Comments on: When the MLIS student is 2.0 and the school is not.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:36:33 +0000

My feminist self remains uncomfortable with this “hussies” business. I see far more men doing the web 2.0 marketing thing (I think I block male 2.0 marketers on twitter about 10:1 to women marketers), so I don’t see much point in particularly targeting the young women in this way. If women, with breasts and curves and their own motives and interests entering tech “ruins” geekery, then I presume then that your definition of geekery is profoundly masculine. Hair-flipping, pink phones and cleavage shouldn’t have the capacity to alter a definition to such an extent; not unless the basic definition of geek is male.

I don’t think women in tech need to push the feminist agenda all the time; they don’t need to “push forward the envelope for womankind” to be legitimate. Just like the johnny-come-latelies, they are going to stumble around on the internet and make mistakes. They will reflect themselves in all elements, including interests and gender.

We need to breakdown that definition of “geek” so that it doesn’t default to male, or privilege men’s experimentations in tech over women’s.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:29:40 +0000

When I was writing this, I realised that I toe the line between geek and hypocrisy. Because my iPod is pink, I had a Motorola RAZR which was also pink (upgraded now to LG ENV for the QWERTY keyboard and sadly the closest “girly” color was burgundy), my digicam is orange — and truthfully, I am more apt to look at electronics for not just tech spec but also color and design. I keep telling the boyfriend that I won’t buy a Kindle until they come in pink.

On the other hand, when I heard about Della, I pitched a feminist fit.

Are women given mixed messages about tech? Oh, absolutely! Am I susceptible to that messages? Also, absolutely! But I’m not going to buy XYZ unless that XYZ is what I need rather than being flashy and pink. There is a reason why I’m a big believer in skins and stickers but catering something to me SPECIFICALLY because I’m female? You can kindly fuck the hell off. Offer a gender-neutral product in a myriad of colors? Rock on with your bad self.

My issue is with this new crop of “geekettes” (iJustine comes to mind) are of women who are crowning themselves as “geeks” are jumping on the proverbial bandwagon because it’s lucrative and prolific way to get attention. Their are like strippers, except instead of poles they have webcams and iPhones.

Am I being too harsh? Probably, but these web2.0 hussies are nothing more then attention seeking wenches looking to market themselves somehow. If being a “geek” wasn’t so damned profitable right now, they would be onto the other next big thing.

I don’t think they have a real general interest in technology, they are ruining the name of “geek” and I’m getting mighty tired of reading about them in the context they are pushing forward the envelope for womankind, because they are so totally not. When they’ve worked in offices where the ratio of men to women is 10-1 or even 15-1, have made some viable contribution to geekdom or have done something else other than thrusting their boobs about, then they can be geeks. Until, they can piss the hell off.

By: 2.0 battles- student vs. school « A Little Library Blog

2.0 battles- student vs. school « A Little Library Blog — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:54:33 +0000

[...] than a practical one, much of what Lisa had to say about the difficulties and issues that come up “When the MLIS student is 2.0 and the school is not” apply here as well. This article articulated a few things that I have had simmering in the back of [...]

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:36:15 +0000

Web 2.0 hussies? What, the jane-come-latelys? With pink cell phones: are these always girls? What about the guys? (I say this from my macbook with my pink cell phone charging on the table.)