3 ms·

"U a gurl on ze interwebs? I call le fake". Maybe it's that kind of attitude. I find it intresting that "No girls on the internet" originally meant "No gender b

"U a gurl on ze interwebs? I call le fake". Maybe it's that kind of attitude. I find it intresting that "No girls on the internet" originally meant "No gender bias on the internet", but the meaning was perverted. But statements like that (I sometimes make them myself in jest, but you never know how the opposite side will interpret it),they just add to the exclusion of girls in programming.

theorique 14y ago
My sense is that most of the time people say those things ironically, as well as certain harsher catchphrases. But new people to the "internet culture", or those with less self-confidence, are likely to take it more personally than it's intended. It's a shame that such "silly" things can push people out of good industries, but there you have it. It's not the first or the tenth time someone says something like that, but if a girl gets a "no girls allowed" vibe all the time (implicit or explicit), it takes a will of iron to really resist that kind of environment.
socillion 14y ago
That attitude/meme exists because a large portion of people who go out of their way to appear female on the internet are actually male. 5 years ago it was an extremely easy way to get free stuff in games. If you're representing yourself as a girl online, people will assume you're doing that specifically to get preferential treatment - of course stereotypes like that aren't universally true, but enough people do that to reflect negatively on anyone else. edit: this is mostly about gamers.
- solistice 14y ago
  But then gaming is one of the main ways kids get hooked on computers, and then decide they might want to try out Computer Science. I remember how I was playing Anno 1602 on my Windows 95 machine when I was 8, and how that sooner or later influenced me to start programming.

3 ms·

"U a gurl on ze interwebs? I call le fake". Maybe it's that kind of attitude. I find it intresting that "No girls on the internet" originally meant "No gender b

by solistice 14y ago

theorique 14y ago
My sense is that most of the time people say those things ironically, as well as certain harsher catchphrases. But new people to the "internet culture", or those with less self-confidence, are likely to take it more personally than it's intended. It's a shame that such "silly" things can push people out of good industries, but there you have it. It's not the first or the tenth time someone says something like that, but if a girl gets a "no girls allowed" vibe all the time (implicit or explicit), it takes a will of iron to really resist that kind of environment.
socillion 14y ago
That attitude/meme exists because a large portion of people who go out of their way to appear female on the internet are actually male. 5 years ago it was an extremely easy way to get free stuff in games. If you're representing yourself as a girl online, people will assume you're doing that specifically to get preferential treatment - of course stereotypes like that aren't universally true, but enough people do that to reflect negatively on anyone else. edit: this is mostly about gamers.
- solistice 14y ago
  But then gaming is one of the main ways kids get hooked on computers, and then decide they might want to try out Computer Science. I remember how I was playing Anno 1602 on my Windows 95 machine when I was 8, and how that sooner or later influenced me to start programming.