[Noisebridge-discuss] Some interesting thoughts on "benevolent sexism"

Garrett Mace garrettmace at gmail.com
Fri Apr 5 03:57:07 UTC 2013


This is the most prevalent form I observe, and difficult for people to understand and admit, let alone stop. I remember thinking the same way years ago, but experience tempered that greatly. Time spent working alongside people with different skills teaches you to neither put someone on a pedestal, nor think less of them, based on a few external characteristics. It does not mean you can't feel attraction, as we're hardwired for that, but it teaches you not to artificially inflate your expectation of amazement or disappointment. Or take action to protect or hinder someone based on the same process.

While there are exceptions, I believe most of this comes from younger (physically or emotionally) people who don't have enough real world experience to learn NOT to judge people instantly (right after they just got the hang of judging people!). The internet is going to be a never-ending source of this demographic, which really never had a voice before. However, I think that just as many positive new attitudes are coming from this group as negative ones. But the negative ones resonate too well.

This won't be fixed in our generation.


On Apr 4, 2013, at 8:23 PM, Rachel McConnell <rachel at xtreme.com> wrote:

> I always kinda wondered why I cringe when someone is astonishedly pleased that as a woman I [code|weld|CAD|etc].  That ought to be a compliment, right?  Excellent discussion here.  Go Sci-Am!
> 
> Rachel1.0
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Some interesting thoughts on "benevolent sexism"
> 
> Lots of really good thoughts here, esp. comparing obituaries and the
> response to "I fucking love science" revealing her gender:
> 
> http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/2013/04/02/benevolent-sexism/
> 
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