Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 21:45:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: wes@softweyr.com (Wes Peters) Cc: marko@uk.radan.com, licia@o-o.org, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Women in FreeBSD ( was Re: Is there a reseller program?) Message-ID: <199902062145.OAA19715@usr02.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <19990205222817.I6050@softweyr.com> from "Wes Peters" at Feb 5, 99 10:28:17 pm
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> Overtly, no, but issues like race and gender always come up, it's > a factor of human life. Race is less apparent than gender in many > ways; often names boil down to simple categories of "vaguely > european", "vaguely oriential", and "I have no idea." If, on the > other hand, your name is Licia, Laura, or Sue, chances are pretty > good that most males of european descent are immediately going to > leap to the conclusion the poster is female. Depending on who the > reader is, this will cause them to pay more or less attention to > the author, be more or less critical of their opinions, and more > or less patient with them. All of these also apply to those of a > different culture. With respect, I have to say that most of this is baloney. Classification of people is almost always based on self identification; this is true in face-to-face forums as well, although some aspects of self are more evident in face-to-face. Having come up through bulletin boards from before the late 70's, I claim there is anonymity on the other end of a wire. If Sue had been posting from day one under the name "Frank", and had steered clear of discussions in which rendering oneself as an example were necessary, you wouldn't be able to make assumptions about "Frank's" gender. Not everyone's name falls into sterotypically male or sterotypically female according to western european tradition. Hell, my name's "Terry", I have a sibling named "Tracy", and another sibling whose middle name is "Lee". I know many, many people named names like "Robin", "Jamie", "Tony", "Micky", "Lynn", etc. ...and, yes, "Pat". This supposed "Sword of Damocles" is two edged. If a forum is going to react, as you predict, on the basis of the assumption of gender and/or race, said assumption itself based on a moniker, why then you control that forum utterly, since you are free to pick whatever moniker you want to map your presented identity (and therefore the forum's assumptions) onto, to the most benefit to yourself. How many of you have ever met "Jordan"? One of the most public figures in terms of face-to-face on these lists, but can you tell me, other than anecdotal information and references to possibly forged pictures on WWW pages that could have been PhotoShop'ed from those that came with a new picture fram or wallet, what "Jordan" looks like? You have absolutely *no idea* who you are communicating with when you are on a mailing list, unless they identify themselves. The only way you can classify these people is if you pull a "Leather Goddesses of Phobos", where at the start of the adventure game, your avatar is in a bar and has to go to the restroom. The game gets its idea of gender from which one you pick -- because at the other end of a wire, it can't see you to make the judgement. So you declare your guess, and you aren't contradicted, so you assume you now know. Any classification has only the importance that you attach to it yourself. It's not a cultural thing, it's a personal thing. Bias of any kind always is, no matter how much someone might want to blame their culture, their teachers, or their family. And personal, too, is the bias that causes you assume there will be a bias. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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