Reply to post: Re: Well, now we know

Re: Well, now we know

The misogynists in this thread (specifically anyone who invoked the phrase "feminiazis") are disgusting, but frankly, I find the assertion that there is a "problem" with IT culture to be disturbing.

Yes, a woman who joins a workforce has every right to be free of sexual harassment, to not be creeped upon or dismissed because of her gender; she has every right to expect equal pay and equal treatment, to expect that her fellow workers will not make inappropriate remarks about her or gossip about her or level expectations upon her that they would not level upon a coworker who is a man, simply because she is a woman.

But complaining about the culture of the workplace being noninclusive because part of that culture is sexualized objectivization and exuberant parties... You don't want to join that culture, at that point: you want to club that culture into being what you want it to be.

It would be like joining an English Hunt and complaining, say, about the bright red outfits, or the horseback riding, or the fact that you're hunting a living animal in a fashion which was considered a little cruel in the days of Queen Victoria. Sure, it may be those things... But it's a frigging English Hunt! That's what it's SUPPOSED to be!

Or to put it another way, more on-the-head, it would be like a bloke joining the workforce at a, say, fabric arts and crafts store, and then complaining that by and large, he feels nonincluded because the company events run more towards crocheting contests, sparkling apple juice and East Enders gossip and less about Time Lords, beer and, I dunno, whatever the UKian steretoypically masculine version of a monster truck rally is. (Caber tossing? I dunno, you pick.)

So, yes. All the women who stormed out of that event have every right to complain that they weren't equally represented, because the entertainment provided made no effort to cater to them equally by providing male dancers. For that matter, any gay men in the audience have that same right to complain. But complaining about the fact that titillation was part of the entertainment at all, well... Sure, you can do that. But it's a step towards the beige room of watered-down, perfectly-neutral, politically-supercorrect boredom, blandness, Elevator-from-Ipanema Muzak soundtrack, plain sameyness.