the pie may be rotten, but its the only one we've got
i.e. silicon valley does not work very well; it reflects the values of a
technocratic elite, with a lot of privilege and bias.
as we continue culture change going forward, there will be a critical mass
of diversity, where organisations will become more productive.
what are now niche orgs will outperform; larger orgs will see the advantage
of more well rounded workers, and diversity in their teams.
we will have to improve the pie one slice at a time.
jim hayes
On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 1:30 PM, Daniel and Elizabeth Case <
dancase(a)frontiernet.net> wrote:
I like a few of
the ideas, such as geeky nerds may become more misogynist
than non-geeky non-nerdy
men because of the bullying >they underwent as
schoolkids. I would say that fits with studies of perpetrators who end up
in prison. That could also be the reason >for >the weirdly harsh language
used in some of the Gamergate battlegrounds.
You think?
Sorry for the sarcasm, but as this insight has been percolating around the
feminist Internet lately I’ve been surprised it took this long (I suppose
it’s an example that shows that women can be just as oblivious to a male
perspective as the other way around). It was obvious to me that was part of
what was in play during Gamergate.
In fact, having been at one time (not my whole teenage years) part of that
geek/nerd culture, I could have predicted Gamergate years ago. When I was
14 or so, about 1982, I recall reading an article in *Dragon* magazine by
a male (of course) writer calling on fellow gamers to be more accommodating
to the women involved in D&D and RPG more (ahem) broadly at the time. He
pointed specifically to a woman he knew who, in a major tournament at a
convention, more or less singlehandedly saved her entire party, only to
passed over for the “best female player” award or something like that in
favor of what he described as a “silent, dumb-blond type woman.” But what
has really stuck in my mind over the years was his account of a fellow DM
showing him a list of NPCs that populated a city he’d created for one of
his campaigns. The guy noted that he’d given all the women high charisma
and low strength, “so they’ll be easier to rape when their city gets
conquered.” The writer anticipated the likely response (which I’m sure he’d
heard in real life) that that was “realistic” by asking “Does your fantasy
world also have high unemployment, runaway inflation and pollution just
like our world does? I didn’t think so.”
Perhaps I was so aware of this that I thought, during Gamergate, that
everyone else opposed to it was, too, and that their remarks were taking
this into account. I began to suspect after a while that they weren’t, and
now I know, unfortunately, that I was right.
To bring this back to the Wikipedia gender gap issue, it is useful to
remember that rhetoric treating the nerds as one and the same as the frat
guys (so to speak) is likely to backfire in constructively resolving issues
where that is possible (IOW, males who don’t feel they’ve been allowed to
share a great deal, if at all, in this male-privilege thing are likely to
deeply resent being accused of doing so).
I would write more, but I have to get ready to go out and see “Star Wars:
The Force Awakens.”
With my wife.
Daniel Case
(currently wearing a black T-shirt I bought at Wal-Mart depicting an
exasperated stormtrooper at the Mos Eisley cantina bar framed by the
meme-style words “Those *were* the droids / I was looking for!”
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