

Too Many 'a's (A poem, with apologies to Dr. Seuss) - svs
https://gist.github.com/svs/7fc59be7b4b0cc68b699

======
herghost
"I changed it to male" \- OMG YOU THINK WOMEN CAN'T CODE

"I changed it to female" \- OMG YOU THINK WOMEN ARE BAD AT CODING

~~~
svs
Thanks for that. To all female programmers - I meant no offense.

On a related note, when are we getting genderless pronouns for English?

~~~
philh
> On a related note, when are we getting genderless pronouns for English?

When enough people start using them despite occasionally annoying other
people. :)

(I'm a fan of ve/ver/vis for someone of unknown/nonbinary gender, but in a
case like this I would have just picked he or she and to hell with anyone who
complains.)

~~~
juliangregorian
In concept it's great, the problem is that when one says e.g. "ve had 23
variables" I for one tend to read it as a bad German/Russian impression.

------
octo_t
Really classy comment from mvasilkov there....

~~~
underyx
It was most likely a sarcastic stab at a complaint that the poem featured a
female programmer in the role of 'bad coder'.

------
ashleyblackmore
A "poem" with typos, a dearth of wit and worst of of all, questionable
content: why is the terrible programmer a woman? A woman doesn't normally
spring to mind when discussing programming, but oh, when we're discussing
something where someone is missing a rudimentary, fundamental lack of
understanding (all variables have the same name), a woman is chosen.

~~~
glomph
Wait so because women don't 'typically spring to mind' as programmers they
should have changed it from the original?

~~~
ashleyblackmore
I don't want to get into a flame war, but no, that isn't what I meant. In
general, in the mainstream, people will typically think of men when they think
of programmers. Something like 'Neckbeard Hacker' on twitter being just one
obvious stereotype, however outmoded that particular one may be. I don't need
to argue that point, but in light of it, it came across as a rather odd choice
of protagonist, considering the normative view, and the subject being a 'bad
programmer'.

I don't really think svs meant any offence, especially having now seen the
original poem. I also don't think we can live in a society where everybody has
perfectly-formed liberal views. At the same time, I'm not down with this "why
are people so easily offended"/"turn down your offence-o-meter" argument that
one hears when this comes up, mainly because it is a trivially easy card to
play when you aren't the target of the stereotyping

~~~
svs
Ashley, I find your objections to be valid. If we're bemoaning the state of
gender equality in tech then it is everyone's duty to provide a space where
stereotypes are not indulged in, people are not judged based on extrinsic
factors and the discomforts of the minority are taken seriously. Thank you for
making the effort to point out my mistake and for accepting my apology
gracefully.

~~~
ashleyblackmore
You yourself have also been gracious. Thank you.

