refract.me

[So, I guess I'm too pissed off to mope this weekend. Ah well.]

Computing is gendered.

And I don’t mean ratio of men to non-men. I mean this shit uses pronouns.

For a second-year computing course, we needed to choose partners for the assignments. To make this easier and not an exercise in “pick your friends,” the professor had us fill out a form; all of the forms were visible online. One had this treat:

Recursion rapes me bad.

I sat there stunned. Someone compared a methodology to rape. I grabbed the female TA; she couldn’t make any sense of it either. No one had considered that the answers needed to be reviewed.

And, to be fair, I don’t think it was a male student making this assertion. One of the female students I had in this course, exclaimed that a “test had raped [her].” Why? I’ve yet to hear a male student make a similar statement. But, then men don’t get raped.¹ Why would they describe themselves as being raped? None of the male students she was talking to called her on it. It’s acceptable for women being raped as a metaphor for a hard exam.

Grading assignments, I have written that “objects are not people” as part of the explanation as to why they are loosing points (or didn’t earn points). Why? Because Bob, Guy, Dood, etc. aren’t useful or descriptive variable names. They aren’t useful names for anything besides demonstrating that the writer has a “default male” worldview.

I point out when the male faculty members use “girl” to describe their students. They are getting better at it and know why the term is problematic. First off, this is a university. It’s pretty unusual for someone to be in attendance that hasn’t reached puberty or age of majority. It’s not the correct term. Second, there  is the issue that the equivalent “boy” is never used for men. It is an insult for a man to be called a boy; it should be viewed as equally insulting for a woman to be addressed as a “girl.”²

And then there are the textbooks. For reasons I can’t fathom, texts like to use pronouns. But, as “you” is too informal, the writers create a fictional reader character. This character is almost always masculine. And in the cases when it is feminine, it’s still problematic. Gendered pronouns exclude some readers. Having it masculine excludes women and asserts male privilege. But, the feminine pronouns also exclude men. Both he and she exclude genderqueer readers. So, can we please just use gender neutral pronouns? They, one, you, and the cornucopia of invented pronouns would all be an improvement.

So, how to promote feminist computing?

• Get these people into a women or gender studies class. It startles me that women are surprised that the problems they face in computing isn’t unique to computing.
• Continue or start calling out sexist behaviour or beliefs.
• Be inclusive. Not only to women, but  everyone.
• Emphasize the contributions of women, not because this is the special women example, but because that there are women that have contributed a lot to the field.

Any other suggestions?

¹ A US 1999 study found 9% of reported rape victims are men. That percentage may be lower as men are told that they “can’t be raped” and are belittled when they identify rape.
² This statement is problematic: it assumes that being that an adult is a better state than being a child. If anyone has a suggestion on maintaining the sexist comparison without asserting adult privilege, it would be appreciated.