I was partly interested in this because when I hear about discrimination, whether gender or race based, I always try to put myself in the shoes of the victimized, but with an emotionless, chess-playing mindset. What actions can I take to further my gender/people?
So, I started going through the discrimination my character would face. Obviously, it would be an uphill battle with people telling him he can't do it. Side note: when I read accounts of "discrimination" by women...a lot of the time it seems like the only discrimination they face is people saying shit to them. WTF? Its just words. Anyway. So people will be saying shit, which is probably the easiest thing to deal with...you ignore it. Then, there would be people making shit difficult for him...stuff like he'll have to study twice has hard because he will have to get a perfect score just to be admitted into whatever program, etc.
And then I thought about girls today in all-male environments, and how they are constantly hounded on a sexual level, and taking some inspiration from Mad Men, I tried to imagine this guy landing a programming job, with all girls, and the girls never leave him alone, and constantly make inappropriate jokes, and constantly...want to sleep with him...................I shouldn't have to tell you that at this point, the entire idea fell apart. I would fucking love to live in a world like that.
First of all, since I'm the one being discriminated against, I don't have to listen to anyone bitching about being discriminated against. Secondly, after being forced to be basically the best coder on the planet just to get a job, I will constantly be hounded by unsolicited offers for sex, or at least dates. It won't matter how fucking ugly I am, because I'll be like the only guy in the fucking building. This is basically the perfect fucking life.
I have heard this phrase "the odds are good but the goods are odd" referring to men in the computing fields, which is why I put significant effort into being able to break out of the computer nerd stereotype at will (I also hate 50% of nerds). So, maybe to make this a true comparison, we need to make all of the girl programmers fat and/or WOW players. Or worse, D&D players. Or even worse...well I can't really think of anything more annoying than D&D.
I'm not going to do that though--not only do I believe that most male programmers are attractive enough, but I can't be bothered to waste time writing about a world full of fat girls. In fact, typically, when I write fiction, all of the women are fit and bisexual. The reason they are bisexual, obviously, is because I am just an enlightened and tolerant person....
So um...I'm stuck with this story. I can't...I really want to explore what it would feel like to be discriminated against, because I feel like most of the time I am just watching from the sidelines, wanting to do whatever I can to encourage more female participation in certain areas of life, but whenever I talk to people about actually doing something about it, it seems like those people are more interested in just sitting around bitching about what my gender has done wrong.
So...maybe I will write this story, but its not going to be a serious essay. In fact, it is going to involve:
- motorcycles
- sex on motorcycles
- tunnels
- cult people wearing cool looking robes
- gargoyle statues
- a sword fight
- an elite cadre of female programmers
- an unnecessary amount of sex scenes
- people dying
- an NSA agent gets burned alive or raped or shot by local police during a knockless warrant raid or something
- an offensive patent lawyer gets burned alive or raped or shot by local police during a knockless warrant raid or something
- an executive of monsanto gets burned alive or raped or shot by local police during a knockless warrant raid or something
- running from cops
- explosions
- races on motorcycles in tunnels
- secret society
In the same way that the rare girl is lured into the male-dominated world of motorcycles, I need a guy to be lured into this sort of awesome female-dominated world of programming. Most guys don't love it; he does. His love for it draws him into this world like a magnet. Maybe he is shy and sheltered, and trying to maintain appearances for an overbearing family member. No, maybe not. Maybe he is alone, like the narrator in The Great Gatsby. Hey what if it was kind of like that, except Gatsby was a girl?
I think I at least have a name for him: Ethan. In computer land people call him "echo."
- Ignoring Naysayers
ReplyDeleteI assume you've read this article: usenix
It's important to remember that words mean a lot more when we're younger. Think about being in middle school, and how much words hurt then. Most people begin exploring CS in high school, it's one of the worst times for words. And social isolation/heckling at that age?
Who wants to stay somewhere where they aren't welcome? The only people who *can* are those with above average self-esteem and/or ability.
- Not Just words
I think you should look up 'stereotype threat'. Sometimes, we subconsciously make shit difficult for ourselves. And 'imposter syndrome'. Because sometimes we perceive ourselves to be so much worse than everyone, when we are not.
Anyways, there's other ways that people can make things difficult for you. There's more subtle forms than social isolation. Like not being picked for a job, on the [subconscious] basis that you have a female name: springer Or being interrupted more in group discussions: jstor
How do you even find out about if you didn't get a job because your female-ness skewed the odds against you? Or that Johnny Bob was selected to be mentored over you, because people are subconsciously biased against women? You don't. That's why women often only have words that were said against them. Words can be a reflection of deeper seated conscious and unconscious biases that turn into biased action.
Most of those issues cut across disciplines, but CS has a personality problem. Most females just aren't socialized in a way that makes them appreciate competitive nerdiness and geek culture. Then combine that with stereotype threat and imposter syndrome, and you have Computer Science's problem.
- CS Attractiveness
The CS dept was about 40% D&D players, 20% WOW players, 15% of people who aren't 'attractive' but you could probably get over it if you had to, and 5% of the remaining 'attractive' people had personalities too atrocious to get over. And then 10% who might have been desirable. So, you're at like, 25 guys per cohort? That sounds fairly high to me, but whatever. And also, that 25% may not actually be interested in you, regardless of your attractiveness.
I'm not sure how to explain why being objectified is demoralizing...You're missing an entire history of your gender being treated as a possession, only to be treated as a sexual object later on.
From a pop culture POV this interview with Dustin Hoffman touches on it a bit. Perhaps women's work and worth is often evaluated with their attractiveness more in the forefront than for males. Since I don't currently have any sort of official research on this (Dustin Hoffman interviews, ha!), just consider it something to think about.
And, let's be honest, if you sleep with everyone in the office & then get a promotion, everyone's going to say it's because you slept your way to the top. Maybe you can just ignore those words as well, I guess.
- Bitching
In reality, you'd probably hear more complaints as any event that is geared at your gender will talk about this issue. And you're likely to surround yourself with others of your gender and it is common to bond over some of these discriminations. Or maybe, instead, you're spending your time dealing with people saving their ego by telling you that you got your awesome scholarship because you're female.
And then, perhaps you're not hearing as many people bitching about discrimination, but instead you're being discriminated against. I'd really rather hear people complain, afterall, can't you just ignore them? "Its just words."
Great comments; not sure if I cant fit all of them in one story though.
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