Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain

nytimes.com

11 pointsbootload12 comments

Wow, the fact that girls are becoming very talented online writers, artists, and communicators -- which is awesome, BTW -- is uncorrelated with female enrollment in computer science programs.

In other news, apples are not "a kind of orange" and expert sculptors are no more likely than average to become plumbers.

This is the kind of article which future historians are going to read with giggles. It's as if I found an article from 1898: "young people are using the telephone to talk to each other, but many of them claim to be uninterested in electricity."

Way to be in line with all the most popular stereotypes... Girls are totally making animated glitter art and podcasts about their inane personal problems!! Meanwhile, boys are very pragmatic!!

NYT == heteronormative

And, of course, this gem:

From a young age [girls] learn that they are objects, Professor Gill said, so they learn how to describe themselves.

An interesting anecdote: My friend tutored a girl in math because she was getting bad grades. She said this was because girls are bad at math. However, once my friend was able to get this idea out of her head, she became very good at math.

I've noticed this happens to everyone in math, especially in college. A lot of times the hardest part of finding a proof is getting over the mental block of "there's no way I can prove this".

We need more women like Danica McKellar. Women who use technology to communicate that science/math can be part of a girl's domain, if they choose. Since captivating boys on the Wonder Years, she has moved on to marketing/teaching the idea that math doesn't suck (to girls).

Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail (Hardcover) by Danica McKellar (Author)

http://www.danicamckellar.com/

When I was at school, which is a long while ago now all the boys did was either play with the computers (commodore PET at the time - showing my age) or played football (Soccer to some of you). We didn't do homework well, we were outshone in English lessons by the girls also. This is no surprise to me to see that girls are doing this creative stuff whilst the guys try to figure out what they're doing

Your post made me notice something: There is a very important computer-related social activity -- one that I'm sure is very popular among boys -- that is conspicuously missing from this article: games. You know, games like that one that involves organizing complicated, hierarchical teams of several dozen people, with the mission of killing virtual monsters in order to gain items and treasure that improve the status and style of your virtual avatar.

Something tells me that the people who wrote this article have no idea that video games -- or sports, for that matter -- can be a social and creative outlet.

You know, it's funny to think about it, but a friend of mine (girl) offered to do my myspace profile for me, since I never updated it from the default look.

I think the reason for this might be that of necessity. Myspace only looks cool (subject to individual opinion) if you customize it. Girls spend more time on "social" sites like myspace. Therefor, girls have become more competent in making and installing glitter page layouts. (100% my own opinion. I'm just speculating)

I'm curious, does anyone know the approximate ratio of guys/girls on news.yc?

>I'm curious, does anyone know the approximate ratio of guys/girls on news.yc?

100:1

You're probably about right. :P

The Fashion and Style section of the New York Times strikes again.

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