I personally have no idea what this article is really talking about or what the significance of it is that would cause it to be up voted so highly. Baffled.
HN has high proportion of "tech" people. Tech people old enough to have lived through "birth of Internet" or into 80's hacker/phreaker culture will know of MAE West and MAE East. These people, upvoted for nostalgia and to express comradery with poster.
I learned something from reading this article. Plus Mae West was a hacker of a sort: she interpreted censorship as damage and routed around it. Obviously not as much of a hacker as Hedy Lamarr, but still she led an interesting life.