General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/22/5926193/women-gaming-harassmentThe article has some pretty horrible and NSFW words. A racist one. I think everyone needs to read this, because it's about sexism in general, also, IMHO.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)moriah
(8,311 posts)I'm glad to know at least one gamer is not misogynist.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)And it happens even in "progressive" places.
A few years ago I tried to get into a local "geek breakfast" just for the sake of networking. It was mostly men. There were a few women, but they tended to be peripheral to the "seriously technical" men: recruiters, marketers, wives and significant others. I was there because I wanted to be "technical".
The unofficial manager of the group was the guy who kept the email list. Like many early tech courtiers, he had risen to power by getting a lot of people onto the same email list and keeping the list useful by sending out "insider" announcement of pertinent events. I wanted to be on the list, too. Yet after 6 months of going to the breakfast, I wasn't invited.
Finally, another woman of the tech recruiter/marketer species intervened on my behalf, and I was reluctantly added to the list.
Soon after there was a discussion about why email was "broken". At an appropriate break in the conversation, I started to offer my ideas on the subject - which I had recently given some thought to. But then another guy just started talking over me as if I didn't exist.
I then, very politely, pointed out that he had interrupted and talked over me. And I doubted he would have done that if I had been male.
He stared at me a minute and then went on with whatever he was talking about.
Later, outside, the recruiter/marketer woman took me aside and said I made the list owner guy "uncomfortable", so he was kicking me off the list again. I was being exiled because I had resisted being talked over. Because I had called them on their sexism.
I never went back.
What really irks me is not the list owner or tech guy that talked over me (they were both sexist jerks) - but rather all the people who stood by. There were a lot of people I thought of as "progressive" in that group. Yet none of them defended me or reached out to me after I left.
I guess some would say I didn't try hard enough to "network" in the tech community in my area. But why should I have to fight my way into the profession? If I have the credentials and the abilities, shouldn't I be welcomed and mentored instead?