[facepalm]

I'm not convinced that the tech bloggers get harassed because they are female. Look at any hacker news discussion and things can get heated quickly, irrespective of gender. Look at the classic "Apple vs PC" wars and so on. For any technical opinion you voice, you will find scores of people who dislike it intensely (Java vs Ruby, is JavaScript a serious programming language, is agile stupid...).

[kqr]

I don't mind being harassed for preferring Emacs over Vim – it's a choice, after all. I can argue rationally for why you are wrong if you contradict me.

I do mind being harassed for being a man rather than a woman – that's not something I chose. I was born that way. I can't change that nor can I argue rationally for why I decided to be that way.

[Lawtonfogle]

>it's a choice, after all.

What about religion. It is an interesting intersection of 'is a choice' and 'protected demographic'. And why should it be any more acceptable to harass someone for what they choose? Is it more acceptable to discriminate against a Hispanic individual for choosing to identify with their heritage (a choice) than to discriminate against them for being Hispanic (not a choice)? Both seem wrong to me.

>that's not something I chose. I was born that way.

What about those who are of a different gender/sex than they were born? What about people who choose to change their gender?

Even your response itself can be an issue, as there is an implication that others are born a given gender and cannot change it.

[kqr]

> What about those who are of a different gender/sex than they were born? What about people who choose to change their gender?

If you actually speak to these people, they will inform you they didn't "change" their gender. What you are referring to is the practise of fixing the body to conform to the expectations of the gender they were born with.

[Lawtonfogle]

They changed the gender that society assigned them with. And on some level you might be able to say they changed the gender of their body to match the gender of their mind (depending upon where you fall on the mind/brain/body terminology).

[facepalm]

Well if the comments are like "shut up, woman, you can not know anything about this", I agree with you. I am just not sure that is the way it is - or if it is just the usual critical comments and women think they get especially bad comments.

[stepvhen]

Just because you're not convinced doesn't mean it isn't happening. Why would somebody, a lot of people, an awful lot, say X is happening if it wasn't? And why default on somebody lying instead of believing them, or at least giving them the benefit of the doubt?

[cuckcuckspruce]

>Why would somebody, a lot of people, an awful lot, say X is happening if it wasn't?

To push an agenda. Take as an example people that claim that video games are responsible, either partially or wholly, for an increase in violence. There is no definitive link between violent video games and violence, especially as the violent crime rate in the US has been falling for decades now. The people leading this crusade generally do not like games and feel that their disapproval and dislike means that other people shouldn't get to experience them.

[facepalm]

I don't think they are lying, just that their perception might be wrong. Or we are only getting half the story - what I often read is women claiming they get hate for being women online, when really they get hate for being radical feminists and telling random people on the internet they are assholes, for example (not saying that is the case here).

I haven't talked to any of them directly, so I don't know who is "somebody, a lot of people, an awful lot"? How many is "an awful lot", what do you reckon? 1-10, 10-100, 100-1000, 1000-10000? Millions? Maybe if I had more firsthand information, it would change my mind.

[FilterSweep]

There could also be discrepancy in "what exactly is harassment."

This came up when Sarah Sharp quit developing on the Linux Kernel due to 'abuse' from Torvalds [0]. A prevailing notion was that this language was necessary for everyone working in the kernel space.

I've also seen commenters on HN get torn to pieces because their javascript benchmarks ~5-7% slower than the "optimal" solution. Harassment is often based on opinion.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10338094

[facepalm]

That's what my original comment was about - the "harassment" might not be because of their gender, but just "normal" tech discussion that they aren't used to.

[Cthulhu_]

What the other commenters are saying I agree with; language or editor choice is about, well, language or editor choice; gender is about who someone is. It's the ad hominem fallacy, basically. Of course, similarly when someone makes a post about e.g. ruby or emacs, adding "as a X in tech" instantly makes it (to a lot of readers) about the person, not the tech.

Maybe more posts should start with "As a man in tech" or something. In gender-skewed areas, removing gender from posts (along with the assumption of what gender wrote it) would maybe be preferable. But, IDK.

[facepalm]

As I said, it is not clear to me that the women were attacked for their gender. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, I don't have enough information.