[thechat] outburst and weird month all around

[chris hardy]

and another thanks Tara for replying - i had to go look in the archives to
see what it was to.

Deacon, your perspective on women that you presented is disturbing. At the
least you seem to feel victimized by women in some way. From an intellectual
standpoint, your viewpoint is incredibly ignorant. From an emotional
viewpoint, I hope that you are seeking professional help. This is a
viewpoint that will certainly limit opportunities in your life.

Entrance barriers to women in technology and in positions of power in
general are well documented, are currently under research study and many
organizations actively seek ways to lower the entrance barrier. 

Anyone who's interested in the topic of women in computing should consider
reading "Unlocking the Clubhouse". It's a 12 year study done at Columbia -
readable in an afternoon http://tinyurl.com/4pow4  

Honestly, it's been a very strange month on the women-in-technology front 

- the Debian "Hot Babe" debacle earlier this month (newsforge article:
http://tinyurl.com/4gcru) seems to have motivated a number of women to
abandon debian for gentoo (my personal observation from different
list-servs). It wasn't that Hot Babe itself was so offensive as the
developers were so dismissive of women's concerns. 

- The Philippine Computer Society (the largest Computer org. in the
Philippines) http://tinyurl.com/59rfy is austensibly seeking out "women who
best exemplify the qualities expected of future leaders of the Philippine
information and communications technology (ICT) industry." The entry form
requires height, weight, bust, waist, hips and 2 photos. ummmm.... so one
must be pretty to be a technology leader? well, I have some ideas about male
requirements for such a contest.

- Dr. Summers was mentioned earlier. What's so strange is that part of his
supporting evidence in that speech was that he gave his daughter 2 toy
trucks (which he believes provided her with a gender-neutral play
environment) and she gave the trucks "baby-doll" names. Somehow that proves
that women have a genetic predisposition to do poorly in math? That's a bit
of a logical leap. 

.02
-chris