There’s enough information out there to prove that creepy nerds are not the problem with female representation in STEM. Then again, there’s also enough information out there to prove that gay people don’t cause earthquakes. People will believe what they want to believe.

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    On the other hand, I’ve said above that I don’t like completely ignoring the accounts of thousands of people who say there’s a problem. Although my female friends in computer science keep insisting they’ve never encountered sexism there, many many others say they have.

Please note that my views are not necessarily represented by this post. I still don't know how I feel about this, but it was mostly interesting to read.

bioemerl:

Sounds to me like the reality is more than a simple black and white, and that different situations exist in different areas, along with the fact that most issues people have are probably due to very subtle structural or cultural issues that don't seem at all like an issue at first but can result in very negative outcomes.

Ironically, it's like programming, or debugging to be specific.

I have really, really, loved all the discussion that has come from this article. I saw it (the original) a while back, and was amazed with the comments and the discussion there.

Now I get to be amazed with the discussion everywhere else.

One big thing I have to say about this article in particular is that it isn't just feminists "nerd shaming". It's not a problem created by feminism at all, and viewing nerds as creeps has been an age old practice. Maybe you can say it is exaggerated by feminism however?

Edit from here down:

I also find it kind of hilarious that the "stop ignoring us" message has done a full 180 in this discussion. It's normally "the feminists" saying that people are too fast to ignore women's experiences, and here we have "men" saying they are in the exact same situation.

I am also skeptical of the article going on to compare nerds to jews. I can agree and see the points, but it always feels dishonest to me when someone brings up nazis or similar in any conversation.

    I am not saying nerds have it “just as bad as Jews in WWII Germany” or any nonsense like that. I am not saying that prejudice against nerds is literally motivated by occult anti-Semitism, or accusing anyone of being anti-Semitic.

    I am saying that whatever structural oppression means, it should be about structure. And the structure society uses to marginalize and belittle nerds is very similar to a multi-purpose structure society has used to belittle weird groups in the past with catastrophic results.

Not too skeptical though.


posted 3399 days ago