Geek vs. Gorgeous

This is a post I've been meaning to write about for a little while. A few weeks ago, there was an article about a calendar intended to promote Women working in the IT industry and to encourage other young women to consider it as a career. The thinking behind the calendar and its images, was that many women get put off by the geeky stereotype of the industry and can't reconcile the idea that women can be both smart and sexy. I can relate to this perception. As an engineer, I've seen any number of times men's eyes glaze over (and in one case bow several times chanting "im not worthy", before hitting on my friend) and co-workers who think its a compliment to tell you you're one of the boys.

Whilst I admire the intent of the calendar and if you read behind the 'sexy' pictures, you see that they've got a wide variety of backgrounds and age groups, there's still a lot of issues with it. Mainly it doesn't address that men are often the worst offenders when it comes to accepting that women can be both smart and sexy, or even just accepting that the women they work with are capable of doing their job without obsessing about make-up/boys/shopping etc. Another personal example: A couple of months after I started a new job, one of the guys I worked with (it was all guys except for a secretary and me) started talking about the other people he'd seen coming in for the interviews. One of them was this gorgeous women that they all agreed could not be hired because she was so distracting to look at. When I tried to ask about her skills it was still just about her appearance. Of course the flip side of this, is that I was not attractive enough to be distracting. Naturally, this guy couldn't see why I felt insulted because I got the job after all. So far as these guys were concerned, me and this other woman could only be "geeky" OR "gorgeous", not both and more importantly, nor should we expect to. Maybe I or other women shouldn't be so upset about this focus on appearance, but regardless of skills the pressure is still on women to be physically attractive and desirable. There was some controversy regarding this calendar, with some people going great, good on you girls, others suggesting that it was just requiring women to conform to another stereotype and still others showing the inherent sexism in the industry. Freely admitting that he hadn't bothered to read the backgrounds, one guy stated that it was unlikely these women were real IT people, but just support staff, eg marketing, HR etc. Other trotted out the old line that women's brains weren't cut out for the work, or that obviously women just didn't want these jobs.

Women in IT. Ha what a joke! Every woman in IT is just taking the place of a
better man.
Stay in the house girls and leave the real work to the men!

Lets face it. Most guys dont like being hairdressers, its nothing to do with the image of a hairdresser & their pull factor. In fact, any male hairdresser ive known has been very popular with the ladies. Same goes for women in I.T. Most women dont enjoy tinkering with technology. Its genetic. Lets move on and stop trying to generalise the sexes too much.

"Girls and computers? I don't think so. I'd wager none of the girls in the calendar are hard-core techies. I guess IT is a wide industry but I'd speculate the ladies (or bimbos, as their calendar presents them) are recruiters, designers or otherwise engaged in creative or soft-skill fields."

However, back to the calendar, there is one photo in particular that creeps me out - the Princess Leia picture. You just know that this is the one that all the anti-social, IT, computer game playing (yes, I can stereotype too) male geeks are drooling over.

Congratulations to Me!

Yay, I got the job! I will start on August 14. I have many thoughts about what I can spend my increased pay packet on and naturally many of them include yarn!

Knitting Ethics

When and how should you point out to a fellow knitter there may be something about their knitting they might want to change? At our last SnB meeting we were all sharing our progress as usual. Whilst one member was getting a drink, another member admiring their work noticed that it was two different shades of black! There was a very hurried discussion about whether to tell them, whether they already had noticed and accepted it, if we did say something how to point it out politely without sounding patronising or as if we were laughing at them. In the end none of us volunteered to tell this person. Now from the hindsight of a few days, it doesn't seem like such a big deal (except it would be difficult to word it politely), but we should all be encouraging and helping each other and if there are unintentional mistakes laughing together. (Of course, this still doesn't mean I'll be volunteering to point out the colour discrepancy.)

Probable Good News! I'm almost sure I have a new job lined up. Its the one I thought in my last entry I had missed out on because they hadn't got back to me by the date they said they would. However a day or two later they rang me and scheduled a whirlwind psych test (apparently I'm not a sociopath) and 2nd round interview. I had the interview yesterday morning, and by the time I got to work at the medical centre they'd already rung the practice manager for a reference. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone with me and it wasn't until I got home after 7pm that I found a voice mail message suggesting they had good news for me. Now I have to wait to Monday to find out actual details, including specific package information and of course actual confirmation. Fingers Crossed!!

Piggly Wiggly

I think it shows how tragic my life is that the high point of my life was winning a free muffin because I knew what a Piggly Wiggly was an early example of.* The coffee shop I walk past most mornings has trivia questions in its windows and this week I actually knew one.

In other news I also had an interview for a company that I would really like to work for, but the date for hearing good news has come and gone. In knitting news I am proceeding on the latest project with the bigger needles and that seems to be working out better. With the completed bolero I am debating what to do. I like the way the beaded band turned out, but it just that bit too big. I'm wondering if I can shrink it just a little bit.

*Piggly Wiggly was the name of the first supermarkets (self-service as opposed to having the grocer dish everything out for you).

Public Service Announcements

Two items of interest for Sydney Knitters:

1. Its that time of year again - the Sydney Knit In is on at the end of the month (July 28). This is a good chance to use up loose balls of wool by creating knitted squares that will be made into wraps and then donated to communities around the world to help keep people warm. I can appreciate the need to standardise the squares (25cm x25cm, 8ply wool, size 8 (4mm) needles or to obtain guage), but what's with the stitch requirement - any stitch but stocking stitch? Never mind, its because SS curls. If you can't make the day itself, there are drop off points around Sydney to donate squares.

2. Sydney Stitch n Bitch has its own blog http://sydneystitch.blogspot.com/. While very much a work in progress at the moment, we hope it will encourage people to attend either the every 2nd Monday sessions at Hart's Pub in the Rocks, or every second Tuesday at the Manly Wharf Hotel. Check out the blog for more info and soon photos of the group and their projects.