Gynocentrism Sucks
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, it was much less abstracted layers where it would take a much longer time to build something that would take a couple of days now."
Spurgat cites some positive effects of that trend, saying that creative types who maybe aren't as detail-oriented as early coders can now join in. But in the 10 years since he started working in startups, he's definitely noticed a culture shift.
"I will boldly say that tech is the new music. It's becoming a sexier industry," he said.
"Think about how much time people are spending with technology. Ten years ago, kids were going to hang out and listen to CDs in their bedrooms. Now they're going to hang out and play 'Words With Friends' and 'Draw Something' and be on Facebook."
But sometimes the growing allure of a tech career can manifest itself in ugly ways.
Raja wrote a piece for Mother Jones about her experience at South by Southwest Interactive when she attended a panel titled "Adding Value as a Non-Technical No Talent Ass-Clown."
During the talk, she wrote, Matt Van Horn, a 28-year-old executive at social-media site Path, talked about landing his first job, at web-aggregator site Digg, by sending editors "bikini shots" from a "nudie calendar" he'd created.
The South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, is a meeting of Web minds, but partying also plays a role.She continued, saying that he advised attendees to avoid what he called "gang-bang interviews" and compared the recruiting process to his college fraternity trying to "attract the hottest girls."
Raja and some others in attendance -- both men and women -- got up and left. After her article ran, she said she received more than 100 messages from tech professionals who said they'd had similar experiences.
"I've gotten e-mails from women in this space who say 'I see it. I'm really disheartened by it. It makes my job harder,' " she said.
For his part, Van Horn says he regrets having played a part in that perception.
"I just feel terrible about this whole thing," Van Horn told CNN Friday, noting that, flying in the face of the "brogrammer" stereotype, he's a married man (he live-streamed his proposal online). "I'm so sorry that I offended anyone."
He called his comments at South by Southwest "a bad attempt at humor and a poor choice of words during a talk, particularly when taken out of context."
"I don't think the words represent a true reflection of my true feelings and character," he said, adding that at the sometimes free-wheeling festival, he "was trying to have a provocative discussion about non-tech contributors making an impact on tech companies."
He added that the calendar he mentioned was, in fact, a college charity project to aid tsunami victims in Southeast Asia and featured both male and female models."
'Bro down and crush some code'
But it's not the only instance that critics cite of the "brogrammer" mentality.
Klout, an app that seeks to judge users' effectiveness on social-media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, has recruited programmers at Stanford University with a poster reading: "Want to bro down and crush some code? Klout is hiring."
That poster, which critics say sends the message that anyone that doesn't share a party-boy mentality need not apply, was "an unfortunate judgment call by a former Klout employee" when the company only employed 10 people, said spokeswoman Lynn Fox. It now employs 70 and 20% of them are women, according to Fox.
In March, daily deals aggregator Squoot advertised a Boston hackathon that promised (along with massages, access to a gym and "kick-ass cupcakes") this tidbit: "Need another beer? Let one of our friendly (female) event staff get that for you." The site has apologized.
And then there's GoDaddy, the web registrar that some call the godfather of the "brogrammer" mind-set.
Jennifer 8. Lee, a journalist and author who, among many projects, works with Web startup Upworthy, said the aforementioned Super Bowl ad, and others like it, show that a "brogrammer" mind-set can have consequences for the company involved.
"They called me the other day and said they just wanted to check in," said Lee (whose numerical middle initial invokes Chinese numerology and was intended to set apart her otherwise common name). "I said, 'Oh yeah, that reminds me ... I thought your Super Bowl ads were sexist and I want to change my registrar. Thanks for reminding me.'"
"We do have power," she added. "There are totally consequences."
The image of beer-swilling coders is a stereotype that far from describes the majority of men in tech startups, those in the industry say.
"There are plenty of people in this industry who ... came up because they were interested in tech and computer programming and maybe some of the more traditionally geekier aspects of this work," Raja said. "Now, I'm hearing people talk about being concerned about the number of quote-unquote 'idea people' flooding the field.
"For me, this is an industry that's really wrestling with how it defines its own professionalism."
Dr. Ablow,
You have a great article but one important thing I see missed all the time is that every state where a boy who was molested and she became pregnant, the law has still required he still pay her child support. It is an important legal issue since we will allow a girl who is molested to terminate, adopt or several other options but could you picture if a judge required the mo0lester get custody and then she was forced to pay him child support for 18-21 years? Almost no one knows of or even believes this part of the law but it is well documented in every case where a male victim of rape, molesting and etc have tried to stop paying support to their abuser, they have failed with the courts siding with their abusers. In essence, they not only are abused but then pay for 2 decades for the privilege of being abused because they are males!
Just a point I never see in articles on the topic and I think should see some serious light shed on it so the public sees just how outrageous we treat male victims of sex crimes. You may also want to look at the recent case of the mother given life for raping her own infant. Previously she had been suspected of molesting a 16 year old autistic boy who fathered the infant but only a protection order was ever issued. If the matter had been taken seriously, an infant wouldn't have suffered horrific rape at the hands of her own mother and males her mother sought out.
Thank you,
Thank you for your comments! I will pass this on to Dr. Ablow.
All the best,
Jackie
Jackie Hodges
Office of Keith Ablow, M.D.