

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain - bootload
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/fashion/21webgirls.html?_r=1&ex=1361336400&en=fcd27b73c75e271a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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mechanical_fish
Wow, the fact that girls are becoming very talented online writers, artists,
and communicators -- which is awesome, BTW -- is uncorrelated with female
enrollment in computer science programs.

In other news, apples are not "a kind of orange" and expert sculptors are no
more likely than average to become plumbers.

This is the kind of article which future historians are going to read with
giggles. It's as if I found an article from 1898: "young people are using the
telephone to talk to each other, but many of them claim to be uninterested in
electricity."

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mdaines
Way to be in line with all the most popular stereotypes... Girls are totally
making animated glitter art and podcasts about their inane personal problems!!
Meanwhile, boys are very pragmatic!!

NYT == heteronormative

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yters
An interesting anecdote: My friend tutored a girl in math because she was
getting bad grades. She said this was because girls are bad at math. However,
once my friend was able to get this idea out of her head, she became very good
at math.

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andreyf
I've noticed this happens to everyone in math, especially in college. A lot of
times the hardest part of finding a proof is getting over the mental block of
"there's no way I can prove this".

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wallflower
We need more women like Danica McKellar. Women who use technology to
communicate that science/math can be part of a girl's domain, if they choose.
Since captivating boys on the Wonder Years, she has moved on to
marketing/teaching the idea that math doesn't suck (to girls).

Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind
or Breaking a Nail (Hardcover) by Danica McKellar (Author)

<http://www.danicamckellar.com/>

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inovica
When I was at school, which is a long while ago now all the boys did was
either play with the computers (commodore PET at the time - showing my age) or
played football (Soccer to some of you). We didn't do homework well, we were
outshone in English lessons by the girls also. This is no surprise to me to
see that girls are doing this creative stuff whilst the guys try to figure out
what they're doing

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mechanical_fish
Your post made me notice something: There is a very important computer-related
social activity -- one that I'm sure is very popular among boys -- that is
conspicuously missing from this article: games. You know, games like that one
that involves organizing complicated, hierarchical teams of several dozen
people, with the mission of killing virtual monsters in order to gain items
and treasure that improve the status and style of your virtual avatar.

Something tells me that the people who wrote this article have no idea that
video games -- or sports, for that matter -- can be a social and creative
outlet.

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dkokelley
You know, it's funny to think about it, but a friend of mine (girl) offered to
do my myspace profile for me, since I never updated it from the default look.

I think the reason for this might be that of necessity. Myspace only looks
cool (subject to individual opinion) if you customize it. Girls spend more
time on "social" sites like myspace. Therefor, girls have become more
competent in making and installing glitter page layouts. (100% my own opinion.
I'm just speculating)

I'm curious, does anyone know the approximate ratio of guys/girls on news.yc?

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rms
>I'm curious, does anyone know the approximate ratio of guys/girls on news.yc?

100:1

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dkokelley
You're probably about right. :P

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daniel-cussen
The Fashion and Style section of the New York Times strikes again.

