I’m so angry about this whole postal survey that’s not a binding vote run by a homophobic that I made a thing – here take it and put it up in places that will piss of homophobic it is the open source. regards
marriage equality, lgbti
and here is a downloadable pdf (a3) for free distribution to the angry fembot army. cheers
I recently invited to teach a free coding for women workshop in Sydney (Australia) as part of a festival. Im interested in teaching gender specific classes , I’m a vocal campaigner for women in all stem fields but Im also aware of the barriers to entry my gender provides.
The workshops were fun, my experiments worked well and clearly I got some women coding both html and css and enjoying it. however wanted to describe some random male responses that happened on the day because they remind me why I loathe my industry or some of the humans in it at times. I’ll just state that I pass as female , 40 something artsy & geeky.
attributes = “beard , dark hair, 30 something or younger ” ; attitude = “I know everything” ;
Pre workshop conversation “yeah I’m teaching a workshop on coding for women ”
gentle conversation about code ensues he codes, of course so we establish the what do you know pecking order bs.. where I establish that yes actually I’m pretty well over qualified to teach a free one and a half hour course and yes of course I already know that markup isn’t a “proper” coding language but that I’ve selected it as a good place to start for learners. (ho hum… )s..
dude1 :so what strategy are you using to specifically gender teaching code women ? (cause i’m interested )
by this stage I’ve already pegged him as somewhat passive aggressive and yet another male whoo is younger than me that thinks he knows better so rather than engaging in what would be a huge can of worms I toss him a throwaway line.
thisunit : I brought cupcakes.. they are red velvet
dude1 : mutters something about me bringing all the stereotypes …..
I shrug I’m nether willing to be challenged on my coding qualifications nor my ability to teach other females. I offer the obvious
thisunit : What can say ? I’m cisgendered female……. I guess its my privilege…. can’t win….
Conversation ends at this point he has no idea of the existential angst and process I’ve gone through to be at this point he’s part of the problem. He’s not actually interested in what barriers may prevent women from coding he’s looking for easy answers. I have a different understanding of how my gender is coded to him for me its quite complicated. Gender is performed but its also a construct programmed into me that I fight with. the construct of my gender tells me daily that other people (probably men) are better at everything than I am. The construct of my gender is like acid to self esteem and it is constant and supported by real life experience.
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attributes = “blonde , 20 something ” ; attitude = “Im a real programmer” ;
dude 2 just sits in on the class – smirks a lot – takes over a female students learning as his personal project teaching her something entirely different. I’m possibly supposed to thank him for his mansplaining I saw him showing her sass which is probably not where I’d start a beginner.. but hey what would I know its only my workshop …
I wonder if other women would be that rude..
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attributes = “dark hair , short beard, larger build ” ; attitude = “I’m watching you to see if your good enough” ;
Dude3 is teaching the next workshop on internet privacy leans over my shoulder looking at the html I have scribbled on post it notes he says :
Dude3: “oh html 5, i’m just checking to see if you’ve kept the presentation seperate from the structure you know proper css and stuff…”
I grumble a reply to him and pack up my notes clearing away my workshop …now your going to say #notallmen in code are dicks and sure I’ve met and worked with some male gendered humans who are for the most part not gender biased at all. However these three responses in less than 3 hours remind me my industry has a lot to learn to be even vaguely appealing to any female gendered person who is sane..
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While code may be not gender biased the people who do it still are. Its enough to battle the imposter syndrome and come out as a female who codes let alone a queer one. Without being challenged in every other sentence by male programmers who may have a very poor perception of how gender and privilege work in there favour. Not to mention the it professionals who don’t bother to ask what your qualifications are but assume they know better anyhow . It’s even more annoying when they are children and you were probably producing websites when they were potty training. It’s really no wonder the women not only don’t seek stem jobs but also leave them as they grow tired of the constant bs and weirdness. In other industries and if your male age and experience count for something.
Anyhow I really enjoyed teaching the loverly women and some guys who came to the workshop. Hopefully I’ve made it easy for them to play with some code even if it’s “only mark up”and they are only women.. and I’m only playing
“History never repeats”, but don’t you think its odd that Australia once a prison Island for colonial England has a policy of imprisoning immigrants and refuges on a smaller island just outside its own borders?
Its commonly thought that victims of sexual abuse may follow there parents behavior and abuse others in a similar fashion, I question whether this is Australia’s period of awkward adulthood there is a growing sense of ugly patriotism which unfortunately can only be seen as racist codswallop. It’s unsurprising given our colonial history that we think that imprisoning struggling people on islands is acceptable but is it.. really ?
Its this country’s policy to imprison “illegal emigrants” or refugees on a small island that is technically outside of the arbitrary border we imagine exists somewhere outside of our island home. It is also the governments policy to not speak about the tactics used to enforce police and govern all of the above infrastructure under the general banner of “operational matters” . So much for transparency and democracy right? Its a perfect example of how not to do open government.
But wait it gets worse there have been allegations of child abuse in prison facility’s..( yes australians put refugee children in prison ) and those in power responded by:
a) Abusing the woman put in charge of investigating the prisons and;
b) threatening to make it illegal to report child abuse in these facility’s
all of the above have driven me to make and open source the above map, available here as a pdf – feel free to reuse or modify Map of prison islands.
Just so you know whats happening down this end of the planet, its really not pretty ,it must change. consider this a message in a bottle.
*please help *
I saw a meme going around of a bunch of folk sticking their heads in the sand as a salute to our governments policy on climate change and renewable energy. It was time to have some sort of official department of climate change denial . I know our government is far to poor to make a new logo for any such department, so I threw one together for them. Here it is the policy on climate change for Australia summed up in words even a bogan can understand.
The wingnuts wants you to snitch on your co workers, in a nutshell if your a public servant of any kind and you are found anonymously blogging ,tweeting facebooking or otherwize “criticizing” your government you should be sacked.
And we are not meant to consider that an impingement in anyway on freedom of speech, of course that is fine if your definition of free speech only includes the right to hatespeech especially of course if its anti Muslim, anti aboriginal or of course gay bashing or lefty, commo bashing a well know Australian pastime which is currently honored by knighthood.
That is to say your freedom of speech is legally protected if you own your own media empire or mining magnate because clearly your already supporting your government with loads of money and positive press.
Regadless of bigotry or financial status anyone on welfare is still “fair game” for all . further proof that you government really understands the nature of the internet .
No mention has been made of potential bonus schemes for dobbing in such “anti government” anonymous voices however I suggest we go back to the 40’s type system used to track the killing of rabbits. extra chocolate rations are most defiantly double + good.
Heavy sarcasm included free.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/colleagues-told-dob-in-political-web-posts/story-fni0cx12-1226875635588
Dear Transfeild,
In light of the recent information I have receive that you
“make obscene amounts of money out of the mandatory detention centres”
I have decided to offer you a free logo redesign, you’r new logo reflects my understanding of your company’s main “bread and butter” income. Is also a little more “cutting edge” than that strange abstract expressionist mashup you had previously its got “punch” you may see the sneak peak below and a larger print ready file is attached as a pdf.
> Download pdf version here
We hope the recent accidents don’t have any bearing on your continued support of the “arts ” and we thank you for supporting the Sydney Biennale without any censorship whatsoever.
kind regards
glitch scatter
When the wing nut talks you’d better do what he says .
compulsory bible studies ?
what century are we in.. ?
I’m increasingly convinced the head of this country is an imperial man in a digital century.
#auspol , #wingnut,
CLearly if you are looking for australian feminism you are deeply in need of:
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