That’s 100% straw man. The issue isn’t the anime cultural reference, the issue is that the splash screens are a slightly suggestive picture of a female child/teenager who’s not in my family, which is creepy for adult males to have on display at work regardless of which country you live in.
I usually don't go into these kind on discussions, especially on HN, but allow me to mention that in many countries, nobody would think much of such splash screen even at work. And that doesn't mean in any way that the person in question is creepy or that anyone else around would think so for a minute. If this artwork would trigger a reaction, this wouldn't go further than "hey, nice drawing" without any afterthoughts.
Seeing this picture as suggestive is immensely conditioned by the personal and cultural background of the beholder and his community. These norms aren't universal.
Which countries are you thinking of? This used to be more acceptable in the US, but norms are changing, and they are changing globally. There are still some places in the US where nobody would care, but these places are becoming less frequent over time. And I’d agree that the images do not automatically make someone creepy, but I would say that it might automatically make someone insensitive to those around them, maybe women in particular in this case. This may be true regardless of the past culture of acceptance of such imagery.
Your position is extreme. And by definition one of a minority. If you've got the feeling it's growing, it's called radicalisation, which is a concern for the fate of societies since it's defeating all the efforts that have been made for getting out of some dark ages of the past.
It triggered a lot of reactions from other HNers since such a world view is denying the basic freedoms to express of the opposite gender, and even the freedom to exist.
You seem to have an education, use it to widen your perspective of the world.
Whoa that went off the rails fast. If that’s what you think then I’m certain you have completely misunderstood my position, and I’m not explaining it well.
I was referring to the global closing of the gender gap, for example, which is occurring due to changing norms. You can read about it.
Why do you think I’m in a minority? What makes you think people here or elsewhere disagree with the idea that some images aren’t entirely appropriate in the workplace? I haven’t said anything that’s even remotely controversial. In the US the law agrees and corporations agree and we all are subjected to anti-harassment tracing every year just to remind us, even while some people reminisce about the good old days when pinups at work were acceptable.
We are talking strictly about the workplace in this thread, not about the freedom to express yourself in your personal life. It seems like you might have missed the premise here and are jumping to wildly mistaken conclusions.
That's the one that comes up on the splash screen for me, and if you see that as in any way "suggestive", that's disturbing to me.
Would you have the same problem if they had Mickey Mouse in their splash screen? After all, he is topless and arguably more suggestive than Kiki is in any way.
No that one’s on the less suggestive side of the various Krita splash screens. (Still not something I would want to hang a poster of at work.) Do a Google image search for “Krita splash screen” and look at the broader set. These are more suggestive than the one in your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35773999https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35773357
I’m not going to touch the Mickey comment, that’s weird.
That one just seems unprofessional in so much as it is child-like. There is another where she is visibly wearing garters, which is not child-like for the past more than a century.
Anime fandom, at least among online westerners, seems to primarily sexualize the cartoons. People who are aware of this may not want to have it displayed in a professional setting.
"It appropriates something from my culture that is sexualized and associates it with child-like qualities which are taboo to be sexualized, which makes it seem pedo-creepy". There, fixed that for you. In western cultures generally, garters are lingerie, and not professional if you aren't a sex worker or lingerie model (or ok, maybe a rock star).
