Gender assumptions

[MoodyBlues]

sir/mr/bro/him

I wish you wouldn't assume that everyone here is male.

 

[mikedt]

I wish you wouldn't assume that everyone here is male.

Same thing seems to happen with YouTubers, so many always seem to start their vlogs or whatever with "What's going on guys...", "What's up guys...".

 

[Shotgun84]

Same thing seems to happen with YouTubers, so many always seem to start their vlogs or whatever with "What's going on guys...", "What's up guys...".

But wouldn't it also be sexist to assume they aren't lol

Never take me seriously guys and girls

 

[Shotgun84]

Kinda like the film "White Chicks" which is apparently fine. But to me it's completely racist. If it'd been the other way round there would've been an uproar. Anyways, point is whatever you do someone will always be upset about it so just enjoy yourself and don't worry too much

 

[MoodyBlues]

Same thing seems to happen with YouTubers, so many always seem to start their vlogs or whatever with "What's going on guys...", "What's up guys...".

That can be a regional thing. Here in California, we use "dude" and "guys" regardless of gender. When I lived in the south, where I was a fish out of water, I quickly learned that wasn't universal!

 

[Deleted User]

I moved this to a new thread, as it was getting off topic in the original thread, and I think there may be some mileage in discussion of this as a separate topic.

We definitely have a male dominated IT industry, certainly in the UK. At work I look at who's sitting at the desks, and in the whole office there are one or two women doing development, or project management jobs. This has been the case for many years, but wasn't always the case. Back in the early days of computing, it was the other way around, with women in programming and IT support roles.

I don't know why this is, clearly women are just as capable in technical roles as men, probably more so. But there doesn't appear to be the interest in schools. By the time we get to university stage, it's almost all men doing those computer science degree courses.
In the UK we have something called "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths), which engages companies to go into schools and promote technical subjects to all children. There appears to be more emphasis on coding in schools, so maybe we'll see a turnaround, in terms of the number of girls who get interested in IT subjects.

So the point is, I suppose people here are assumed to be male, especially if it's not specified in the member profile. But I quite often stop myself from using the collective term "guys", or "dudes", and substitute it with "folks", because I know that certainly the staff team is not all male. But people can react differently. Some women would just accept the general term, when referring to a group of mainly men.

 

[psionandy]

Same thing seems to happen with YouTubers, so many always seem to start their vlogs or whatever with "What's going on guys...", "What's up guys...".

I used to use "guys" all the time... but now I tend to use the more inclusive "peeps" instead.

"Bro" annoys me personally, as it implies both gender and a level of familiarity , neither of which can be assumed... If someone calls me a bro i tend to reply by calling them "Dudette"

 

[MoodyBlues]

I moved this to a new thread, as it was getting off topic in the original thread, and I think there may be some mileage in discussion of this as a separate topic.

We definitely have a male dominated IT industry, certainly in the UK. At work I look at who's sitting at the desks, and in the whole office there are one or two women doing development, or project management jobs. This has been the case for many years, but wasn't always the case. Back in the early days of computing, it was the other way around, with women in programming and IT support roles.

I don't know why this is, clearly women are just as capable in technical roles as men, probably more so. But there doesn't appear to be the interest in schools. By the time we get to university stage, it's almost all men doing those computer science degree courses.
In the UK we have something called "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths), which engages companies to go into schools and promote technical subjects to all children. There appears to be more emphasis on coding in schools, so maybe we'll see a turnaround, in terms of the number of girls who get interested in IT subjects.

So the point is, I suppose people here are assumed to be male, especially if it's not specified in the member profile. But I quite often stop myself from using the collective term "guys", or "dudes", and substitute it with "folks", because I know that certainly the staff team is not all male. But people can react differently. Some women would just accept the general term, when referring to a group of mainly men.

When I started in IT in the mid-'80s, I was the only woman I knew in the field. All my peers, mentors, fellow seminar attendees, etc., were male. I was the highest-paid (non-owner) at two consecutive companies, a furniture store chain then the largest data processing company in the area. At the latter, I also [reluctantly] took on an administrative role (hire/fire, deal with OSHA and workers' compensation, arbitrate employees' differences, etc.), and was supervisor over everyone except the owner. And even she knew when to defer to me! I'd still be working if a damned brain tumor hadn't reared its ugly head.

I hoped by now that things had changed at least somewhat, and there was more gender parity in the field, so I'm dismayed to hear it really hasn't.

As for this forum, there's zero reason (in my humble opinion) that users should be presumed to be male--don't women use phones?! I have no stats, but simple logic dictates that half of Android users should be female.

Thanks, LV, for moving this to its own thread.

 

[lunatic59]

I would agree, Moody. Cell phone use is so ubiquitous these days that it should follow the general demographic of the whole population, rather than one specific industry. Sometimes it's tough on an internet forum without a specific attribute to identify gender, though. If someone signs up with a username of Leroy5608 or Pierre.LePhone, you could make a reasonable assumption that they are projecting a male persona. Similarly Janice043 or SallyMcNally could be assumed to be female.

That said, I know a lot of women who are reluctant to project a female persona for fear of being hit on by internet creeps (of which there are many) so they either pick male or gender neutral names.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I would agree, Moody. Cell phone use is so ubiquitous these days that it should follow the general demographic of the whole population, rather than one specific industry. Sometimes it's tough on an internet forum without a specific attribute to identify gender, though. If someone signs up with a username of Leroy5608 or Pierre.LePhone, you could make a reasonable assumption that they are projecting a male persona. Similarly Janice043 or SallyMcNally could be assumed to be female.

That said, I know a lot of women who are reluctant to project a female persona for fear of being hit on by internet creeps (of which there are many) so they either pick male or gender neutral names.

I always deliberately use gender-neutral names, and don't specify gender in my profiles. I do that because being presumed male in male-dominated topics lets me blend in. Then I spill the beans.

During the past ≈30 years online, I've practically peed myself laughing at times when, for example, in a car-related newsgroup someone I've interacted with finds out I'm female--it's like, "damn! You're kidding! You're not a guy?!" (I typically respond with, "hold on while I check..." )

 

[Deleted User]

That said, I know a lot of women who are reluctant to project a female persona for fear of being hit on by internet creeps (of which there are many) so they either pick male or gender neutral names.

I can well understand why a woman would want to hide her gender, for that reason alone.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Whiteface.
It's a thing. In a Wayans Brothers way.
Just them though.