Quartz Seriously Wants To Know: Are You Sexually Harassing Your Phone?
There's an unbelievable piece up at Quartz, reflecting a gone-mad sector of our society -- ultimately driven by radical academic feminism (though typically not admitting or crediting its nutbag roots).
Feminism was supposed to be about women wanting equal treatment. Now, as I like to put it, feminists no longer demand that women be treated as equals but as eggshells.
This article is a case in point. "We tested bots like Siri and Alexa to see who would stand up to sexual harassment," is the headline. Leah Fessler writes (in apparent seriousness):
Women have been made into servants once again. Except this time, they're digital.Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Google Home peddle stereotypes of female subservience--which puts their "progressive" parent companies in a moral predicament.
People often comment on the sexism inherent in these subservient bots' female voices, but few have considered the real-life implications of the devices' lackluster responses to sexual harassment. By letting users verbally abuse these assistants without ramifications, their parent companies are allowing certain behavioral stereotypes to be perpetuated. Everyone has an ethical imperative to help prevent abuse, but companies producing digital female servants warrant extra scrutiny, especially if they can unintentionally reinforce their abusers' actions as normal or acceptable.
In order to substantiate claims about these bots' responses to sexual harassment and the ethical implications of their pre-programmed responses, Quartz gathered comprehensive data on their programming by systematically testing how each reacts to harassment. The message is clear: Instead of fighting back against abuse, each bot helps entrench sexist tropes through their passivity.
And Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have the responsibility to do something about it.
First of all, if I could have Siri in either a bitchy drag queen voice or an Indian accent (from India, that is), which I love, I would. French or Italian or Eastern European would be fun, too. Because Apple's rather boring about this -- probably to serve an increasingly humorless and humor-attacking public -- I think I have it on the British guy right now.
But I hate Siri and never use it.
The point is, you can change Siri to a man and harass the fuck out of it. I yell profanity at automated telephone systems when they repeatedly won't accept my answer -- both because I'm kind of immature and because there was this (probably mythic) idea out there that swearing would trigger a live operator to come on.
And per these evolved sex differences -- we go for different Achilles heels in men and women when we're attacking them. That's because men and women are biologically and psychologically different, and men are more likely to be leaders, for example, and women are more likely to be caretakers.
Though male brains and female brains are mostly similar, these evolved sex differences lead to some differences in our psychology and how we present ourselves in the world (including the roles women versus men tend to have).
As I wrote in a column:
Sex differences researchers Anne Campbell and Joyce Benenson point out that women -- the caregivers of the species -- evolved to bond through sharing vulnerabilities. This is how they show other women that they aren't a threat.Men, however, evolved to be in a constant battle for dominance. They succeed socially by displaying toughness, not giggling behind their hands like Japanese schoolgirls (but with facial hair and Hello Kitty wallet chains).
You won't change millions of years of evolution by re-engineering your phone bot to say feminist things; in fact, it'll probably just cause people to figure out the most cleverly awful things they can to get around it.
Back to the piece, there's this unbelievable bit:
Even if we're joking, the instinct to harass our bots reflects deeper social issues. In the US, one in five women have been raped in their lifetime, and a similar percentage are sexually assaulted while in college alone; over 90% of victims on college campuses do not report their assault. And within the very realms where many of these bots' codes are being written, 60% of women working in Silicon Valley have been sexually harassed at work.Bot creators aren't ignorant of the potential negative influences of their bots' femininity. "There's a legacy of what women are expected to be like in an assistant role," Harrison said at the Virtual Assistant Summit. "We wanted to be really careful that Cortana...is not subservient in a way that sets up a dynamic that we didn't want to perpetuate socially. We are in a position to lay the groundwork for what comes after us."
Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown puts it so perfectly:
yes, it's a slippery slope from calling Alexa a twat to committing rape (at least in @qz land) https://t.co/YmqOW095fG
— ElizabethNolanBrown (@ENBrown) February 27, 2017
Gee. Just think what noises these people will make when RealDoll connects their sexbots to AI.
Radwaste at February 27, 2017 6:15 AM
"because there was this (probably mythic) idea out there that swearing would trigger a live operator to come on."
Amy, It's not a myth - I work in a call center for a large financial institution and our phone systems can be triggered by any consistent loud noise. If you listen closely you can hear a change in the hold music the moment you are being bumped to the top of the queue.
I've seen other articles about this but this was the first that came up on the Google.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2236832/Apples-robot-operator-knows-pushed-far-Swearing-gets-connected-real-live-human.html
EF at February 27, 2017 6:19 AM
Yeah, the first thing I thought when I started reading this was, "Don't they know you can change the voice?" And the author repeats all of the false statistics about rape and assault. (Seriously: if 90% of women who are genuinely raped didn't report it, wouldn't this demonstrate that most women can't take responsibility for their own well-being, and need to live under the aegis of paternalism?)
Cousin Dave at February 27, 2017 7:38 AM
"Women have been made into servants once again. Except this time, they're digital." but if you gave them a man's voice, it would be sexist and the app would be "mansplaining". A characteristic of nutty ideology is that no matter what you do it is wrong.
Why women's voices for Siri, Alexa and your GPS? Because people are more willing to be told what to do by a woman's voice. They find it less annoying when the phone keeps repeating to "turn left turn left". Does that sound sexist to you?
Also, the author conflates rape and assault, which are wildly not the same thing when colleges include an unwanted kiss as "assault".
cc at February 27, 2017 8:22 AM
First world problems.
Shtetl G at February 27, 2017 8:38 AM
Just a note that if 1 in 5 women really was raped during 4 years of college and this same probability continued, by age 40 it would be 70% of women would have been raped. I’m sorry but I know lots of women over that age and during their life NONE of them were raped and none are walking PTSD from being an assault victim.
cc at February 27, 2017 9:21 AM
Robert Stacy McCain, please call your office.
Bill Huggins at February 27, 2017 10:36 AM
I have remarked elsewhere I am waiting the day that Google charges me for sexual harassment for snarking at its idiot Ok Google that will say stupid things like:
> There are three Safeways, which one do you want?
and then show three Safeways, one 1/2 mile away, two others four and five miles away.
jerry at February 27, 2017 11:12 AM
How do they know that over 90% of victims do not report? Are the perpetrators reporting?
I have always wondered where these statistics come from.
Shannon at February 27, 2017 12:53 PM
How do they know that over 90% of victims do not report? Are the perpetrators reporting?
I have always wondered where these statistics come from.
Shannon at February 27, 2017 12:53 PM
I used to practice hate speech on my cat. Tell her she was a terrible pet. Warned her that the city was banning cats because they keep clogging up tire treads.
But cats don't know what that means. And in truth, we got along famously. I miss her more than I miss my ex.
The icy women of Quartz are easy to replace.
Canvasback at February 27, 2017 1:53 PM
Cy-borg
Gimme that gimme that cy-borg
Give me di-chro-mi-um leg
Zappa
Government provides modified toasters and Gay Bob dolls for frustrated musicians once music is outlawed.
Joe's Garage. 1979. NSFW.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 27, 2017 2:23 PM
My Siri has a sassy Australian male accent. I call him "Hugh", for obvious reasons. When Hugh talks to me, I get warm and tingly, also for obvious reasons ;) But I snap out of it when he says "Recalculating" when I missed my turn because my dumb ass was day dreaming about sassy Australian manflesh :p
Kat at February 27, 2017 11:11 PM
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