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Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

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Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#11
post #7

Here is an interview with them, from July: http://www.dumdumzine.com/text-message-interview-with-witchs... Their personalities seem pretty effervescent. This might also have contributed to the need to create a persona who just says, "OK, I need that status update."

That interview seems deliberately casual though.

Could it be that sometimes the perception that someone is "effervescent" is attributable to a tendency to perceive women as "effervescent"?

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#12
post #11
post #7

Here is an interview with them, from July: http://www.dumdumzine.com/text-message-interview-with-witchs... Their personalities seem pretty effervescent. This might also have contributed to the need to create a persona who just says, "OK, I need that status update."

That interview seems deliberately casual though. Could it be that sometimes the perception that someone is "effervescent" is attributable to a tendency to perceive women as "effervescent"?

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That interview seems deliberately casual though. Could it be that sometimes the perception that someone is "effervescent" is attributable to a tendency to perceive women as "effervescent"?

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down.

I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay.

Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery.

I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answers. But I feel like I am finally starting to ask the right questions. And one of those questions is "Am I really just innately feminine or is my concept of femininity a learned cultural construct that is not serving me well?"

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That interview seems deliberately casual though. Could it be that sometimes the perception that someone is "effervescent" is attributable to a tendency to perceive women as "effervescent"?

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

Exactly. Especially since the linked interview was conducted as a series of _text messages_ -- it seems like that was the 'hook' of the interview, with all the emojis/text abbreviations used. Looking at the other interviews in the series, the two women entrepreneurs didn't stand out as being particularly 'effervescent'.

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down. I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay. Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answ…

Im hesitant to even type this, but I've had similar thoughts.

If a lot of gender is just a construct and our gender roles are rooted in a time when women were taught to be subservient to men, then it's highly possible that a lot of traits that are deemed "feminine" are just traits that were taught to women to make them subservient/less competitive/etc.

So maybe being timid, shy, soft-spoken, and like traits should not be considered "feminine" in a biological sense. They should be considered traits that make you less likely to get what you want and much more likely to be taken advantage of. And those traits were included in the feminine construct of yesterday to make women easier to control.

So maybe it's ok to discriminate against some of those traits when hiring because you aren't discriminating against biological traits but rather learned traits that may or may not make you more productive in certain environments.

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down. I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay. Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answ…

Im hesitant to even type this, but I've had similar thoughts. If a lot of gender is just a construct and our gender roles are rooted in a time when women were taught to be subservient to men, then it's highly possible that a lot of traits that are deemed "feminine" are just traits that were taught to women to make them subservient/less competitive/etc. So maybe being timid, shy, soft-spoken, and like traits should no…

I think your first three paragraphs are fine, but your conclusion sounds very much like a casual justification for sexism. That doesn't sit well with me.

(Among other things) I am not soft spoken. That fact actually gets me a lot of social friction for failing to be what people expect from a woman.

I am trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. I hope to start blogging soon in a "thinking out loud" manner. My hope is to sort a few things out for myself and maybe help other people think through the problem space a tad.

I am not ready to write about it. I have started several posts and the attempt is just not going well, plus I am hip deep in other goals right this minute.

My hope is to "bring solutions, not complaints." And justifications for the current status quo are just inherently problematic and a great way to provoke ugly reactions.

But thank you for replying. I realize it involves sticking your neck out.

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#18
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down. I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay. Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answ…

I have thought about this a bit.. here is IMO a pretty insightful quote into personality

"When I say that Professor Lindzey’s left shoe is an “introvert,” everyone looks at his shoe as if it were something the shoe was responsible for. . . . Don’t look at that shoe! Look at me; I’m the one who is responsible for the statement."

The mere existence of the word feminine implies there is a dichotomy between male & female worth observing. When we search for this difference, we find it (funny how our brains are good at finding whatever they search for..). That confirmation leads us to form the perspective "women & men are different" and now see the world through this construct. From then on, confirmation bias is enough to sustain the correctness of this concept.

When a person who has no idea what feminine means, behaves in a "feminine" manner, others call them feminine (because this concept is near universal). That reinforces the concept, and like a virus the concept spreads to yet another person.

So the more existence of femininity as a cultural construct in a sense makes it all the more real. It is partly a "social reality" [1].'

Its like in cultures where the language has 1 word for 2 colors (from perspective of english speaker), they have observed that these people literally perceive less difference in the colors... so is the difference between blue/green a social construct or reality? The lines between social construct & reality are very blurry :p

[1] From Sapiens - Yuval Harari

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down. I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay. Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answ…

Im hesitant to even type this, but I've had similar thoughts. If a lot of gender is just a construct and our gender roles are rooted in a time when women were taught to be subservient to men, then it's highly possible that a lot of traits that are deemed "feminine" are just traits that were taught to women to make them subservient/less competitive/etc. So maybe being timid, shy, soft-spoken, and like traits should no…

> So maybe being timid, shy, soft-spoken, and like traits should not be considered "feminine" in a biological sense. They should be considered traits that make you less likely to get what you want and much more likely to be taken advantage of. And those traits were included in the feminine construct of yesterday to make women easier to control.

I quite like this discussion, but I'm not a fan of this point.

"likely to get what you want" is a very combative way to look at the world. On the other hand, less forceful people work together well with others and cause less unnecessary conflict.

I think humanity is more about cooperation and empathy than about domination and taking advantage of each other, at least in terms of what makes us stand out.

It generally does seem that the "masculine" traits are considered "better", but I don't think that's a proven fact.

Consider also that women acting more combative get a lot of push back.

Re: Women Entrepreneurs Created a Fake Male Cofounder to Dodge Startup Sexism

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. Does he seriously think the two women would write emails the same way they would give interviews?

I'm a woman. I tend to effervesce. I actively work at toning things down. I wonder a lot how much of that is innate wiring and how much of that is socialization. But, generally speaking, when a guy does the same thing, it gets interpreted as gay. Stereotypes tend to come from somewhere. We don't just make them up whole cloth due to innate assholery. I don't have all the answers. In fact, I am not sure I have any answ…

Am woman. Don't think I effervesce. I can't really tell if people expect me to or not. I generally don't like it.

Stereotypes do come from somewhere but the relationship may often be nonsensical by the time it gets here. See the whole anabolic/catabolic thing.

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