One of the great things about the nonprofit technology community is that the community, on the whole, has a great respect for women, in whatever roles we play – whether it be geeky not. The exceptions to this in my experience have been very, very few and far between.
However, take one little step outside of our warm and fuzzy community into the larger technology community, and things change. Unfortunately, the open source community seems to find ways to ridicule, degrade and and belittle women quite often.
Linux Journal ran the following advertisement by a company called “QSOL”:
And, it got 2100+ diggs, with the title “Best. Ad. Ever.” It ran in 2000, with a lot of uproar, and they promised never to run it again. Right.
In addition, Linux Journal has a column, called “Tech Tips from Gnull and Voyd” with quotes like:
Howdy. My husband is Chester Gnull and I’m Laverta Voyd, and I’m the lady to light a way for all you sweethearts out there who do fancy stuff with Linux. Me and my husband’s gonna be bringing you tech tips just about every month now. … I don’t know nothing about Linux. Chester, he’s the smart one, but he’s not much of a talker. That’s why I’m here. …
One wonders how many bad stereotypes they can fit in one column?
Anyway, if you read Linux Journal, please tell them how you feel. I did.
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