to understand how to position your body in space to communicate a message. Whether this photo was a choice or cluelessness, it's equally bad. I was the only man in a woman led tech start-up once. Being the nominal CTO, I occasionally had to accompany our CEO into meetings or presentations. I knew the panel would look at me even though she was the boss. This would be bad for everyone. It was demeaning to our CEO, embarrassing for the panel, and awkward for me. To avoid setting everyone up for failure, I did a few subtle things (mostly through body language). I made sure it was harder to make eye contact with me. I took a half step back so her shoulder would always be in the way. I sat a little lower on purpose. I'd tell her in advance that I was just going to run the slides unless she name checked me to jump in. I've met my share of dudes like this and they're fucking tools. https://www.jezebel.com/trump-honors-womens-tennis-champs-by-putting-a-wall-of-men-in-front-of-them

Replies (12)

@sysop408@sfba.social 2026-04-22 23:25

Besides avoiding social faux pas like this, communicating with how you position yourself in space is a fascinating thing to become more aware of. I was once on a panel observing a focus group in action. They were randomly selected to evaluate our product (different job). We were watching from behind a two-way mirror. We had multiple groups come through. Each group acted eerily similar down to the person. Based on which seat you chose, we had an idea how you would act and what you might say. The group was seated at an L shaped table. The person who sat at the apex would usually end up the leader of the group. The person at the 2nd to last seat on the long side was almost always silent. It's easy to understand why once you see it. The leader could make eye contact with everyone and direct conversation. The least observable seat had to fight just to be noticed (or preferred to be invisible). None of these people knew each other or exactly what they were getting into. They picked their seats subconsciously.

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@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems 2026-04-23 00:15

@sysop408 I thought this was the onion but no

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@NickSchwanck@aus.social 2026-04-23 00:30

@sysop408 Nice work, Sir. I fucken LOVE this.

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@decapitae@mastodon.social 2026-04-23 02:21

@sysop408 What you've detailed of your experience is a good example of social responsibility inside of an irresponsible society. Thank your for setting that example - may those of us who are too comfortable with the status quo, pick up on those cues next time they present for us

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@Darkphoenix@universeodon.com 2026-04-23 02:27

@sysop408 and he couldn't even center the photo. I see a small group of women being portrayed as less important than the douchebags trying to hog the camera.

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@Doreen32128@universeodon.com 2026-04-23 02:30

@sysop408 What a bunch of jackasses!

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@DjityDjity@mastodon.social 2026-04-23 03:48

@sysop408 Trump is the complete twat! say no more.

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@useravoiding@mastodon.social 2026-04-23 04:23

@sysop408 100% the photo is as the orange rapist wanted it to be, because he hates anyone who isn't licking his ass as the women who see him for what he is - a rapist.

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@kitkat_blue@mastodon.social 2026-04-23 04:56

@sysop408 Choosing to happily celebrate and pose with the felon, rapist, massively corrupt pedophile, traitor and war-monger that passes for the leader of this lost nation, every one of these women are standing in exactly the place they deserve. Donald Trump has no "honor" to bestow.

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@jafra@sueden.social 2026-04-23 05:48

@sysop408 i think this picture is a deliberate signal to conservatives and maybe some of them enjoy the affront to leftsies. Why would you want men to position women more thoughtfully? Is this a mans responsibility?

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@s173nc3r@mastodonczech.cz 2026-04-23 09:30

@sysop408 This foto is hillarious in the way of definition of Trump nature.

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@jcolag@mastodon.social 2026-04-23 11:10

@sysop408 So much important work gets dismissed as cheap theatrics. But yeah, if you don't carefully plan to give the right people the spotlight at the right times (or design the software/documentation to communicate the point to the users, or any number of other things), then the audience absolutely sees the wrong thing.

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