Mastodawn

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

Reflecting on all the times in my career as a software engineer I have been told that, yes, things were a bit unfair to me as a woman, but that I was being a trailblazer, I was the one discovering and establishing the path that would enable others to follow.

But you go back to the 70s and you see the same number of women programmers, being fed that exact same line
And in the 80s
and the 90s
and so on to today. The "trailblazer" narrative is a lie told by managers to make themselves feel better

Manuela Malasaña

sorry about how everything is kinda fucked up, it's just that you are so unique there is no precedent for people like you existing here

Fascinating how this same line of bullshit is given to me as a female programmer in the tech industry and as a contralto in classical singing when actually there have been people like me for over a hundred years in both

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

The most sickening variation of this to me is how women have been in competitive video gaming scenes since inception, but their history has been completely omitted from cultural memory and women are still being treated as newcomers to the scene. The fact that women existing in that space for decades didn't "pave the way" but were instead erased entirely

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

A comforting lie that a lot of men tell themselves is that sexism exists because some fools don't believe that women are as intelligent or capable as men, so if we just *show* them, when confronted with the evidence, they will stop being sexist. And you see this attitude projected backwards in historical fiction, men 200 years ago must not have known women can do any intellectual task a man can! They did know. They do know. This "just show them the evidence" strat doesn't work bc they've seen it

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

I have been able to suceed in my career as a female game developer due to my exceptional ability. All the other female developers I've worked with have also been exceptional. It's not that women are better devs, it's that mediocre female devs are brutally ejected. Nearly any man believes that there exist exceptional women who are very capable. What's more unusual is a man willing to tolerate a mediocre woman with the compassion he extends to a mediocre man

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

a woman should not have to be exceptional in order to suceed in tech. Competence and reliability should be enough. It's certainly enough for men. As it should be. It is statistically impossible for everyone to be exceptional

Manuela Malasaña Mar 9

To show just how far back this goes, in the libretto of Handel's 1724 Julius Caesar in Egypt, Ptolemy sneers at his sister Cleopatra that as a woman she is unsuitable for rule, that she should concern herself with sewing and weaving. London audiences in 1724 understood this to be Ptolemy being a sexist dickbag. This does not mean 1724 London was all about championing women in leadership. Cleopatra is exceptional, therefore she is worthy of rule. less exceptional women need not apply

Isabel Ruffell Mar 9

the idea goes back to Homer, and your example is probably riffing on that, directly or indirectly. There is irony there too, as e.g. Andromache has a far better understanding of the tactical situation than Hector does, poor lamb. And Telemachus' political capacity is considerably less than his mum's.

2something Mar 10

@iaruffell @Xibanya Euripides also has Andromache be "one of the good ones" with respect to her status as a "barbarian:" despite not being Greek, she's better than Hermione and Menelaus.

@Xibanya So true. And I'm so done with being exceptional (or having to prove that I am). This is fucked up.

@doncish @Xibanya exceptional people are not for hire.

@lritter @Xibanya I doubt that. Know quite a few who are forced to be.

@doncish @Xibanya that doesn't sound very consensual. maybe those are hire situations in name only.

@lritter @Xibanya You are not wrong. It's called capitalism.

Riley S. Faelan Mar 9

@lritter So, I hear you're new to capitalism!

How do you like it so far?

@doncish @Xibanya

@Xibanya Same for anyone who isn't a white cis male from a comfortable background who never needed to struggle. A lot of space is made for white male mediocrity but even with that you as only some or even none of those things must strive harder and take more shit than they do because they're all coddled. Paperthin boys scared of being shamed, they believe that "no matter how noble a minority might be, they are still lower than the least worthy white man" because in a true meritocracy they wouldn't even be allowed through the door so they need to stack the deck.

Rafa Font 🌻 🇪🇺 🏀Mar 9

@Xibanya I wonder if this would be true as well for team sports. Fewer women play, for instance, youth basketball. But we as a society put up with a lot of male poor basketball youth skills.

poleguy looking for lost tools Mar 9

@rafa_font @Xibanya It absolutely is like this in sports. My daughter plays Ice Hockey (Illinois, US), and played with the boys until she was 15. The women get decimated and pushed to the girls teams.

And I play in the adult leagues. It is very hard for women to start or stick with it there. It's maybe 50:1 or 100:1 men to women. I've worked very hard to encourage an old college friend (woman) to learn to skate and play hockey. But there are tons of terrible/mediocre men playing (like me!)

@Xibanya I’m not the first in the replies/quotes to hear “You’re one of the good ones” echoing through history. Chilling and enraging.

strider22 Mar 9

@Xibanya Roberta Williams for the win. Anything under her name were quality games.

🍄slow learner, ❤️‍🔥deep feeler Mar 9

I appreciate your talking about mediocrity. Our hang-up on exceptionalism undermines worker solidarity. Even when we think we are supporting a group that is held down.

@Xibanya

Advocating for the right for mediocrity, as we should all be doing, means rejecting performance as a measure of status and looooots of people aren't ready for that. Just saying "competition as a value should be banned" is not well-received, it is too ingrained. "well it's only for fun/it's just a game" "I'm just competing with myself"

Machine Lord Zero Mar 9

@Xibanya The problem isn't that they don't know, it's that they haven't had the shit beaten out of them >:(

@Xibanya It's been a really common mistake on the part of liberals in particular to assume that education is the difference when fundamental belief systems are in play.

New information won't change a misogynist even if it's genuinely new. You're making logical arguments against an emotional position when you approach it that way.

Lona Theartlav Mar 9

@Xibanya The example of it that i like is sports. Every time a woman won in a mixed sports discipline, it was noticed. And the immune reaction was to separate the discipline into a male league and a female league often with a deliberately incompatible scoring system. Cause god forbid there be any lasting evidence that we are better at anything!

tuban_muzuru Mar 9

... as I see sexism. What follows is no flex - my Mom out-earned my father about 5:1 , yet her Christian beliefs led her to follow his cheating ass everywhere.

Finally she put her foot down, on the strong advice of her brother.

I've given assertiveness training to Indian women coders. It's often the first time they've ever said No to a man.

Machine Lord Zero Mar 9

@Xibanya Only reason we have Gundam today is because of women

@Xibanya burger Becky is no longer with us may she rest in peace

@Xibanya Where are you all applying to? In my previous job where I did the hiring, a significant portion I hired were women. And in my current job no woman has applied yet but I'm pretty sure we wouldn't really make a difference between a man and a woman, all that matters is that they're suited for the job.