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    HCI, Or Look At My New Toy!


    2010 - 08.26

    Tags: , , , , , ,
    Posted in Computer Science, Disability, Diversity, Feminism, Goal, Miscellaneous, NSF, Personal, Research, Society | No Comments »

    Note: This is very US-centric.

    I get the impression that a lot of HCI professionals never matured past the “picture on the fridge” stage. If you read enough SIGCHI papers, it becomes that the “human” part is for NSF-funding rather than actually caring about people. And its understandable: we are very self rather than communally focused.

    … This is hard. I have decided to create my own field at 23 years old, despite—or because of?—emotional disabilities. It is so much easier to be like anyone else. But, then I wouldn’t be me. And, even if no one will come with me on this crazy path, I just have to believe that what I’m doing is worth it; that I’m helping people I may never meet.

    As  a high schooler, one of my English teachers would mark my essays thusly: underline a sentence I had written and write “so what?” in the margin. And that’s stuck with me.

    HCI professionals have developed a need to create interactions without any consideration to the device’s place in the world. And that’s really flawed. If the point of your field is developing interactions between people and technology, then you damn well ought to know something about people.

    It’s always fun to see new toys. But, I have enough experience that if your toy doesn’t fill a void in a person’s life than it will never be adopted.

    HCI papers, when we get to the people part will do a study on one of the following groups: women, minorities, children, people with disabilities or DIYers. And there is very little intersectionality within these groups for these studies. There is always a big emphasis on learnability of the system, and, to a lesser degree, creativity the users displayed.

    To anyone who writes papers this way, please go take a sociology class. (If you’re writing these papers, I know you’re economically privileged enough to further your education.)

    What’s wrong with these papers?

    • They focus on technology rather than on people. No matter how creative the system, a human judges its value.
    • There are no poor people in these studies. For minorities and people with disabilities, there’s systematic poverty. If your device costs much, then you aren’t going to be helping the people you claim to want to help.
    • Every participant has some prior technological experience. Widening the technology gap is unethical for our field.
    • Ignoring accessibility in educational settings. The ADA is a law, not a set of guidelines, and I’m totally down with suing you out of grant proposals.

    So, what do I want to do differently? First, I want HCI to redefined to “human-computer interfaces” because why keep lying about what you actually care about?

    Second, I want to develop a new field within computer science that integrates more with the social sciences and the arts. At present, I don’t know what to name it (and names are so damn important). Perhaps “Inclusive Computing” or “Human-Centric Tech” or even something outrageous like “Computational Humanity.” *shrug*

    Third, I want to continue raising awareness about socio-economic inequalities. I don’t care if you can make a fantastic device for five billion dollars. How can you help people using $5? I’m much more impressed by overcoming restrictions.

    Dabbling with Video Game Diversity


    2010 - 05.07

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    Posted in Disability, Diversity, Feminism, Miscellaneous, Society | Comments Off

    So, I am on this little tangent after watching Danial Floyd’s “Video Games and the Female Audience,” which I followed from “Considerations on Females as Game Consumers” at Border House (a feminist video gaming blog). One of the sticking ideas was that the marketing and design of female video game characters are exclusive towards women.

    Why are the breast physics so important? Why are strong, kick-ass women wearing next to no clothing and high heels?1 Why are the female leads always the romantic interest for the male lead? Why are women developers objectified rather than admired for their talents? Why do women leave the gaming industry?2 Why are there “girl editions”? And why are they always pink?3

    But women aren’t the only ones that are not included into the gaming culture. This includes: people of color, people with disabilities, transmen and transwomen, non-heterosexuals—well, it just sort of continues on.

    So, does any game at least do decent to promote diversity? Some. Not as many as I like, but some.

    Beyond Good & Evil (2003) stars Jade. Jade wears cargo pants, a tank top, and a jacket. While her midriff is visible it isn’t sexy; it just sort of is there (going to go with that being the fashion of the times). She is taking on the world… through photojournalism. There isn’t any romance to be found in this title. While not intended, Jade’s design is racially ambiguous.

    Mass Effect Series (2007—present) allows the user to build their own character. That said, all the marketing uses the default male character and the system enforces heteronormative romantic relationships. The women have personalities and objectives that are not necessarily best for everyone in the universe (just as the men do). It isn’t the portrayal of women that I like though.

    No. It’s Jeff “Joker” Moreau, the Flight Lieutenant (read: pilot) for the series. He also has Vrolik syndrome, meaning he has bones that break very easily. When he walks, he limps and is in apparent pain. It’s a character with a disability! But, how do we know he isn’t a token character? Well, I say the biggest indication is that he isn’t a “very special lesson.” Joker is sarcastic, arrogant, and makes jokes. He is clever. He brags about excelling past his normal classmates, “They all got their asses kicked by the sickly kid with the creaky little legs. One guess who was smiling at graduation.”4

    Final Fantasy XIII (2009) stars Lightening. For the main cast, half are women even. And they pass the Bechdel Test5. Hell, the only romantic subplot is between a lead male and a secondary character. The women themselves, well, they are varying degrees of sexualized and none of their clothes are particularly practical. But, they have opinions, beliefs, and secrets. Lightening punches people, as opposed to the more traditional slap; I admit it is more shocking with a woman than a man.

