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Speaking up

sazzy.co.uk

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Re: Speaking up

#81

Post by WildMushroom »

abcd_f wrote: post #3

So apparently, she is a web designer (or a web design agency owner), but it takes an effort to find a link to an actual portfolio. There is the Resources page but it's full of her own photos from every angle. The About page is too full of important aspects of her professional background including how she takes her coffee (apparently 3rd most frequently asked question). I understand that she is the brand and she's pro…

And you are... Internationally acclaimed developer/designer with years of experience and almost 30, 000 followers? Mmm didn't think so.

Re: Speaking up

#82

Post by [deleted] »

rimantas wrote: post #38

Please, tell me, how would comments look if someone did the same thing, but for the guy? The sight of a bunch of guys rushing to fight sexism (often without even understanding what sexism is) and solve women's issues for them is amusing. This is not to say, that there are no problems. But the biggest problem I see is a knee-jerk reaction to anything involving gender or race. Sometimes assholes are just assholes and c…

[deleted]

Re: Speaking up

#83

Post by roguecoder »

NoahSussman wrote: post #73
thaumaturgy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding your second paragraph, I think it's primarily a clash of two situations: software development by its nature attracts men who are socially awkward, and the women that are attracted to software development tend not to be there for the attention. Software development has a broader appeal now than it did twenty years ago, and in spite of the numerous cases like this one, there seems to still be a growing popula…

> there seems to still be a growing population of women in the community. Just keep in mind that, whatever growth you've observed, the number of women in programming now is much lower than it was in the 1980s. For some historical statistics see http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-08-26/opinions/35268...

The percentage of women is lower, but the total number is higher.

Re: Speaking up

#84

Post by sp332 »

lazugod wrote: post #79
ucee054 wrote: post #52

Let's keep in mind that the perpetrator of the fake porn pictures might have been a woman

Why is that worth keeping in mind? The result is still sexist discouragement.

It's worth keeping in mind because people might assume that men are worth avoiding, or let their guard down among women.

Re: Speaking up

#85

Post by petehotchkiss »

abcd_f wrote: post #3

So apparently, she is a web designer (or a web design agency owner), but it takes an effort to find a link to an actual portfolio. There is the Resources page but it's full of her own photos from every angle. The About page is too full of important aspects of her professional background including how she takes her coffee (apparently 3rd most frequently asked question). I understand that she is the brand and she's pro…

sigh clearly we as a community have a long long long way to go if we still have people of even contemplate such a reponse

Re: Speaking up

#86

Post by roguecoder »

mattdeboard wrote: post #13
h2s wrote: post #2

Are there any high profile women in this industry who haven't been treated like shit in some way such as this? What a nasty bunch of people we are. Are we (developers) the douchey 80s guy of the 21st century?

Seriously. I roll my eyes at some of the white-knighting that goes when a woman is slighted on the Internet but holy crap I get nervous for my girlfriend who's a talented programmer and about to graduate with a CS degree. Is this kind of bullshit in store for her? Sheesh.

I think the difference between white-knighting and not is whether it's about the woman or the person who's behaving badly.

"You shouldn't hit a girl!" It's not about women needing special protection, it is about the community not welcoming people who act like assholes. Of course women can defend themselves, but no one should have to defend themselves against that kind of behavior. And the only reason I believe it is important to talk about gender in this context is because women are being targeted because of their gender and using cultural weapons specific to their gender. Again, it is about the people behaving badly, not their targets.

Re: Speaking up

#87

Post by cllns »

dgrnbrg wrote: post #68

What do we do about less overt sexism? For instance, there's a popular developer who writes useful plugins named after genitalia and sex acts. I find his code useful, and I've asked him publicly and privately to choose nonsexual names for his code, but he and his users see nothing wrong with this. Even consider the "weinre" project that's on the frontpage right now. "Get your weinre out"?! His assertion is that it's…

If they're open source, you could fork them with better names. You could even set up an rsync type script so it's always up to date. This could nudge him in the right direction. This would fork discussion in that community, forcing everyone to use two names for a while. But it's probably worth it.

Re: Speaking up

#88

Post by mjmahone17 »

ucee054 wrote: post #52

Let's keep in mind that the perpetrator of the fake porn pictures might have been a woman

Unlikely (for all the reasons of oppression and power dynamics), but even if that were the case, the people who view said fake porn, and for whom having porn be something that, in their eyes, can break your career, are going to be overwhelmingly male, in all likelihood. If having nude photos of yourself were seen as something we ought reward and celebrate, as opposed to something that makes women look like "sluts," then it almost certainly would not have been the vector this perp would have used for attack. I have a feeling fake porn would be a lot less detrimental to a man's career than a woman's.

Re: Speaking up

#89

Post by DasIch »

Sexist misogynistic asshole on a project? Take away his commit access and ban him from all channels of communication, if you have the power and if you don't, don't contribute to the project anymore, make the reason public and create an alternative if possible.

In daily life I don't hang out with those assholes, do you? If not, why the fuck are you doing it online? Just because they have decent skills? How many people do they keep away from your project and from this community who could easily make up for that, who would have better skills and who would bring you project much further?

If you have a project and want to do something against what is currently fashionable in discrimination, stop writing comments, write a code of conduct and let's be honest if you don't, you are not any better than the people you are criticizing.

Re: Speaking up

#90

Post by timsally »

Whenever an instance of blatant sexism comes up, an attempt is invariably made to rationalize away the fact that a sexist act has actually occurred. We have had two such attempts made here so far and I expect more. One commentator is attempting to advance the baseless theory that the bully did not care about the sex of his victim. This particular individual even goes so far to say that "the biggest problem" is the alleged misuse of labels related to racism or sexism, as if this could somehow be worse that the discrimination the disenfranchised experience on a day-to-day basis. Another commentator states that it is because of her popularity not her sex. This too is bunk. There are significantly more males in this industry with significantly more popularity. Yet no evidence is presented that these figures also have received this level of harassment.

There is one word for this behavior mentioned above: denial. Unfortunately, there seems to be a part of our community that refuses to call things what they are. This was an instance of sexism that manifested itself in a nasty way.

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