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It's pretty mild; but someone sent me a twitter message after finding my GitHub account (hey nice projects, etc....) The left was my profile pic at the time, an

by mrrrgn 11y ago

It's pretty mild; but someone sent me a twitter message after finding my GitHub account (hey nice projects, etc....) The left was my profile pic at the time, and the right is their final message. The fellow with a beard is my little brother. :) http://i.imgur.com/UuQMpi2.png http://i.imgur.com/UuQMpi2.png

Nadya 11y ago
In the name of fairness; was your screen name gender neutral or leaning towards masculine at the time? If it's the same as HN (Mr. RRGN, right?) I could see it being a simple parsing error! ;) Although not a certain identifier many people do rely on screen names to discern gender. I ask because if HN had avatars and I had a picture of me and my sister together, with my current nickname, people would likely assume I'm my sister. Even if the photo focused more on me than her (like your profile pic focuses more on you than your little brother). Simply because my username is a female name. Furthermore, without knowing we were family, many people would also assume we were dating. A mistake that actually occurred at school quite frequently from people who didn't know us, since we were nearly always together. I'd understand the mistake. Of course, I'd correct them after. But I wouldn't take offense at the mistake. It's silly to expect people to know everything about you (even if you have a bio! Not everyone actually reads those.) I've been mistaken for a girl even when using a picture of myself and only myself as my profile. The individual who made the mistake actually thought that was a picture of "my boyfriend" and I had a night full of laughter at the mistake (as did they after I corrected them). I've been asked by online friends if I was male or female - months after meeting them - because it never usually gets brought up. I always ask them which they think I am before answering, out of curiosity, and most of them believe me to be female. I guess I need to cut down on my use of emoticons in shorter text forms and work on speaking more manly? I don't know. I have a hard time seeing scenarios like this as sexism rather than honest mistakes that simply happen... E: My real name is a name used by both genders but more predominately by females rather than males. That probably contributes to the confusion over my gender to those who know me long enough to learn my name. I never actually thought about how my name contributes to the confusion until I typed up this post. I can see why people who attribute my name as a feminine name would think I'm female. Enlightening in a small way.
- jfarmer 11y ago
  You might not realize it, but you're doing a bit of this right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining
  - exstudent2 11y ago
    No, he's relaying his anecdote just like everyone else in this thread. Please don't use "mansplaining", it's highly offensive.
    - MBCook 11y ago
      Highly offensive? I haven't heard that before. It seems like a pretty good term for what it describes. Is this a case of people not liking a term that is used to call them out for poor behavior? Such as saying bigoted things and then objecting to being called racist? I haven't run across someone calling it 'highly offensive' in the time since I learned it.
      - exstudent2 11y ago
        Its use in this case demonstrates why it's highly offensive. It's being used to label someone's opinion as negative and discount it for no good reason. Attaching words with negative connotation to a specific gender is highly offensive.
        MBCook 11y ago
        Ok, so what term would you suggest for discussion when a man talks down to a woman to explain something they already know (possibly better than the man) while trying to be 'helpful'?
        exstudent2 11y ago
        Nothing. Since that's a fabricated situation being used to justify the existence of the word. Two people have a conversation. Sometimes one knows more than the other, sometimes the person that knows less is unaware of that. I don't think that needs its own term and if it did have a term it absolutely doesn't need to be a gender based insult.
throwaway999666 11y ago
Seems to be more about premature stereotyping than sexism, if sexism is supposed to mean something like "the belief in the superiority of one of the sexes". There is nothing inherently superior, or good, about being a programmer on GitHub. Some people have other goals, hopes and aspirations, without that making them "bad" people.

by mrrrgn 11y ago

Nadya 11y ago

In the name of fairness; was your screen name gender neutral or leaning towards masculine at the time? If it's the same as HN (Mr. RRGN, right?) I could see it being a simple parsing error! ;) Although not a certain identifier many people do rely on screen names to discern gender. I ask because if HN had avatars and I had a picture of me and my sister together, with my current nickname, people would likely assume I'm my sister. Even if the photo focused more on me than her (like your profile pic focuses more on you than your little brother). Simply because my username is a female name. Furthermore, without knowing we were family, many people would also assume we were dating. A mistake that actually occurred at school quite frequently from people who didn't know us, since we were nearly always together. I'd understand the mistake. Of course, I'd correct them after. But I wouldn't take offense at the mistake. It's silly to expect people to know everything about you (even if you have a bio! Not everyone actually reads those.) I've been mistaken for a girl even when using a picture of myself and only myself as my profile. The individual who made the mistake actually thought that was a picture of "my boyfriend" and I had a night full of laughter at the mistake (as did they after I corrected them). I've been asked by online friends if I was male or female - months after meeting them - because it never usually gets brought up. I always ask them which they think I am before answering, out of curiosity, and most of them believe me to be female. I guess I need to cut down on my use of emoticons in shorter text forms and work on speaking more manly? I don't know. I have a hard time seeing scenarios like this as sexism rather than honest mistakes that simply happen... E: My real name is a name used by both genders but more predominately by females rather than males. That probably contributes to the confusion over my gender to those who know me long enough to learn my name. I never actually thought about how my name contributes to the confusion until I typed up this post. I can see why people who attribute my name as a feminine name would think I'm female. Enlightening in a small way.

jfarmer 11y ago
You might not realize it, but you're doing a bit of this right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining
- exstudent2 11y ago
  No, he's relaying his anecdote just like everyone else in this thread. Please don't use "mansplaining", it's highly offensive.
  - MBCook 11y ago
    Highly offensive? I haven't heard that before. It seems like a pretty good term for what it describes. Is this a case of people not liking a term that is used to call them out for poor behavior? Such as saying bigoted things and then objecting to being called racist? I haven't run across someone calling it 'highly offensive' in the time since I learned it.
    - exstudent2 11y ago
      Its use in this case demonstrates why it's highly offensive. It's being used to label someone's opinion as negative and discount it for no good reason. Attaching words with negative connotation to a specific gender is highly offensive.
      - MBCook 11y ago
        Ok, so what term would you suggest for discussion when a man talks down to a woman to explain something they already know (possibly better than the man) while trying to be 'helpful'?
        exstudent2 11y ago
        Nothing. Since that's a fabricated situation being used to justify the existence of the word. Two people have a conversation. Sometimes one knows more than the other, sometimes the person that knows less is unaware of that. I don't think that needs its own term and if it did have a term it absolutely doesn't need to be a gender based insult.

throwaway999666 11y ago

Seems to be more about premature stereotyping than sexism, if sexism is supposed to mean something like "the belief in the superiority of one of the sexes". There is nothing inherently superior, or good, about being a programmer on GitHub. Some people have other goals, hopes and aspirations, without that making them "bad" people.