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What you don't see here is the inherent double standard in this conversation about women as accessories. The awesome blonde med school girl at the chess game? A

What you don't see here is the inherent double standard in this conversation about women as accessories. The awesome blonde med school girl at the chess game? Accessory. Hot Russian immigrants, accessories. Are women just decor? What I find aggravating is needing to fight to get men to take me seriously and see me as an intelligent, capable, human being. As long as we have an environment like this thread, we won't have that many women in tech.

stcredzero 16y ago
Is it an environment like this thread which is the problem, or an environment like those discussed in this thread? Carmen in the eponymous opera and Marissa Mayer at the early Google were each a part of the enterprise as more than mere decorations. Carmen is trading off her looks, but she is using them to manipulate men and not just being looked at. Unfortunately, her character inhabits an environment where women's opportunities are limited. Tori Amos once claimed to be "The queen of the nerds" or something like that. I think there's tremendous opportunity for women in tech, precisely because there are fewer women. Yes, physical attributes matter. Short men have a disadvantage where social dominance comes into play. Such disadvantages can also be exploited.
brandnewlow 16y ago
The blonde in my story above isn't an accessory. She's an accomplice. The Russian gals on the other hand are definitely accessories though. That's sketchy. That said, more than a few will take advantage of their opportunity and do something great with it.
cap4life 16y ago
In my experience, I have seen that very attractive women who want to be taken seriously by men will have a man as a business partner. This seems to take the edge off for other guys who may be too intimidated to approach the beautiful girl or who assume that someone so beautiful cannot also be intelligent and capable of doing business. As a woman, what bothers me is that we have to constantly tow the line between being beautiful and not taken seriously or being average/butch/unattractive and judged to be too serious. It's a problem because even the most open-minded men are still heavily influenced my a woman's appearance and will make assumptions about her business acumen and character based on that alone.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  As a man, I never, ever worry about being beautiful at all. And it never, ever causes any problems in my working life. If you worry about 'towing the line' between beautiful and anything else, maybe its your own priorities that are the issue? Why is 'being beautiful' even in the equation? Because you put it there. So you have to deal with it. But its absolutely not other peoples' problem.
  - cap4life 16y ago
    Written from a truly male perspective. Even girls who choose not to make attractiveness a priority find that, eventually, it becomes a priority that society imposes on them. Or at least a topic that's constantly brought up when talking about a woman's abilities. How many articles talked about Elena Kagan's "mannish, butch" looks when she was appointed to the SC? Or Michelle Obama's fashion sense when she became First Lady?

stcredzero 16y ago

Is it an environment like this thread which is the problem, or an environment like those discussed in this thread? Carmen in the eponymous opera and Marissa Mayer at the early Google were each a part of the enterprise as more than mere decorations. Carmen is trading off her looks, but she is using them to manipulate men and not just being looked at. Unfortunately, her character inhabits an environment where women's opportunities are limited. Tori Amos once claimed to be "The queen of the nerds" or something like that. I think there's tremendous opportunity for women in tech, precisely because there are fewer women. Yes, physical attributes matter. Short men have a disadvantage where social dominance comes into play. Such disadvantages can also be exploited.

brandnewlow 16y ago

The blonde in my story above isn't an accessory. She's an accomplice. The Russian gals on the other hand are definitely accessories though. That's sketchy. That said, more than a few will take advantage of their opportunity and do something great with it.

cap4life 16y ago

In my experience, I have seen that very attractive women who want to be taken seriously by men will have a man as a business partner. This seems to take the edge off for other guys who may be too intimidated to approach the beautiful girl or who assume that someone so beautiful cannot also be intelligent and capable of doing business. As a woman, what bothers me is that we have to constantly tow the line between being beautiful and not taken seriously or being average/butch/unattractive and judged to be too serious. It's a problem because even the most open-minded men are still heavily influenced my a woman's appearance and will make assumptions about her business acumen and character based on that alone.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago
As a man, I never, ever worry about being beautiful at all. And it never, ever causes any problems in my working life. If you worry about 'towing the line' between beautiful and anything else, maybe its your own priorities that are the issue? Why is 'being beautiful' even in the equation? Because you put it there. So you have to deal with it. But its absolutely not other peoples' problem.
- cap4life 16y ago
  Written from a truly male perspective. Even girls who choose not to make attractiveness a priority find that, eventually, it becomes a priority that society imposes on them. Or at least a topic that's constantly brought up when talking about a woman's abilities. How many articles talked about Elena Kagan's "mannish, butch" looks when she was appointed to the SC? Or Michelle Obama's fashion sense when she became First Lady?