Explaining Away Women Geeks
Via my fellow Skepchick Amanda last week, I found this fantastic post from Thus Spake Zuska about the way gender stereotypes are exploited in the press and her handy checklist to those wishing to write about her or other female geeks:
- Are you planning on describing me as (A) not what you'd expect, (B) surprisingly pretty, (C) a rarity, or (D) all of the above?
- Will you be emphasizing my Womanly Attributes? (A) Yes, (B) Yes, in detail, or (C) Yes, in detail, with references to giggles and cupcakes.
- Will you also explain how technology has unsexed me? (A) Yes, (B) Yes, while simultaneously infantilizing you, you "geeky super-normal enthusiastic girl"!
- Are you planning to include intimations that I slept my way to the top? (A) Yes, (B) No, just an attribution of your success to Powerful Male Associates. Who you probably slept with.
- Will you end by asking when I'm going to give up all these crazy ideas and go back to full-time Womanhood? (A) Yes, (B) Yes, because you scare the boys.
Warning - there's a particularly nasty troll in the comments, but the other commenters, male and female alike, make short work of him.
Hitting on Girls in Bookstores
Will you be my Elizabeth Bennett?
Yes, it's a link to an entire blog dedicated to that one topic.
As a side note, from my own personal experience back in my free-wheeling single days, yes, you can pick up girls in bookstores. Even though I was technically picked up in the bookstore cafe, and the man in question turned out to be probably the least literate one I've ever known. Whatever. I'm just trying to toss out there a bit of hope for those angling for bookish girls.
You're a Girl? And You Work in Technology?
Pop culture-meets-feminism blog DollyMix publishes the first in a series of interview from their sister site ShinyShiny about women in tech with HP research engineer April Mitchell:
... if less women enter the fields of computer science and engineering then the future of technology is definitely at risk. Progress in any field without the input of both genders will put that field at a huge disadvantage.
Note: I'm linking to the DollyMix version because in the new future I'll have some DollyMix-related news to share. Be on the lookout for a familiar byline over there soon.
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