Re: Just a single Question for the Candidates

[tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)]

Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> writes:

> On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 12:44:22PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > As I said, "if there is any truth to the notion that men are better at
> > being bullied".  I suspect there is not really much truth to that.
> 
> Either "men are better at being bullied" a strawman (irrelevant to the
> thread), or you're doing the overgeneralization thing again.

Helen said "women are likely to be not so confident that their skills
will allow them to survive in an environment like debian, compared to
their male counterparts".  And then, her explanation of what that
"environment" amounted to, was that it was bullying and condescending
to women.  

Now what's weird is that she says she has "never noticed overt sexism
in my dealings with debian", and has "never had a hostile experience
with debian."

So she thinks that Debian bullies people (true).  But I do not believe
there is truth to the notion that men are better at being bullied, I
reject the idea that bullying is some kind of gender-based problem. 

Moreover, she criticizes Debian without *ever*, she says, having had
any experience.  What is the basis of her criticism and fear then?
Well, she says she doesn't understand, but then adds: "Partly it's
knowing that I'm going to be dealing with a man", and that man will
"be condescending or unkind".  

So she is assuming that men, because they are men, will be
condescending and unkind, though she's never actually *seen* any such
thing on Debian: sexist.  And she says that women, because they are
women, will find bullying harder than men do: sexist.

Thomas