[Novalug] How to Encourage Women in Linux

Joel Fouse joel@fouse.net
Fri Jun 27 17:43:09 EDT 2008


On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 17:13 -0400, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:

> So the reason I mentioned that I'd only been on IRC for a month when I
> met Val is because the internet is a much easier place to be jerk than
> in person.  I stay in #ubuntu* channels now, so I don't get it so
> much, but even in those channels I've had the good ol' "pix plz"
> response to someone finding out I'm a girl...and, well, yesterday.  A
> thread that started out PGP was hijacked by people wanting to know
> what the girl looks like.  So, yeah, we do still get a bit too much
> attention focused on our appearance in the tech world.
> 
> And I think those magazines are disgusting.  They're definitely
> degrading, and well...with those sorts of things on the front cover,
> they belong more with the smut rags than Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
> Edition belongs having a dark bag over it.  Those headlines are
> certainly worse than a little cleavage.



I agree with the various comments along the lines of "Dude, grow up."
And I stand guilty as charged that my eye rolls and "Oh, fer cryin' out
loud" to myself and moving on when reading some of the less than
pertinent questions was not quite as proactively responsive as it could
have been.  My apologies for that.

That said, I would concede some of Jay's point about general media to
women and bolster it with two points, one general and one specific to
this situation.  First, that's not only the general media's message to
women, it's their message to men as well, and we need to realize our
proclivity to think of women in sexual terms in addition to general
personal terms is fed and encouraged by regular and routine exposure to
this garbage.  Not only are they telling women they need to look like
this and act like that, but they're also telling women AND men that men
are entirely sex-motivated robots, able to be influenced and directed at
will and incapable of rational thought separate from sex-related
influence.  Worse, we all buy it hook, line and sinker.  Frankly, this
pisses me off.  How many of you guys just thought, "Well, duh"?  Right.
Thanks for checking your brain at the door.

Second, and more to the point in this situation, the site with the
article in question (geeksaresexy.net) was decidedly less than helpful
in this regard.  It's not a reprimand (publish wherever you like);
merely an observation that the quick turn in chatter from tech to sex,
while inappropriate, was not _entirely_ unprompted.

Just my twopence; flame on as desired.  :D

- Joel

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