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Comment by wpietri | Hacker News Reader

For my fellow guys who may be unsure how to participate in discussions like this without looking like an ass, may I suggest:

Quora's discussion on "What things are most useful for men to keep in mind when discussing theories or topics relating to gender?" http://www.quora.com/What-things-are-most-useful-for-men-to-...

Ellen Spertus's classic "Why are There so Few Female Computer Scientists?": http://people.mills.edu/spertus/Gender/pap/pap.html

The handy "Male Programmer Privilege Checklist": http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Male_Programmer_Privilege...

"HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux": http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-H...

And that useful reference "Derailing for Dummies": http://derailingfordummies.com/

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Not getting the downvotes here. Anybody care to explain? I expected to have some of my more polemical contributions ride the vote rollercoaster. But as somebody who often wasn't sure how to usefully participate and who made a variety of mistakes in the past, I meant this to be helpful.

EDIT: Previously it was down to -3. Now it's back in the black.

I'm not sure but its possible people have downvoted your comment because of heavy feminist bias on some of the links. There are people that see a lot of hatred of man in feminism. This link might help explain why http://www.womenagainstmen.com/media/feminism-is-a-hate-grou...

In my view, feminism is about gender equality. Or, as the line goes, "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." As as guy, I'm happy to identify as a feminist.

So when you say "heavy feminist bias", that plays in my head like "heavy anti-slavery bias". A) I think it's a viewpoint, not a bias, and B) that sounds like a complaint from a 14th century ayatollah.

I do agree that some feminists sometimes make sexist anti-male statements. Honestly, I might too had I, say been violently raped, had the police refuse to take my rape report because the rapist obviously wouldn't do such a thing, been bashed in my community as a slut, been told I deserved to get raped because I wore the wrong outfit, and then been forced to carry the rapist's baby to term. So although I see that male-bashing as unfortunate, I also generally think it's an understandable backlash that I try to forgive.

However, I didn't see any male-bashing in those links, so I don't think any downvoting on those grounds is legitimate.

It could be interpreted as "here are the thoughts you are allowed to think on this topic, according to the gods of PC".

Ah, sorry if I was unclear. If there is somebody here who would like to seem like an ass, then are most welcome to post away with no thought as to the broader context of discussions about sexism.

well I upvoted you...

I'm beginning to think that HN is getting sick and tired of having to think about women in tech. What a burden!

Nothing new here -- many people on HN routinely downvote comments like the above. It's almost like they don't want to acknowledge the issue or take responsibility for changing their behavior or something ...

Yes, earlier today threads on the Geeklist situation were closed, or so I heard... Well, I'm glad I'm still around.

It's a lot of stuff to read?

I voted you up.

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