I've managed to stay away from the forums and this thread for a couple of days now, and at the risk of beating the dead horse, I'd just like to add my two cents to this thread.
The diversity of members here in Off Topic was part of what gave me the courage to register and start posting. There seems to be a little bit of everything in here, and more often than not, I used to come here to get a good laugh (thanks to the prime neffing of Adul, ltk and GF), get educated (thanks to Russ, Denis, WombatWoman, Isla, Ladi and a whole host of names I'm temporarily forgetting) and just generally feel like I was part of the community, even though I only post about 4 times a day.
The pics of hot chicks don't bother me, the politics I can live with, and the occasional flame war I can avoid. But what I won't sit and be quiet for is an attitude that a minority of members seem to have that somehow certain kinds of women are less. Less attractive, less intelligent, and heaven help us, occasionally less human (yeah, I'm talking to you, Zoson). I am guilty of bringing my own issues into this discussion, and I apologize for that as much as thereds has been apologizing for not intending to start a sexist thread.
When I see:
<< Based on what I see and my work experience, the majority of girls that use computers usually use it for chatting purposes and/or for writing their papers. Other than that, the box is virtually useless to them (the box = computer for you smart alecs). Why is that? It's not like men are over exposed to the availability and the usefulness of computers. >>
I hear: I've noticed that the majority of girls who turn a computer on are kind of dumb. I mean, they only use it for gossiping and playing silly mindless games that don't involve blasting the crap out of the enemy. I don't think many girls are smart enough to do what we boys do, to get into hardware, programming, etc. It must be genetic, since girls are exposed to computers the same as boys.
That may not be what you intended to say, thereds, but it's what SOME women hear. (trying not to over-generalize) Coming after threads where male members de-humanized women by relating tales of mindless sexual conquests, insinuated that only ugly girls post at Anandtech with the exception of Lily27, then demeaned women of all sizes by declaring "chunky girls" were defective in every way, this was just not a good idea for a thread and couldn't help but be misinterpreted.
Does it matter if I'm 5'3", 250 lbs., with warts, moles and zits all over my face and an IQ of 80? Can I play Solitaire on the computer and still post here? Those are the kinds of things that some women might think after reading through some of the threads I've mentioned.
Do I need to pass a test to be here? Maybe we should have a weigh-in, followed by nude pictures then a written and oral exam on computers before membership is approved (but let's make it for men and women). If it matters to anyone (and I don't care if it does or not), you can see what I look like by clicking on the link in my sig line, then any of the articles listed. I write small, user-friendly financial news articles on a part-time basis, help run a successful BBS full-time, am working on a book with a good chance of publication part-time, write freelance articles for magazines part-time, am designing a couple of new Web sites with a partner part-time, and somehow manage to be a pretty damn good single mom 24 hours a day. Am I saying all this to "prove" to you all that I should be respected and allowed to be here? Nope. Maybe to prove that generalizations are rarely true when applied to a unique group such as the women of Anandtech are.
Thereds, I don't hate you (or SmiZ or anyone else who's just expressing an opinion here). But can you see why this stuff is hurtful to some of us?