Breaking my planned HN abstinence, but this is exactly the one thing I worry about: "for instance if they display a preference for talking to or dealing with ma

Breaking my planned HN abstinence, but this is exactly the one thing I worry about: "for instance if they display a preference for talking to or dealing with male colleagues over female ones" Why is this discrimination? I think people should still be allowed to be individuals. So maybe I am more interested in Star Wars and some female developer is more interested in Sex And The City (sorry for the stereotypes, but actually I think more women than men are interested in Sex And The City - fwiw I actually found SATC more interesting than Star Wars, I am just making this example up). So maybe I prefer to talk to a colleague who is also interested in Star Wars? If that is discrimination, or if to be a good non-sexist developer I have to take an interest in Sex And The City, I think this approach to eliminating discrimination is not going to work out. Personally I think there are differences between men and women and to try to pretend they don't exist will end up a failure. (I don't mean mental capabilities). I am not writing this to deride the anti-sexism campaigns, but because I genuinely would like to understand how the future is supposed to work out. One example: will sexual attraction still be allowed at the work place? Obviously it is going to exist, but we can of course learn to suppress it. I would like to hear from the anti-sexism crowd a definite statement on how the envision the sexes to deal with each other. Making a rule "sexual attraction at the work place is a 100% no go" is of course a possibility, but the reality at the moment seems to be that ~20% of couples met at work. So taking that opportunity for couples to meet away will create a hole that needs to be filled in some other way. Sexual attraction is also another reason why men might be less comfortable talking to other women than other men. I don't think calling that "discrimination" is doing the complexity of the issue much justice. I also reject the notion that being sexually attracted to a woman is sexist (or vice versa). (Edit: I'll log off again, but I'll read replies next week...)