All words ending in -ism are bullshitism
By glazou on Wednesday 19 November 2014, 17:56 - Bushisms - Permalink
Through twitter, I stumbled upon this document logorrhea. I found it so silly that I need to post something here. I am expecting trolls to wake up so comments will be closed on this post, exceptionally.
Let me revisit the 13 bullet points present in that article:
- Using "guys" to mean "people"
- I find this ridiculous. One just does not change a living spoken language like that. Complaining about that makes people think about it while most of them were not thinking that way, and were certainly using "guys" in a totally non-sexist way.
- Using "girls" for "women"
- This is again ridiculous and so US-centric. Here in France, women of all ages call themselves "les filles" and I never heard anyone complain.
- "Mom" as an example of non-tech user
- All W3C co-workers can testify I often quote my dad as an example of non-tech user. For two reasons: first, my mom passed away ten years ago; second, my dad is an excellent non-tech beta-tester. Anyway, I would happily use "mom" if my mom was still here AND a non-tech user. This is none of your business anyway if I want to mention my mom or my dad.
- Using avatars that are male by default
- Seriously? This sounds like the rant of a frustrated 10 years old kid (and I don't even know if the person who wrote the article is a woman or a man, old or young, westerner or not, I just do not care)...
- Describing software or algorithms as “sexy”, “hot”, etc.
- Some of my friends can testify I used to describe the beauty and the "sexyness" of some complex proofs in maths. They did the same, men or women. This is not going to change, and I find this request absolutely ridiculous and having nothing to do with sexism.
- Assuming women they meet are in non-technical roles.
- Here, the author has a point. Agreed.
- Fetishizing “hot geek girls”
- It seems to me the author of that list is fighting a war impossible to win: there will always be morons on this planet, and they will always outnumber the others. Live with it.
- Denigrating things by comparing them to women or femininity
- In 23 years in the software industry, I never ever heard someone do that. This is about fighting Don Quixote's windmills.
- Stereotyping women’s needs… or ignoring them.
- I just cannot find the right words to describe my feelings reading this, sorry.
- Using dark UI patterns.
- This is so wider than sexism I have no idea why it's here.
- Repeating generalizations about gender essentialism.
- Ah, a new concept, "gender essentialism". Lobbyists go so fast inventing new terms for their rhetoric fights these days I cannot cope. Ooops, is that generalization? So sorry...
- Assuming every woman in tech feels the same way and/or wants to discuss her experiences “as a woman in tech”.
- Again, 23 years in tech and I've never seen that happen.
- Staying quiet when other men do these things.
- I promise I will never stay quiet when bullshitisms appear on my radar, wherever they come from, including from people fighting sexism with arguments that seem to me totally wrong.