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Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

How about just being harsh on "psuedo-masculine efforts"? Just like if you had mostly white kids and they made the black kids "feel uncomfortable" by "awkward" kids, the answer is to meet the stupid jokes and what not with sincerity and make them realise how absurd the behaviour is. Just like in other co-ed classes if boys make whatever jokes, it gets slapped down.

Separating things sounds like it'd just make the male stuff even worse since there's no negative feedback. And it doesn't strengthen the girls to speak out when a guy tries some dumbass posturing or whatever.

And I say this even while planning to send my daughters to all-girls school just for possible reduction in the general adolescent "distractions". I just don't see what's comp-sci specific.

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We don't segregate, we simply offer the all-girls class as an alternative. We still have girls in our regular class and they are very chill. I'm not saying we have an issue with boys acting out, I'm saying that when we get that occasional kid who makes things uncomfortable, some girls get visibly put off by it. I train all my instructors on how to deal with inappropriate comments and to let me know about them, so my decision to provide girls with a more comfortable environment is rooted in the observation that 100% of the inappropriate comments we've had to deal with come from a male student.

When any student, regardless of gender, is uncomfortable in a class, they will pay less attention and perform noticeably poorer.

An all boys class sure would be a breath of fresh air: it might be possible to focus on the actual education for once. Voluntary segregation seems like it would solve a lot of problems and eliminate our favourite scapegoats.

I agree -- kids receive all kinds of messages about how girls and boys should act, from the media, their parents, and their peers, and a lot of it is just plain toxic and manifest in masculinity-affirming posturing and violence. It's essential to look at these things if we really want "equality".

This is one sided. No doubt there are those men who are violent and indecent: But nobody ever suggested that we mould man after these barbarians, or generalize masculinity based on such poor examples. The same character flaws exist in the opposite sex but manifest themselves differently (with comparable detriment).

Equality is a one dimensional metric and a kind of tunnel vision that undermines true ethics. Should a small man eat the same quantity of food as a large man? It would be equal. Have you given away most of your wealth to the poor and needy so that everyone has an equal share? Shall we cut the legs off the tall so that they are the same height as the short? Or throw acid on the beautiful so they have no advantage over the ugly?

No one is suggesting that opposite sex negative things (cliques, shaming girls based on clothes, whatever other things they do) is acceptable.

But I've yet to hear anyone complaining about boys being intimidated and not participating in a class because it was full of girls being bitchy. And to the extend that it happens (someone mocking an ugly kid in class), I'd assume it'd get slapped down in the same way.

The "masculinity-affirming posturing and violence" that the parent refers to is pretty much entirely negative. There's no benefit to praise, accept, or encourage that kind of behaviour.

That's right you haven't heard any complaining: because they just go to a different field to avoid it. And then all the noise eventually follows along and complains that the field is all male. And the cycle repeats.

Men are interested in doing something and creating something, and we will continue doing this forever. Those who cannot do this will continue to complain and blame someone else for their situation. A lack of personal responsibility (independent of gender) will always result in failure.

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