Monday, May 19, 2008

out-misogynining the misogynists

From the comments on Megan's post about Women in Tech, by John:

women just don't take to geekdom very well. It is not just technology. I don't know any women who are as passionate about their hobbies as the men I know. How many women do you know get into micro-brewing? Or civil war reenacting? Or history? Or chess? Not many. Some get into crafts or sewing bur rarely with the same kind of energy and passion that your typical male goes after a hobby.


Its not so much that John is a retard, or that he's wrong (women aren't interested in history? really? I don't think so) its that misogynistic comment's like John pass uncriticized in Megan' comment section, while overt and pointed ungendered criticisms are smeared as misogynistic.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mm-hm. Girls don't play video games, not like guys do -- that's why there was never an all-female Quake tourney, nor are there such creatures as all-female WoW guilds or Team Fortress 2 servers. And the SCA, pfft -- ain't no women found there, no sir!

Nor do girls (like me!) spend money on a good headset and a Copperhead mouse to make their TF2 experience better. Because they only like playing The Sims 'n' shit; y'know, girly games like Bejeweled and Wedding Dash and Kindergarten. And anything involving shopping.

Get it through your head, guys: people of the female persuasion can be just as into hobbies as people of the male persuasion. This is not an either/or universe, it's a both/and universe. Fucking hell.

Anonymous said...

How much do you want to bet that John has only really known about two women well at all in his lifetime and that one of those was his mother to boot? Guys who tend to assert that women don't exert the same amount of interest are usually the same sort of guys who can't be bothered to even find out what interests a woman in the first place (hint: it's more than shoes, lip gloss and fashion). Women don't take part in Civil War re-enactments because we aren't capable of focusing on the details; we don't take part because Civil War re-enactments are fucking stupid.

spencer said...

Girls have interests?

Who knew?

Anonymous said...

Spencer,
Never let it be said that this blog isn't edukational!

spencer said...

True.

But I did already know that Civil War re-enactments are totally stupid.

Unless they use live ammunition.

Susan of Texas said...

Micro-brewing is an excuse to get drunk. Women routiely become amatuer pastry chefs and expand cooking into a hobby. But that's wimmin's work, you know.

Yeah, we don't enact civil war battles. We learn how they made soap and candles and reproduce those crafts. We weave and knit and crochet, and sometimes even spin. But no, we don't put on a fine uniform and pretend to kill people. And passion and energy--those quilters don't have shows or contest, magazines and tools and acccessories, fabric collections, and auctions of blankets for thousands of dollars. Nope.

Blah, blah. You can't convince someone who emotes, not thinks.

spencer said...

Susan, as an avid, award-winning homebrewer, I must call bullshit on your characterization of that hobby. You could not be more wrong.

I don't know one single homebrewer who puts in the effort of building a brewing rig, getting the ingredients, giving up an entire Sunday afternoon to brew and then waiting around for at least two weeks (and generally longer) for the beer to mature *just* so they can get drunk. Why bother, when there's plenty of great beer available *right this minute?*

The rest of your comment is right on. But you're wrong about homebrewing.

M. Bouffant said...

Microbrewing is a project to make beer that tastes as good as or better than imports but isn't hideously over-priced or filled w/ weird chemical additives.

Then one gets drunk!!