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I say that while the issues described in the article are real and not unimportant, I got triggered by the offendedness and the virtue signalling of it all. For
by kpil 8y ago
I say that while the issues described in the article are real and not unimportant, I got triggered by the offendedness and the virtue signalling of it all.
For one, it's a text based medium. I find it unlikely that people can express their racism and misogyny when people are primarily identified by username and an abstract icon. But OK, all answers and questions are written in a context, and generalisations might be made that might be detectable. But truly "offended"? I think not.
There is a tension between being a tool for professionals or a helping community for beginners - and yes, the balance was initially very skewed, but not so much any more.
I also find the writing style with terse questions in FAQ-style (no K TXH BYE) kind of refreshing, actually.
- joyeuse6701 8y agoShe has some examples that are pretty explicit examples of misogyny. May be worth rereading.
- jwilbs 8y agoNot trying to say misogyny in tech isn’t an issue, but I saw no “blatant” examples there? I honestly don’t understand the whole fuss over SO being (apparently) unwelcome, though I’ve had one negative experience: my answer was downvoted by another poster, only later to be accepted and voted over his. He then angrily commented on my post. Sure, it’s anecdotal, but every other experience has been positive. I think it’s also worth mentioning how much more toxic other communities can be in comparison. GitHub issues can get pretty heated, and the Mathworks boards are notorious for being rude. At the end of the day, I’d bet the majority of new users getting flack do so because, well, they just asked a bad question.
- kpil 8y agoThe stereotype joke? Objectified woman and a weird comment on top of that? Misogyny sort of requires an actual women being treated in a way a man would not have been treated. My best guess is that taking offence to this joke requires priming, driven by ideology, someone explicitly telling you that you should take offence out of principle. The better jokes exposes our biased generalizations and makes you think though.
- johnday 8y ago"Misogyny sort of requires an actual women being treated in a way a man would not have been treated." This is fundamentally incorrect. One can be a misogynist (ie, exhibit misogyny) without any "actual" women being present. In much the same way as saying "i am attracted to my own gender" is to be homosexual (ie, exhibit homosexuality).
- diek00 8y agoThink of the massive number of comments, finding some examples of this does not make it true
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]