Manuela MalasañaMar 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

Show threadManuela MalasañaMar 9

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

Show threadManuela MalasañaMar 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
Show threadManuela MalasañaMar 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
Show threadManuela MalasañaMar 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
Show threadManuela MalasañaMar 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
Show threadManuela Malasaña
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
Mar 9 at 10:33amWeb
Show threadIsabel RuffellMar 9

@Xibanya

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.

Show thread2somethingMar 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.