Lot of really long posts about how sexism is bad on p-g-o recently. I think we all get that? If I were in charge, this is how things would go down:
Person 1: If we followed these guidelines, I'd have less trouble explaining to girls what I do.
Person 2: Hey, that remark was a bit sexist.
Person 1: Oh, I didn't mean it to be. I'm sorry, out of my respect for that comment and the community, I'll be more considerate in the future.
Person 2: Word.
[High fives all round]
Bertrand says:
Word. Damn, crying about sexism is so paternalistic anyway. Women don't need people to defend them anymore, it's the new millennium for Christ's sake. Let's focus on technology and make open source not suck for a change.
Stephen Gentle says:
That would have been a better outcome. But still, I fail to see (as a native English speaker from Australia) how that could be taken as being sexist in the first place...
Dennis says:
Word, high fives.
Jeremy says:
> [High fives all round]
That's heightist. I demand an apology.
Lefty says:
Yeah, it really is as simple as that, Chris. Funny that it seems to be so difficult for a lot of people.
Dread Knight says:
Noobs need to cut the crap and write more patches and documentation. Seriously.
Greg K Nicholson says:
Stephen Gentle: we forgive you your failure.
Word.
Jon says:
Sounds great. i would love it if people could spare the time though, to help to explain to people such as Stephen Gentle and myself, who I assure you are not evil chauvinistic pigs, precisely why it was sexist in the first place. I think that there is a bit of a "chilling effect" going on, where people are afraid to question or discuss such things for fear of being branded pond-scum.
Bertrand says:
Also, all sexism aside, women in 2009 (and PARTICULARLY in open source) have the very same opportunities than men but don't produce a thousandth of the quality software in comparison. That's a fact. Less whining, more coding please.
And god do I second that "high fives all around" philosophy...
Harpo says:
Course, on the one hand women are complaining about not being treated as equals, on the other hand they're running around creating groups like BSDChix and Fedora Women and organizing GNOME Women Mini-Summits, thus pigeonholing themselves based entirely on their gender. Can't really have it both ways, I'm afraid.
erik snoeijs says:
@Jon It's sexism because it enforces a world view in which females don't understand technology.
That does not mean people are now saying 'You can't say that because all females do understand technology'. People are bitching about it because it's really crappy to hear that remark if you happen to be a woman who does know about tech.
@bertrand, firstly, OSS isn't just about code. Secondly unless you have some wonderful statistics for us to prove your statements your just trolling.
@Harpo, the reason for that and the reason why that isn't a problem is because the OSS community is lagging behind quite a bit when you look at gender distribution as compared to the that in the IT world at large.
Those groups aren't about being equal, those groups are there to get more woman to try and create a equal distribution.
Any comments?
