>Feminists in charge of understanding jokes
Perl is my bitch was a slogan used by the London Perl Mongers (a Perl user group) and printed on t-shirts ca. 2000.
From the London.pm FAQ:
- What were the Perl Is My Bitch t-shirts?
- When London.pm were organising YAPC::Europe 2000, the group produced a set of t-shirts with the YAPC logo. At the same time, Simon Wistow was planning to produce a run of t-shirts with the slogan 'Perl is my Bitch'. When the news of this reached the list (and two others), there was a massive flame war over the misogyny and business-hostile nature that some people perceived in the slogan.
- As a result, the shirts weren't produced as part of the YAPC fundraising, but did get produced in a much more low-key unofficial manner later that year. Occasionally Simon threatens to do another run, but at the moment there are only fifty t-shirts in existence, none of which are for sale.
- Update* at YAPC::Europe 2003 Simon auctioned off one last t-shirt that he'd found and donated the money to YAS. The lucky winner was Philippe 'BooK' Bruhat who paid an astounding 250 Euros for it.
Most of the controversy over the PIMB tshirts was framed in terms of "professionalism" not in terms of the inherent sexism of the term "bitch".
- I'm just putting it in simple terms. For those that aren't offended by the statement "#!perl is my bitch", can you at least see that it's true that some people *are* offended by it? In particular, that it makes Perl the tool of "teen perl hacker misogynist guys", exactly what corporate America often thinks Perl is exclusively suitable for?
Simon Wistow, creator of the PIMB tshirts, criticized Schwartz for this (see above link), because Schwartz's own behaviour is often both sexist and unprofessional. (Wistow links to Schwartz's "amihooternot", now dead.)