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Meet the Grossest Site On the Web

by Nuzha Nuseibeh

The fact that the tech industry is pretty sexist isn't really a question anymore. It's been proven again (and again and again), yet sometimes, the reminder comes as a slap in the face, in the form of a new and disgusting website. Are you a man with no scruples and zero respect for women? Do you find that your penis encourages you to keep studying? Wanna learn to code? Well, then, this site is for you: Codebabes teaches coding by having female instructors strip for each lesson learned. You know, to make coding "fun" and "motivational."

Codebabes offers you twenty-two lessons, and, to keep you interested, for each quiz you pass, your Codebabe instructor will seductively take off an article of clothing. As the site's intro video explains:"We’ve developed a revolutionary learning program that leverages sexual desire and turns it into the most powerful learning mechanism known ever known to mankind!" And the uncomfortable degrees of sexism don't end there: The site also offers three levels of web development classes, beginning — of course — at “virgin.”

"We go fast, each lesson is a quicky, we’re pretty sure you won’t mind re-watching them :), pause it when it gets to fast, or.... ya know, FAP," the website says on its "Philosophy" page. "You WILL learn something. Sure, we’re entertaining, but the courses are damn good at teaching fundamentals and best practices of web development and coding. Double threat."

The site has caused a (warranted) Twitter uproar, with some claiming that Codebabes is just too wrong to be real. But if it's a joke, then it's a surprisingly committed one — the site's still running in spite of the backlash, and it's already amassing some dedicated (read: sad) followers.

Still, some other wonderfully indignant people of the Internet have gone and created Codedicks.com in response to the grossness that is Codebabes. As it reads in a disclaimer on their philosophy page, "CodeDicks is in no way affiliated, nor condones the beliefs of CodeBabes. This is satire. None of the dudes on this site approve of sexism and would like to see people of all genders treated equally and respectfully, particularly in our industry."

Maybe Codebabes is a really, really misguided satire. Maybe its creators were inspired by Hot Tech Today, the tech magazine that for some reason features women in bikinis. Either way, its existence is a reflection of the tech industry, and, right now, the tech industry is making me a little nauseous — but at least it's making most people feel that way.

Image: Codebabes