Although I'm a Jewish atheist, so... well, my bf is a non-Jewish atheist, so I think our chances are good, at least on this ground.

Brightstar, stop your bitchign and moaning. A message board on the internet makes you question your right to your opinion? Get a hold of yourself. Really. :)

The fact remains that there is always going to be misogyny: there is always going to be an undercurrent of hatred for women on (some) men's part which really lacks a parallel on the female side.

That is because, unlike men, we have nothing to lose. And men know it. And, usually in a small part at the back of their minds, they fear us. In the worst cases (as in this) that fear and resentment spring up in the form of sexual threats and violence. I have a feeling that someone is very insecure about his Wee Willy here.

Which is not to say that misogyny is to be in any way condoned or abetted. It's like rape: there are always going to be rapes, but that doesn't mean that rapists shouldn't be punished with extreme severity.

ltgesq, I have to say I don't agree with your statement. The class you took was 25 years ago - surely a lot has changed since then. I work in the technology field for a large, well-known technology company. The field is male-dominated as is my company. I'm the only member in my very large team who's female. And so far I haven't encountered misogyny or sexism *knock on wood*. One of the bloggers quoted in this article made a statement that made it seem that only in technology blogs women are ostracized when they step foward etc. That form of misogyny can be found in any industry. Working in a male-dominated field does not mean that you're automatically subject to an unbending patriarchy.

Women are however, under-represented in this field and that brings with it another set of issues. But that isn't the fault of men. If you're under-represented, your needs simply won't be met and since technology is a sweeping phenomenom, women's needs are not going to be met till more women enter this industry. It's as simple as that. It's unfair to expect that a sea of male executives and programmers will intuit the software needs of females. The stereotype that men are logical and computer-oriented needs to be stripped away - I'd rather see articles on that. Instead of bemoaning the tech industry for whatever pockets of misogyny that exists out there, we should find more articles encouraging women to enter this field rather than dissuade them.

ltgesq wrote:

angry misogyny is common in the tech world

In college about twenty five years ago, i took a class called "digital electronics". The professor was the sort of female hating gay academic that you see in the sciences and mathematics. The large remainder of the students in the class were clearly destined to experience most of their sex in "lifelike rubber." There was a common thread of female hatred and anger running through the class.

... snip ...

ed. spelling

Can we conclude that "All Xs are Y" from the premise "There exists an X that is Y"? This question should be easy for someone with legal training to answer, especially so for a defense attorney.

Some men have brains that are over-specialized for pure reason, so they work at understanding women systematically like it's math and lot of them -- as you can see here -- end up with a lot of rage.

The kind of rage overly-rational people often end up with when they try to understand (or control or dominate) emotional or social topics using the only tool they have -- machine logic.

A couple of the men here are becoming a character in my second novel because they fit that type so well.

You see a lot of it in physics -- men with overly systematic brains who are trying to understand gender like it's math, who end up feeling permanently enraged and victimized by the topic when their approach fails.

I'm reevaluating all of the sexist BS I endured in physics grad school as a kind of manifestation of men with Asperger's trying to parse gender with brains that aren't fully up to the task because they have an impaired ability for empathy and for social interaction.

From Wiki:

AS is characterized by:[6][4]

* Narrow interests or preoccupation with a subject to the exclusion of other activities

* Repetitive behaviors or rituals

* Peculiarities in speech and language

* Extensive logical/technical patterns of thought

* Socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior and interpersonal interaction

I think about the men who really truly bugged the living hell out of me back in grad school and I see them all fitting this description easily.

Relentlessly obsessed with gender in a logical/mechnical way, saying grossly offensive things and then blaming the people who got offended for choosing to overreact.

I didn't really understand back then. If I had, I never would have wasted so much energy responding to their demands for a debate. I would have been able to put it all in perspective, and even have a little empathy for them.

You can't teach someone empathy. If they're not capable, they're not capable. You can only feel sorry for them, that's all.

Sexist speech on the internet is psychological or symbolic violence against women. I'd like the internet to be regulated with this in mind. At least, there should be discussions about this psychological, symbolic violence against women. It gets doubly and triply worse when it's women of color or poor women of color.

But what it really is about is just how hateful and unpleasant most people can be when they have the freedom to voice their opinionls. The death threats, the misogyny, the racism, the ignorant unrestrained malice, the selfishness, the pettyness is just humanity at its most honest. This is what these people really are.

But what it really is about is just how hateful and unpleasant most people can be when they have the freedom to voice their opinionls.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

(Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience == Total Fsckwad)