Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Gendered spaces or ...

When you assume you make and ass out of you. So I just saw this bit about Yahoo's oh so classy display of tech chauvinism. Yes, it prompted me to post after months of silence. Because women hackers, I feel ya and it completely sucks to be in a space that ignores you exist. The thing is, there are plenty of female hackers, queer hackers, and even straight male hackers that just aren't into the whole lap dance thing. But in the eyes of yahoo, do they exist? Hells to the no.

As a dude who planned his wedding and the wedding of several friends as well as a male quilter, I feel ya! It's not just the obvious things like having lap dancers. It's all of the things that lap dancers say about who counts in that space and who does. I'm not a hacker, but here's my experience when J and I went to wedding expos and talked to vendors:

Having vendors LOOK PAST ME for my nonexistent female fiancee - "Where's your fiancee?"
Everything labeled as for the bride - Bridal Suite, Bridal Massage, Bridal pre-wedding brunch
Everything labeled for a woman - Something SHE will love. Making the day memorable for HER.
Pepto bismo pink for every product under the sun
Having a separate space for "the guys" to watch guy things like football, golf, etc.

The thing is, I spend money. For my wedding, I spent a considerable amount of money. Apart of the issue of social justice, you folks are losing money. For those folks who planned the yahoo hackers gathering. Get the blinders off. Men give a damn about their weddings. Women do computer programming. You're leaving money on the table by ignoring us and offending us.