[hackerspaces] Hackers, feminism, and bullying

[Mark Janssen]

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 1:52 AM, Rhys Rhaven <rhys at rhavenindustrys.com> wrote:
>
> "Dudes, how about in 2013 if a bunch of women tell you something is fucked
> up for women, just like, believe them. Because you are a dude. "
>
> https://twitter.com/JustinMcElroy/status/291349696964857857
>
> This is from a dude on another mailing list I'm on thats discussing this:
>
> Replace 'women' and 'dude' with any other pair of words and read that
> statement again.
> Try these:
> Atheists, how about in 2013 if a bunch of Christians tell you something is
> fucked up for Christians, just like, believe them. Because you are an
> atheist.
> Civilians, how about in 2013 if a bunch of governments tell you something is
> fucked up for government, just like, believe them. Because you are a
> civilian.

All of these examples are invalid, the fact is that women: 1) don't
choose their gender (unlike being christian). 2) they are the
complement to men, without which we wouldn't exist and 3) they are
half of the population.

> Women, how about in 2013 if a bunch of dudes tell you something is fucked up
> for dudes, just like, believe them. Because you are a women.

This one is invalid for a different reason:  they have a historical
disadvantage where men have not.  That means some leeway should be
given so as to correct it; i.e. err on the side of generosity if
there's no countermanding data.  ... But that's just me.

Cheers,

mark