4 ms·
Pieces like this sometimes make me wonder if sexism is not actually more rampant in tech, men in tech are just more open to self-criticism and accepting that so
by beaner 9y ago
Pieces like this sometimes make me wonder if sexism is not actually more rampant in tech, men in tech are just more open to self-criticism and accepting that something is wrong with themselves and their industry.
All the things you hear about in tech, you hear about elsewhere. But the men in them don't seem to compete with each other over who can be the most self deprecating and sympathetic with those calling them out.
I wonder perhaps if this has something to do with the tendency of men in tech to be smart, introverted, liberal-leaning, wallflowers, humble (or fake humble), not socially well-tuned, somewhat feeble and self-sacrificial. (As a tendency, not a rule.)
Picture the employees in a Wolf of Walstreet type company, and employees at Uber. Is sexism equally frequent at both places? Probably. But which group of men do you see self-reporting and willingly fighting to adopt a self image of sexist? Probably not the Wolf of Wallstreet-ers.
- mratzloff 9y agoYeah, I'm definitely going to see this thread on n-gate. "One hackernews points out that the problem in tech isn't endemic sexism, but that male engineers are just so much better than all other men."
- beaner 9y agoIf you read my comment as saying men in tech are superior, you got the wrong message. Edit: By that, I mean the traits I pointed out above are debatable in terms of desirability. Things like self-sacrificial and feebleness definitely seem like flaws to me at least. I am somewhat surprised that you interpreted these descriptors as superior.
- mratzloff 9y agoI was characterizing it in the typical way n-gate posts are written and as a means of satirizing the entire comment thread. But I'll just add that you selected a couple traits for your examples out of a list of largely positive traits (either universally regarded as positive or lionized in tech almost as badges of relateable honor: introverted, wallflower, etc.). The overall message as I read it was "men in tech are more introspective and empathetic."
- beaner 9y agoSome are positive, some are negative. Introvert, liberal, wallflower, and humble (or fake humble) definitely don't all seem like they're necessarily positives to me, either. Even some of the ones that are positive can lead to negative consequences for the men who have them, as a group. Introspection and empathy are generally considered good things, but also can lead to the result described in my comment. I'm not really trying to make a judgment about who are better or worse men - I think you have to be digging for that a little bit, if that's what you're reading. It's more just an observation that these traits lead to that result. I don't know what n-gate is.
- hasenj 9y ago> Pieces like this sometimes make me wonder if sexism is not actually more rampant in tech I've never seen a shred of evidence that there's any sexism in tech. Most (if not all) articles claiming there is are usually pieces written by SJW types who go out of their way to look for victims and oppressors because that's what they've been trained to do.
- sctb 9y agoPlease don't post uncivilly by dismissing the experience of others and making unsubstantive generalizations like this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hasenj 9y agoPlease directly quote the specific rule/guideline you think I violated. There's no rule about "dismissing the experience of others".
- neilparikh 9y agoI think what you're describing is scrupulosity. Scott Aaronson had a really nice comment about this on his blog: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2091#comment-326664 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2091#comment-326664