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Best comment on the article from Bob Costas... For years people (and yes, mostly guys) who were involved in the tech industry and engineering in general were s
by nubb 13y ago
Best comment on the article from Bob Costas...
For years people (and yes, mostly guys) who were involved in the tech industry and engineering in general were shunned and dismissed by culture at large to be losers and sexual non-entities and therefore lacking in social currency. As a result of this mass dismissal and social rejection, and since most women aren't raised or brought up to deal with rejection and social stigmatization, while some actively participated and reinforced the stigmatization, women in general didn't feel comfortable being in or pursuing a career in a field that garnered such negative attention for a very long time.
To this day people in the tech field are often marginalized and in order to attract women to the field companies like Google have to produce promo videos that try to convince women to join the industry by suggesting that there aren't that many weirdos in the industry and that most people in the industry are "normal" as opposed to celebrating the beautiful weird male personalities that achieved great things because of their weirdness not in spite of it and helping women realize and embrace the male nerd ethic the went into building this new world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Notice the attention given to showering and how they gloss over the fact that in reality, the current leaders in the tech world didn't bath regularly when they were building their companies. Bill Gates comes to mind.
The reason why you get push-back from males from the industry when it comes to involving more women in tech isn't because they have some "jock, locker room, and frat" mentality that women are somehow mentally inferior to males and aren't capable of understanding tech. Actually, women in science and engineering classes at major universities tend to be the top students in those classes. Its because they don't think women in general have the fortitude nor the willingness to not shower for days and be content with not going outside while living off cold pizza. While most tech experiences these days don't involve this sort of lifestyle, the anti-social behavior and culture that are associated with the lifestyle still exist and instead of women decrying these prevailing attitudes in tech they should embrace these traits.
Case in point, Elon Musk's ex-wife. Instead of dealing with his borderline autism for what it was, in her blog she attacked him being arrogant and uncaring. Elon Musk is a weirdo and natural introvert who forces himself to be an extrovert to be able to do the interesting and unique things he wants and needs to do in life.
- theorique 13y agoExactly. See "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" for many examples of the early days of computing.
- untog 13y agoIts because they don't think women in general have the fortitude nor the willingness to not shower for days and be content with not going outside while living off cold pizza. [...] instead of women decrying these prevailing attitudes in tech they should embrace these traits. You really don't see the inherent contradiction there? The first half says the problem is assumptions by men about what women will or will not do. The 'solution' buys into this assumption without examining whether it is in any way true. Who says women do not have the fortitude to not shower for days and live off cold pizza?
- awj 13y agoI've encountered more women capable of avoiding the shower for days than I ever would have wanted. "Apathy towards basic hygiene" is not established at the genetic level. Either way, that is something I'd like to see leave this industry too.
- alexholehouse 13y agoBeat me to it. This is exactly the problem - even people who believe they're helping are making generalizations or unjustified assumptions based on how women are perceived in society. This is so incredibly endemic in so many walks of life its virtually impossible to take a step back and realize.