vinnie wrote:
> You know what's funny -- This artical doesn't really bother me..After
> reading it, I probably woudln't *date* Roblimo, but seeing as he's both
> male and married, this probably wasn't a great fear anyway.
yeah, it didn't bother me either, and i think the reason is that it's
completely upfront about what it is -- there's no implication that women
can't possibly enjoy computers, for example, or even that all /. readers
are male. it says right there at the top that he gets young (immature)
male geeks asking him for advice a lot, and so he thought he'd offer some.
so he goes ahead and espouses his views of the world... and again, he
never says that women *should* live in the "clean-the-house,
cook-the-man's-dinner" box. just that that's the kind of woman he wants
(has?), and recommends for geeks. the fact that i disagree with that, and
indeed most of what he says, and that i think he's giving some pretty bad
advice to these kids, doesn't mean that i think he shouldn't post such
things on the site he runs (i know, no one is suggesting that), or that i
don't want to visit the site. it just means that i now think less of
"Roblimo" as a person. no big deal, since i'll probably never meet the
guy. maybe next time he writes an editorial i'll be less likely to read it.
kelly wrote:
> Maybe I'm giving Roblimo more credit than he deserves, but I saw it as
> a rather funny satire.
yeah, i don't know whether it was intended as satire... at first i thought
maybe it was going to be, but then as i read it i became less sure. one
thing i'm sure of is that there are some young immature geeks who are
taking it completely seriously, and trying to apply his advice to their
lives. that's a little sad, but again, not a reason (in my mind) to
boycott the site...
now, the one part which i found mildly offensive was his claim that geeks
can't be supportive in a relationship. i was offended not because he was
saying this about "girl geeks", but because he was also saying it about all
geeks. and it's just plain false. my fiancee and i have been together for
over six years, and although she's not as much of a geek as me, we are both
extraordinarily supportive of each other.
so if anything, i was offended as a geek, not as a feminist. (and yes, i
do consider myself a feminist. i hope my not being offended in this case
doesn't make me a bad feminist!) but i wasn't all that offended, partly
because i think society as a whole has a lot worse stereotypes of what
geeks are like, and so the possibility of adding "not supportive in a
relationship" to that doesn't really worry me. plus of course, his
audience isn't exactly a good cross-section of "society as a whole" anyway.
...derF\lieN
Neil "Fred" Picciotto --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- http://www.derf.net/
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
