3 ms·

There are days when I feel bad about myself. Most people here in HN are smarter, generally more successful then myself. And then when they start talking about w

There are days when I feel bad about myself. Most people here in HN are smarter, generally more successful then myself. And then when they start talking about women in tech, and I feel much better about myself. : ) If >90% of women in tech claim there are issues with women's involvement in tech, perhaps it's a good idea to consider the possibility that they may be right, instead of assuming they're all sour grapes artsy complainers who missed out on the money boat and are now complaining. Someone's posted an image of how all women sign up for gender studies courses, and no one signs up for CS etc. Yeah, you forgot something in that image. Add a bunch of dudes hanging around the CS stall, talking loudly about 'ts', making jokes about their bodies, etcetera etcetera etcetera. The portrayal is accurate, but it shows the symptoms, not the cause. For those who claim to be objective Vulcans who won't agree with an issue 'just because it's politically correct to', look at it this way: assume for a moment, this issue is real. Compare it to a fever. Whereas others are saying the causes of the fever need to be looked at, you're arguing people get a lot of other diseases, and people get fever all the time, and looking at the causes is just going to waste your time from making cooler awesome apps. You cannot shut your eyes and ears to what women have to say, and argue they're just a bunch of complainers, which seems to be the general theme of comments in posts like these. Admins: Posts such as these WILL start flame wars. I feel quite strongly about this issue, and so do a lot of people from the other side. If you want to save the community from flame wars, I suggest heavily penalizing these.

omginternets 11y ago
>perhaps it's a good idea to consider the possibility that they may be right That's fine, but why can't the other side consider that they may be wrong? The reason is actually simple: on the whole, the brand of feminism we're exposed to on the internet (that is, the west-coast, SanFran variety), is a very specific branch that vehemently opposes notions of essentialism. That is, their a priori hypothesis is that men and women are exactly alike, but are shaped from birth by social conditioning. As such, any observed discrepancy between men and women must necessarily be the result of sexism and mysoginy. I don't deny the existence of social conditioning, nor it's problematic effects, but anti-essentialism is a political and sociological stance, not an empirical one. I know your position comes from an honest desire to be compassionate and progressive, but it's entirely missing the point of those who are tired of the relentless proselytizing. It's not about sour grapes; it's about the fact that this recent wave of political correctness is laden with highly political social theory, and is lowering the level of discourse. I'm sure you're a great person (really!), but your appeal to emotion is ultimately favoring a cause with which you (hopefully) don't agree.

omginternets 11y ago

>perhaps it's a good idea to consider the possibility that they may be right That's fine, but why can't the other side consider that they may be wrong? The reason is actually simple: on the whole, the brand of feminism we're exposed to on the internet (that is, the west-coast, SanFran variety), is a very specific branch that vehemently opposes notions of essentialism. That is, their a priori hypothesis is that men and women are exactly alike, but are shaped from birth by social conditioning. As such, any observed discrepancy between men and women must necessarily be the result of sexism and mysoginy. I don't deny the existence of social conditioning, nor it's problematic effects, but anti-essentialism is a political and sociological stance, not an empirical one. I know your position comes from an honest desire to be compassionate and progressive, but it's entirely missing the point of those who are tired of the relentless proselytizing. It's not about sour grapes; it's about the fact that this recent wave of political correctness is laden with highly political social theory, and is lowering the level of discourse. I'm sure you're a great person (really!), but your appeal to emotion is ultimately favoring a cause with which you (hopefully) don't agree.