Found this blog post and found it had more insight into the issues around the dev and the toxicity in FOSS
That’s great! Same here, to be honest. But I also realise why it doesn’t affect me, because as a man I’ve never felt unwelcome in these spaces purely on account of my gender.
Kind of like how as a white guy, I wouldn’t really feel much other than a bit of surprise if someone called me a cracker. I haven’t felt oppression and prejudice connected to that word, or any other that is to do with my whiteness. But I do NOT then turn around and say “well why are people upset about being called n-words? They should just move on with their day like I can!”
No honestly if we change it to be a woman dominated field where I’d feel unwelcome instead of a male dominated field, like say teaching, I still wouldn’t be upset at the assumption because frankly it doesn’t hinder my ability to understand the material, I can read it as a typo and move on.
Unless I guess the person was aware of who I am and intentionally misgendering me to be a dick, then yeah, but if we’ve never met and the thing I’m reading is general, then it basically is just a typo the author didn’t realize they made.
Right, so continue that thought into why you wouldn’t be affected by it.
Perhaps you wouldn’t actually feel quite so unwelcome in an education role as women might in STEM. I did a quick google to see if teaching was as female-dominated as STEM is male-dominated, and while yes it’s very close, hilariously the first result was about how there is still a gender based wage gap issue even though it’s so dominated in the other direction… Interesting.
So while you might think you can really put yourself in their shoes by imagining yourself in a teaching role, now try imagining yourself as a woman in a male-dominated field, in a male-dominated society, in a male dominated world. Could be a little bit different, maybe
Sure I guess I’d just be offended by everything always which doesn’t sound exhausting at all. Or maybe I’m already not the top paid person in my field either and measuring my successes against others is a recipe for jealousy and misery. I guess it’s dealer’s choice really.
