It's not that people were looking, it was that they were gawking. It's not that they glanced at it, or watched for a few seconds. It's that they spent a prolonged time watching it.
You get to feel mildly uncomfortable about people staring at a moving body, if you are the hoola-hooper. The most extreme acceptable course of corrective action is to stop hoola-hooping.
A bystander gets no such luxury, and if the concern is an intrusive thought which makes them feel threatened... then maybe they're not suitably mature to participate in social endeavors.
It seems like a pretty reasonable (albeit one-sided) complaint except for this one point - but the fact that she was threatened by that, casts some small measure of doubt on the plausible sanity of rest of the thing.
Or perhaps it's the rest of the thing that colored her view of this perhaps harmless event. It could go both ways. Prolonged sexual harassment by two (three?) people at a company where HR does nothing effective and your perceptions of the rest of the company are bound to become warped.
And I'm saying it's perfectly OK to "spend a prolonged time watching it".
If women are doing something that involves a lot of pelvic gyrations, then yes, it is absolutely understandable AND acceptable that men will stare. It's not the men turning them into "sex objects" or whatever, the women already did that. And it's healthy, and normal, and most red-blooded men and women not only find it acceptable, they enjoy it. If you have the mindset that if women are dancing a man may only glance at it for a few seconds, I pity you and whatever caused you to turn out that way.
And this was at a party. If someone is so repressed that watching men stare at dancing women at a party makes them uncomfortable, they should stay home. Or move to a burqa-wearing country.
Do you have a source for the "at a party" part? The majority of my comments have been predicated that this was in a work environment. The Horvath techcrunch article states "at the office".
More to the point:
Yes because women moving their hips means they automatically want to be considered for their sexual characteristics. /sarcasm
Admittedly, if this was at a party and they were hula hooping then sure no problem at all. But just because a person moves their body around in an office doesn't mean they are looking for sexual partners! It's not that "a man may only glance at it for a few seconds". It's that in some environments (like office ones) they should have the self control to not care what other people are doing with their bodies.
> Yes because women moving their hips means they automatically want to be considered for their sexual characteristics. /sarcasm
Actually, yes, they do. If you don't know this then either you're very inexperienced with women or you're the kind of guy they willingly keep in the dark about what they want.
You're obviously an expert anthropologist and psychologist, so perhaps you can explain why is it that women find the need to flaunt their "sexual characteristic" at a workplace party (or any party for that matter)? Is this behavior common among women of all cultures? Has it been common throughout the ages? Is it a result of women's peculiar biology or perhaps of another mysterious dynamics? Is this practice commonly regarded as pleasant among human females? And what is it exactly that they want if they hope to achieve it with this colorful behavior (I once heard that human females may want a stable male partner to help rear their young; is this "hula-hooping at a party" the best evolutionary strategy to obtain that goal)? Also, males of lesser species often display their buttocks prominently to attract females. Is this accepted behavior among humans, too? Is it common practice at GitHub?
I see the wilfully-clueless are out in force on this one. I really thought your questions weren't serious, as to normal people these things are self-evident by age 15. However, seeing as how you identify yourself with "pron", I realised you're serious and you actually don't have a clue about these things. All right, I've had too much caffeine today and I'm feeling generous, so here goes:
> why is it that women find the need to flaunt their "sexual characteristic" at a workplace party (or any party for that matter)?
Women, men, children - everyone likes attention. The best kind of attention for a sexually mature person is sexual attention from a person that they desire. To display yourself at your best and be appreciated by someone you like is one of the best feelings there is. Not that you would know anything about that, the best feeling you've had was while watching "pron".
> Is this behavior common among women of all cultures?
Yes (duh). In fact, it is also pervasive among animals and even insects. I know, I know, who'd have thought?
> Has it been common throughout the ages?
Yes (duh).
> Is it a result of women's peculiar biology or perhaps of another mysterious dynamics?
Only someone who calls themselves "pron" would think this is in any way peculiar. To not desire attention from the opposite sex (let's leave homosexuals out of this for now) would be extremely peculiar.
> Is this practice commonly regarded as pleasant among human females?
See answer #1. Being appreciated feels good. People like to feel good. You do the math, genius.
> And what is it exactly that they want if they hope to achieve it with this colorful behavior
Anything ranging from the momentary pleasure of being appreciated, to finding somebody to love and spend the rest of their life with.
> I once heard that human females may want a stable male partner to help rear their young;
You haven't heard the half of it, son. What human females ideally want is a man who will provide the best genes for their offspring and be the best provider. Such a combination being rather rare, often females try to secure a gene-donor and provider separately. Typically, maladjusted men like you, who are, to put it kindly, not attractive to women, end up in the role of provider, and the desirable men get to have their offspring raised by the clueless providers.
> is this "hula-hooping at a party" the best evolutionary strategy to obtain that goal?
Replace "hula-hooping at a party" with "showcasing their assets" and even you should be able to figure it out. Push up bras, high heels, corsets, hoop skirts, dancing, anything that tends to attract the attention of the opposite sex, helps to attract the best mate possible.
Any further questions? Although I don't even know why I'm trying at this point. Something about horses and water comes to mind.
EDIT to answer the question you added later:
> Also, males of lesser species often display their buttocks prominently to attract females. Is this accepted behavior among humans, too?
As a matter of fact, women love muscular legs and buttocks on a man. The far more common "massive upper body, scrawny legs" physique isn't nearly as attractive to women. Strong legs are an excellent indicator of overall strength and good genes; in many primitive tribes, people explicitly desire "strong legs" in a mate. Even in older English literature you'll often find statements like "the lines of his/her legs showed good breeding" and so on.
Displaying the bare buttocks would normally get a man put in jail, so not in public, no. However, many men do the second-best thing by wearing form-fitting clothing. And women love it. Not too tight, though, that tends to attract the wrong kind of attention.
> Is it common practice at GitHub?
I seriously doubt whether anyone at GitHub does the kind of training necessary to build strong legs and glutes, so I doubt it. However, you can see this behaviour on display in other environments, like the gym, the beach, etc.
OMG. Were you found in the woods and raised by a fraternity at a state college? Your knowledge of sexuality in humans (particularly in women), gender roles and gender pressures is so lacking that I fear some gross negligence on the part of your parents. You, buddy, deserve a good spanking by your mother, and then you'd be well served by reading a book or two on human sexuality and sociology. Keeping some better female company might do you a world of good, too, judging by the fact that the women you know love men in form-fitting clothes.
Your answers to the questions are actually quite wrong. Women flaunting sexual characteristics in a professional environment is neither common today, nor has it been common in the West throughout the ages. You clearly confuse sexual desire with when and how people pursue it, you are completely blind to social pressure, and unaware of the nuances of sex (most importantly you're confusing sex with sexuality). I fear that if you don't get that long due spanking soon you have some serious lawsuits awaiting you in the future, and possibly some jail time, especially if you keep taking sexual cues from insects.
Perhaps it may seem baffling to your juvenile mind, but I adopted my screen name over twenty years ago, well before the internet, and back when it was just my acronym and had no other uses whatsoever.
A bystander gets no such luxury, and if the concern is an intrusive thought which makes them feel threatened... then maybe they're not suitably mature to participate in social endeavors.
It seems like a pretty reasonable (albeit one-sided) complaint except for this one point - but the fact that she was threatened by that, casts some small measure of doubt on the plausible sanity of rest of the thing.