On Sunday 25 July 2004 3:41 pm, Helen Faulkner wrote: > I am thinking about some of the comments made on the list about the > issue of women being treated more gently than men, or similar ideas. If > I recall correctly, some people are worried about the idea that we might > be percieved as wanting special treatment. I understand the worry and I > agree with it, but with a qualification which is based on my experience > in another male dominated field with which I have more experience > (academic physics). > > The problem is that in a community that is very male dominated, men > learn to interact only with other men. They end up with a set of > behaviours that work well when you are interacting with men.
I've always thought of it not as male or female behavior, exactly, but rude/hostile v. courteous/welcoming. I know quite a few men geeks who avoid certain online communities and LUGs because they are dominated by rude, mean twits, it's not just a "girly" thing. And I have never seen a man attacked just for being male. There's quite a large difference between 'you are stupid and wrong, and here is why' and 'you dumb woman, take some Midol. Wanna go out with me?' I do know that under no circumstances do we need to justify, or feel apologetic, for wanting groups like Debian-Women. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carla Schroder this message brought to you by Libranet 2.8 and Kmail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
