Hmmm, maybe I missed something in Matthew's post, but I didn't read it as though he was singling anyone out (well, he admitted his own mistake, but I think that pointing out own mistakes can hardly be seen as vilifying others).
Or do you mean that he's "singling out" men? Face it, most sexism against women is originating from men. And in the FLOSS world most sexism is directed against women. In other parts of the world it might be different (there's a fair amount of sexism directed towards men too, but I've yet to see it happen in the FLOSS world).
Your line of thought of (and I paraphrase) "avoiding women at all costs because they're just trouble", is exactly the kind of mindwarped thinking that makes the sexism take root. The women not only have to suffer from the direct sexism, they also have to suffer indirect sexism when they're treated as trouble. Just like rape victims are being told that they're the ones to blame for dressing a certain way, etc.
"The gays wouldn't have been gaybashed if they hadn't been kissing in public", "The niggers wouldn't have been burned by the KKK if they'd just stayed in Africa where they belong", etc.
It's not the women that are trouble, it's not the women that you should avoid. It's the men who behave like shit against women that should be told off or kicked out.
I've heard it claimed so many times that "yeah, but the silent majority don't support the few sexist/racist/whatever bastards, we're not like them". But the problem is that the majority is silent. As long as you, I and all the others remain silent, as long as we don't defend the weak (and mind you, I'm not saying that women are weak, I'm saying that most minorities are), we are a part of the problem.
Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at Aurora. Ex-biologist. mjg59 on Twitter. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon.
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Date: 2012-05-22 11:19 am (UTC)Or do you mean that he's "singling out" men? Face it, most sexism against women is originating from men. And in the FLOSS world most sexism is directed against women. In other parts of the world it might be different (there's a fair amount of sexism directed towards men too, but I've yet to see it happen in the FLOSS world).
Your line of thought of (and I paraphrase) "avoiding women at all costs because they're just trouble", is exactly the kind of mindwarped thinking that makes the sexism take root. The women not only have to suffer from the direct sexism, they also have to suffer indirect sexism when they're treated as trouble. Just like rape victims are being told that they're the ones to blame for dressing a certain way, etc.
"The gays wouldn't have been gaybashed if they hadn't been kissing in public", "The niggers wouldn't have been burned by the KKK if they'd just stayed in Africa where they belong", etc.
It's not the women that are trouble, it's not the women that you should avoid. It's the men who behave like shit against women that should be told off or kicked out.
I've heard it claimed so many times that "yeah, but the silent majority don't support the few sexist/racist/whatever bastards, we're not like them". But the problem is that the majority is silent. As long as you, I and all the others remain silent, as long as we don't defend the weak (and mind you, I'm not saying that women are weak, I'm saying that most minorities are), we are a part of the problem.
-- David Weinehall