beeplet's Journal: Miscellaneousness....

The slashdot gender bias bothers me. Not the fact that slashdot readers seem to be 95% male, but the fact that there are so many negative comments about women. Especially when they get modded up as "insightful"... I also read forums where the gender ratio is reversed, and there are nowhere near as many negative comments about men on those boards. So what gives?

One thing in particular I don't understand is guys who complain of the "ditziness" of their wife/girlfriend. It's ok to like someone who isn't a geek (obviously) but you should respect her enough to not make fun of her behind her back. I've also seen women flamed about feeling uncomfortable in certain MMORPGs or saying they couldn't wear the latest tech accessory to work. In the case of the latter, people didn't seem to understand that it isn't just vanity that makes women "dress up" for work. There are plenty of unwritten rules that put much stricter constraints on women's dress than on men's. I recently read Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth," which really drove the point home.

There's also the eternal question of whether men are inherently better suited to tech careers than women. I don't believe that there's anything in the work itself that can't be done equally well by either sex. I just think it is very hard for women to break into fields that have been traditionally male-dominated. I'm in astrophysics, at seminars and talks I'm frequently the only female in the room. Once an older male professor saw me in the library, and asked if I would make coffee, since the secretary was out that day... Often I feel like I have something to prove, when I'd hoped that as a society we'd be long past that.

I'll bet a lot more women read slashdot than most people realize. A lot of them probably just don't post, because who wants to open herself up to that kind of scrutiny and criticism? This is how negative stereotypes perpetuate themselves.

I was just thinking about this today because someone replied to one of my posts and referred to me as "he". Now, I can understand making the assumption based on the slashdot demographic, but really I'd hoped my .sig would be a clue...

Short of going around flaming people who post sexist jokes, I'm not sure how to improve the atmosphere here. For now I guess I'll stick with trying to contribute something intelligent once in a while. Not sure if this counts... if not, I blame the vodka... unfiltered... :P