From: Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@...>
Date: 2008-08-24T14:07:41+09:00
Subject: Ruby and Gender (Was: A Mascot...)

On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 12:28 AM, David Masover <ninja@slaphack.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 23 August 2008 21:23:13 David A. Black wrote:
>> OK, I'll make it easier for you. I, personally, am offended by the
>> suggestion that a cute little (naked or otherwise) girl named Ruby be
>> the Ruby "mascot."
>
> You're one person... but I was generalizing.
>
> However...
>
>> Meanwhile please channel some of
>> this energy into real issues, like why we as a community have not
>> blazed the new trail of inclusiveness across sexual boundaries that it
>> once seemed we might.
>
> Ok, I'm curious -- how many females have seen this image? How many have
> actually been offended by it? (I'm assuming "David" is male.)
>
> I think we do more harm to that "inclusiveness" by focusing on this issue at
> all. But I'm not really qualified to debate that. (Are you?)
>
> But if you'd rather talk about inclusiveness... Is Ruby particularly
> under-represented, among programming languages? We're talking about a very
> small niche of an already male-dominated field.

If the answer to this question is No, you're implying that Ruby is no
worse than the overarching 'male-dominated field', and therefore this
issue is irrelevant.  In this case, you're basically saying that we
can get away with ignorant behaviour because it is the norm.  I
believe we can do better than that.

If the answer to this question is Yes, you're implying that Ruby is
especially bad in an already miserably unbalanced field.  In that
case, are you prepared to be part of the solution to that problem?  I
hope so.

But seriously, in a male-dominated field, waiting for females to speak
up is about the same as claiming that if your grandma boycotts
Walmart, they'll eventually shut down.  It is absolutely correct that
we are not qualified to know what is the best way to solve this
problem -- women with an interest and a passion for solving this
problem will need to lead the way, if it is ever to work.  However, it
is absolutely wrong to assume that we are absolved from recognizing
that the problem exists, simply because we can't solve it on our own.

There is no requirement for all Ruby programmers to be feminists.
Simply remembering that we're not hanging out in a men's locker room
will put us farther along than some other communities, and will be a
big step in the right direction.

-greg

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