3 ms·

Seems like there's an entire genre of digging up obscure women in male-dominated fields. It sucks because the sheer predictability of it causes me to question w

Seems like there's an entire genre of digging up obscure women in male-dominated fields. It sucks because the sheer predictability of it causes me to question whether these women were truly influential or whether they're just used as props in some sort of ultra modern campaign. Surely many of these women were genuinely influential, and they don't deserve my suspicion. But the way they're trotted out like this practically forces me to be suspicious. I don't like how this game forces me to become suspicious of talented women, nor how it downgrades these women's achievements to "women's achievements", rather than just "achievements". It seems like the only people who win are the campaigners. Would a powerful, intelligent person want her life story to be titled "Overlooked No More", or might such a person be embarrassed by that diminishing characterization?

mvelbaum 3y ago
Yeah, it's pretty pathetic, honestly. Overlooked? I've just looked at a few videos of hers playing and she's pretty bad. Not sure what the point here is, there were a bunch of very good female leads in a variety of genres, but honestly, it's the dudes that did pretty much all the influential stuff -- as in pretty much any field. Deal with it. https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Rule-Theory-Dominance/dp/0812692373 https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Rule-Theory-Dominance/dp/0812... -> https://archive.org/details/whymenruletheory0000gold https://archive.org/details/whymenruletheory0000gold
pfannkuchen 3y ago
It also paints the past in I think a more mean spirited light than it actually was. Like I think male scientists a long time ago found the idea of women being in the field absurd, like a dog using a computer. If a dog is trying to use a computer you might not help them and you might laugh at them, but it’s not like you would bury the evidence of a dog successfully using a computer, you would probably find it amazing!
- sandspar 3y ago
  I think hostility is easier for people to bear than indifference. A narrative of "they kept us down" implies that you're important enough for them to give you attention. Indifference might be especially humiliating when one's self-concept becomes wrapped up in a sense of one's own growing power. "I've been growing and growing and growing, and yet they're still not respecting me?" I think a tiger, viewing itself as powerful, would find it more humiliating to be a pet than to live in a cage.

mvelbaum 3y ago

Yeah, it's pretty pathetic, honestly. Overlooked? I've just looked at a few videos of hers playing and she's pretty bad. Not sure what the point here is, there were a bunch of very good female leads in a variety of genres, but honestly, it's the dudes that did pretty much all the influential stuff -- as in pretty much any field. Deal with it. https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Rule-Theory-Dominance/dp/0812692373 https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Rule-Theory-Dominance/dp/0812... -> https://archive.org/details/whymenruletheory0000gold https://archive.org/details/whymenruletheory0000gold

pfannkuchen 3y ago

It also paints the past in I think a more mean spirited light than it actually was. Like I think male scientists a long time ago found the idea of women being in the field absurd, like a dog using a computer. If a dog is trying to use a computer you might not help them and you might laugh at them, but it’s not like you would bury the evidence of a dog successfully using a computer, you would probably find it amazing!

sandspar 3y ago
I think hostility is easier for people to bear than indifference. A narrative of "they kept us down" implies that you're important enough for them to give you attention. Indifference might be especially humiliating when one's self-concept becomes wrapped up in a sense of one's own growing power. "I've been growing and growing and growing, and yet they're still not respecting me?" I think a tiger, viewing itself as powerful, would find it more humiliating to be a pet than to live in a cage.