I find this kind of generalization or assumption pretty much as distasteful as the author found the presentation.
I find this kind of generalization or assumption pretty much as distasteful as the author found the presentation.
> However, what this experience and other similar encounters I have had in the last three years as a Mac developer have started to suggest is, maybe the Mac community doesn’t want people like me to be comfortable.
The author of the post isn't implying that this singular incident leads to the conclusion that the Mac community is a boy's club. Rather, a series of experiences had while working in the Mac community leads the author to that feeling.
It's been my experience working in computer and programming communities in general that there is a huge blind spot for privilege among members of those communities, esp. given how many professional programmers are white, cisgendered men. The author is stating that her experience has show there to be a problem in the way professionalism and gender is approached by the Mac community, and its up to those of us that do have a lot of privilege to listen, take a step back, and think about that person's experience and examine our role in that community.
After stepping back and thinking about it, the author's stance about the iOS community seems to allow me, as an iPhone developer, only two options:
1) I am, explicitly or implicitly, guilty of some form of discrimination or inappropriate behaviour, or
2) I am not actually part of the iOS community.
I have, however, come across this in other fields. I assume this is likely due to how small the Mac community has been, as well as -- and this may be a stretch -- the kind of professionalism that Apple has themselves demonstrated.
The fact that this sort of conduct may be becoming more prevalent in the iOS/Mac space is disappointing, but not entirely surprising.