    Even better there is a black man, Sazh. While the chocobo–friendly afro is a stereotype, he breaks many others. He is a single parent who cares deeply for his son. While he cracks jokes and is the apparent comedic relief, he is still very serious and much more mature than the other characters.

    [Border House has great posts about Sazh and the women of Final Fantasy XIII.]

    Any other characters that are strong and diverse? Who are your favorites? What makes you feel they are a good character?

    1 Suspension of belief ends when you can’t stop thinking how little protection a garment offers and how many times you would trip if you ran in those heels.

    2 Especially alarming considering how difficult it is to get into the gaming market.

    3 I like pink, but give me red, green, purple, and all the other colors too!

    4 This particular line resonates a lot with me. Not only do people with disabilities have to be equally talented to their peers, we have to be better. To make up for our disability in society’s eyes. Not a rational thought, but internalized messages rarely are.

    5 The Bechdel Test says:

    1. It has to have at least two women in it,
    2. Who talk to each other,
    3. About something besides a man.

    Oh, there you are, Antifeminism. Can’t say I was missing you.


    2010 - 04.27

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in Feminism | Comments Off

    Yesterday, I went to school solely for Women’s Tea (despite having zero classes and in excruciating pain). Women’s Tea is a little weekly or biweekly get together for the women in my CS department. It’s mostly about just having proof that there really are other women in the department (so bonding), and general gossipy-ness. We’ve been at least somewhat productive brainstorming ideas of how

    Today, the president of the engineering college’s SWE chapter came to visit. First off, my department is in the College of Natural Sciences which is why we have nothing to do with the engineering student chapters. And this was the first time I had a clear “yep, definitely do not want to be there” towards the engineering school.

    The young lady that came to represent a student group to promote women engineers? If the title doesn’t make it obvious, was an antifeminist. Oh goody. I get that most women in male dominated fields don’t get exposed to feminist ideals. That said, I don’t count ignorance as an excuse, especially when it involves putting down others.

    Yeah, I’m about as left as possible before looping back around to a fascist. So, instead of berating someone that next to no one reading this would even recognize, I’ve gone for:

    Alison’s Happy-Go-Lucky Antifeminist Markings List

    • Accepting sexist attitudes, languages, and acts. This includes emphasizing women have a “tough skin” (or else they are victims), claiming hurtful things as jokes, and ignoring criticism by others for antifeminist behaviours.
    • Berating other women on the viewer’s evaluation of the woman for her feminine/masculine behaviours or appearance.
      • Bonus points if the antifeminist shares those traits.
    • Claiming that women and men are equal.
      • Bonus points if this is in regard to pay rates, home maintenance, or child rearing.
    • Expecting chivalry (i.e. man to pick up the check).
    • Using sexist language about women or men, including brush stoke generalizations.
    • Claim to speak for all women. Or speaking for any group shy an election.
    • Not being supportive of all women. Women of color, transwomen, non-heterosexual women, disabled women, women from other nations, women of other religions, poor women, women that follow patriarchal ideals… are all women, so support them, damnit.

    I wish I could change the world on so many things. Pity that the world doesn’t need to listen.

    Feminist Computing?


    2010 - 04.10

    Tags: , , ,
    Posted in Computer Science, Feminism, Society | Comments Off

    [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.

    Update: Programmer Proof


    2010 - 04.09

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    Posted in Feminism, Industry, Miscellaneous | Comments Off

    I’m not sure if I should be dismayed that sexism is so prevalent in computing, or happy that it’s at least out in the open. I didn’t get the internship I interviewed for this week.1

    Two days ago I interviewed for an Open Source internship at a branch of one of the largest tech companies on the planet. I got to hear, “prove you’re a programmer.” Unsurprisingly, my male roommate didn’t get asked that when he went to interview today.

    Just so we’re clear, it’s discrimination if you ask a question to only a subset of applicants. No, there are no bullshit gray areas on this. This is the policy description held at that company.

    So, what do I do? Or, more useful, what can people that find themselves in a similar situation do?

    I have several advantages in that I knew most of the other interviewees. It’s really hard to know a question is only being asked of you if you’re the only interview session that you know about.

    But what else?

    Well, I’ve endeared myself to people that have a whole hell of a lot more influence than I do. My boss/mentor? Yeah, she and many of the faculty at my university were former employees of that company, going into academia upon retirement. She can easily get an audience with anyone there and get results out of someone.

    I found and told my boss/mentor immediately to talk about this unfathomable question posed to me. And she agreed that it could have been phrased better. And stated that it could or could not be sexist, and that we’ll wait and see.

    Yeah, not getting the position upset me. It sounded like a really good fit to me and my skills. But, no, I don’t want the job. First, why the hell would I want to work with some sexist asshole? Second, because it would be punishing someone (the intern chosen) who hasn’t done anything wrong.

    So, what happens now? Most likely I’ll get an apology  from someone I’ve never heard of and have no beef with.

    I can’t afford to sue for discrimination.

    This company can’t be blacklisted as female-hating.

    It’s a stalemate. One that I think happens a lot more than people talk about.

    I think I know why boss/mentor was scared of what would happen if I applied to her former company. I don’t exactly fit.

    1 I was promised an email that would confirm I had the internship, or a rejection with feedback. Yeah, I didn’t get either. I got to hear it from my roommate that heard it from the person who did get it.

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