Saturday, April 13, 2013

Weekend Book/Geek Sexism Report

On twitter I declared yesterday as "the day to read about sexism" because I came across 3 separate posts about incidents of sexism in book/geek culture.  Numerous unconnected people saying sexist shit.  I'm hoping this does not become a regular feature on the blog.

First we have the Hugh Howey incident.  Where he repeatedly used the word "bitch" and "broad."  He went as far to fantasize about grabbing his crotch and ended the post with "suck it bitch."  Yeah I'm not even kidding. Read his whole blog entry here. (Not Hugh Howey's site because he eventually deleted the blog).

In another show of sexism, a male geek saw Rae Johnston wearing an "Bioshock Inifite" tshirt at a coffee shop and made a snide remark.  Rae responded by putting him in his place.

Then we have Seanan McGuire, who is one of my favorite authors, accused of excessively self-promoting for the Hugos when she's acutely aware that she doesn't promote herself nearly enough, especially when compared to male counterparts.  She wrote a great blog about this here

Then she linked to an even better article from PBS that talked about the myth that women speak too much.  It has lots of great research and data.  In most situations, women don't speak more than men, particularly formal professional settings, but when women speak it's perceived as more than it actually is.  Very interesting article.  I already knew about teachers calling on boys more than girls, but I didn't realize how it actually was.

If you were planning to say something sexist this weekend just stop.  I'm tired of it and it's only Saturday morning.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So I am now stalking your blog. The Huey incident made me incredibly angry. And wondering where his stupidity stemmed from. Women are always told to shut up and not speak, even when I was kid when I was told not to speak back, the literal translation of it is "don't move your mouth." Stay silent. Endure. Well, fuck that. I'm glad to see someone else who is a feminist and not afraid to admit it.