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That was my reaction too, but given all the reading of late I've been trying to do in order to understand WTF GamerGate is, I am reminded to start out by saying

by csirac2 12y ago

That was my reaction too, but given all the reading of late I've been trying to do in order to understand WTF GamerGate is, I am reminded to start out by saying that we should be careful not to come across as questioning the validity of this author's experiences at all. I've read a few "GG" pieces written by men saying something along the lines of, "hey this sucks, but it's really not that bad WTF". Saying things that I could've written. For example, I get annoyed at the ALL OPEN SOURCE DEVS ARE ARSEHATS characterizations because I happen to have been involved in a few over the years which honestly haven't been this way. There, I tried to recruit (as did fellow developers) and offer commit access regardless of gender and (in at least one case I'm aware of) non-conventional gender identity. And we weren't code-snobs: this includes doc-only and other community contributors. But this was a "boring" project mostly maintained by $dayjob people, so perhaps all the obnoxious jerks found other havens. Additionally, as a white english-speaking male, perhaps I'm poorly placed to make this assessment and perhaps there were injustices that I just couldn't see as such. Then there's the reactions to these (insensitive? ignorant?) pieces. The main take-home point I've learnt reading @freebsdgirl is: just because a few of us rich white english-speaking males have had a good old time and barely any insurmountable problems in our particular corners of the internet... is great, but completely irrelevant to the fact that a lot of women are disproportionately having a bad time. Back to the article, I still feel compelled though to share just how odd it felt reading that making was a male thing. By the time I was 5, my parents' farm had failed - the next 10 years were a struggle for them, but for me it was a time that cemented my curiosity and creativity by having to improvise everything. I am forced to rethink this: if I was born a girl, what else could I have done with my time? Didn't my own father constantly find ways to express his view that real men didn't sit around all day on computers? Is it just a fluke that my younger brothers' girlfriends could weld better than me? And when we were 14, being shown by a girl I knew how the primer worked (she was fixing a routine blockage) on a quirky, ancient diesel stationery engine? Is being a rich white male warping my perspective that much? There were terrible gender imbalances at the time. Some too depressing to write about. But being able to make, modify and repair stuff was a universal skill that I hadn't - until now - considered genderized. My daughter loves helping me take apart and repair things, just as I did when I was her age. But now odd thoughts occur: were the girls I knew growing up so equipped with "maker" skills because we lived in a poorer area? Or was it the rural living? Perhaps both? If this is the case, does that mean my daughter will have fewer opportunities to pursue these skills without the same pressures I grew up with?

woodman 12y ago
I had a very similar experience growing up. We weren't poor, but I was the oldest of 5 kids, so resources were thin. Instead of toys that would be out of fashion in a month, my mother would get junk from Goodwill and the Salvation Army (broken vacuum cleaners, VCRs, etc) and my father would let me use his tools to disassemble the stuff. I don't remember ever really fixing anything, but I do remember the joy of tearing a machine down, examining the principal components and reasoning about their function. I don't know if I had a natural disposition that my parent's guided, or if their solution for keeping my quite and entertained had just rewired my brain, but that activity has had the single greatest impact on my life. No it didn't lead me to a career in vacuum repair, I'm a programmer (a C programmer... so the vacuum repairman of programming). I don't know what to think about the gender angle... my mother is sort of a Rosie the Riveter figure. Incredibly self sufficient, creative and industrious. The only point of contention that I remember, between her and dad, was how she would never put his tools back after using them. He eventually assembled a secret 2nd set of tools. Lol, I just had a flashback of a funny exchange that was the result of my fearless tinkering. I was a Marine infantry machinegunner, in Fallujah 10 years ago, with a broken long range AN/PAS-13B thermal-optic gunsight. The battalion armorer was about an hour's drive away, and the odds of getting ambushed on the road were pretty high at the time, so I really didn't want to muster a convoy for one broken piece of equipment. Instead, I grabbed a headlamp and a leatherman - then headed to the only place where you could get some privacy: the shitter. I had to do this in private, because the Corps really frowns on this sort of thing - PAS-13s are expensive. I'll never forget the look on the company commander's face after he pulled back the shitter curtain to find me in the dark, wrist deep in the PAS-13's guts. "Corporal... are you operating outside your echelon of maintenance?" I hesitated, trying to figure out what the captain wanted to hear. "No sir?" He stared for a couple of seconds, probably trying to figure me out in the same way, then slowly lowered the curtain back into place. I managed to fix it though, one of the few things I ever tore down and returned to a functioning state.
- csirac2 12y ago
  That's a cool story! I've also had "are you sure you're qualified to do that" conversations when working in remote areas on drilling rigs... certainly character-building thinking you've only further permanently damaged some $60K+ piece of equipment, and possible rig down-time costing $30K+ per day, only to get it working in the end and save the day :-) But just as a follow-up to my own post: after surveying the females in my family, they all seem to agree that "making stuff" is a male thing, because males all get the credit... I guess I was just ignorant when I wrote the above post.

by csirac2 12y ago

woodman 12y ago

I had a very similar experience growing up. We weren't poor, but I was the oldest of 5 kids, so resources were thin. Instead of toys that would be out of fashion in a month, my mother would get junk from Goodwill and the Salvation Army (broken vacuum cleaners, VCRs, etc) and my father would let me use his tools to disassemble the stuff. I don't remember ever really fixing anything, but I do remember the joy of tearing a machine down, examining the principal components and reasoning about their function. I don't know if I had a natural disposition that my parent's guided, or if their solution for keeping my quite and entertained had just rewired my brain, but that activity has had the single greatest impact on my life. No it didn't lead me to a career in vacuum repair, I'm a programmer (a C programmer... so the vacuum repairman of programming). I don't know what to think about the gender angle... my mother is sort of a Rosie the Riveter figure. Incredibly self sufficient, creative and industrious. The only point of contention that I remember, between her and dad, was how she would never put his tools back after using them. He eventually assembled a secret 2nd set of tools. Lol, I just had a flashback of a funny exchange that was the result of my fearless tinkering. I was a Marine infantry machinegunner, in Fallujah 10 years ago, with a broken long range AN/PAS-13B thermal-optic gunsight. The battalion armorer was about an hour's drive away, and the odds of getting ambushed on the road were pretty high at the time, so I really didn't want to muster a convoy for one broken piece of equipment. Instead, I grabbed a headlamp and a leatherman - then headed to the only place where you could get some privacy: the shitter. I had to do this in private, because the Corps really frowns on this sort of thing - PAS-13s are expensive. I'll never forget the look on the company commander's face after he pulled back the shitter curtain to find me in the dark, wrist deep in the PAS-13's guts. "Corporal... are you operating outside your echelon of maintenance?" I hesitated, trying to figure out what the captain wanted to hear. "No sir?" He stared for a couple of seconds, probably trying to figure me out in the same way, then slowly lowered the curtain back into place. I managed to fix it though, one of the few things I ever tore down and returned to a functioning state.

csirac2 12y ago
That's a cool story! I've also had "are you sure you're qualified to do that" conversations when working in remote areas on drilling rigs... certainly character-building thinking you've only further permanently damaged some $60K+ piece of equipment, and possible rig down-time costing $30K+ per day, only to get it working in the end and save the day :-) But just as a follow-up to my own post: after surveying the females in my family, they all seem to agree that "making stuff" is a male thing, because males all get the credit... I guess I was just ignorant when I wrote the above post.