I can understand that alot of people want to just "blow off" posts like
this... however sometimes these aren't "flame baits"... alot of guys don't
(looks halfway to the mirror :) ) issues women face. They want to
understand atleast where your comming from... and places where issues that
are raised don't fit thier current mental masks/maps...
having now said that.. here is my response/babble :)
The creation of a list of major "geek women" contributers demonstrates to
the men and women that yes there are women geek and yes you too can be
one too (provided you have the proper genes :) )...
Mental masks that people are raised with limit themselves and others... I
read an article bout a year ago I think.. about the development of the
ENIAC and how women possibly played a larger part then the men in the
development.. however since it wasn't "acceptable" for women to be doing
such things at that time.. they were hired and listed as clerical staff...
Women in society are still very much "placed" as 'secondaries' to men...
As drachen has pointed out to me numorus times and ways.. society,
standard rituals, media, toys, etc.. seek to remove/prevent/limit a
woman's identity especialy any form of idendtity that places a woman as
something other then 'secondary' to male.
Society and media are improving slowly (watch "The Sound of Music"
sometime if you don't belive me :) or just listed to the "I am 16" song
:))
Methods of achiving change that probably won't work are things like quotas
and affative action programs.. that place the "rights" and "features" of
one group above another... this tends to make bridging groups harder
because it seperates rather then unites groups..
Ohh the deaf thing.. whoooo deaf people rock! :) (speaking as a hearing
impaired person myself.. not quite deaf yet :) ) Deaf people face alot of
wrong masking because people tend to take one disability and classify the
person as dis-able to achive.. yet.. if you think about it.. a deaf person
can pretty much do most anything a hearing person can with a proper
support structure..
ok.. I'm realy realy babbling.. so I'll close with a few closing thoughts:
there will always be someone better and worse then you...
(note: always is temporarly being defined as the odds of things not
"always" fitting the case= 1 in (enter population of the world / 2)
roughly {ie.. your more likely to win the lottery daily :) } ok so my
math is wrong here.. plug in appropriate numbers pleae :):
There will always be someone prettyer then you and uglyer then you..
There will always be someone smarter then you and someone stupider then
you..
There will always be someone richer then you and poorer then you...
et al...
hugs,
Chris
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
