RailsBridge Cape Town

[Steve Barnett]

Hi folks.

I'm starting up a local chapter (Rails Bridge Cape Town) of RailsBridge: Free Ruby on Rails workshops for women and their friends.

The RailsBridge Workshop is a free 1-and-a-bit day course run by a volunteer team of experienced and enthusiastic developers. It is designed to provide people of all backgrounds with an introduction to programming concepts, the tools available, and the techniques of Ruby and Rails development. It teaches a practical skill useful to those investigating new career paths, looking to compliment their current skill set, or just interested in gaining a better understanding of software.

To attend, you should identify as a woman, or be the male guest of a woman who is attending. You should be comfortable using a computer, but no programming experience or hardware expertise is required. You should have your own laptop to bring along: Mac, Windows, and Linux machines are all welcome.

If anyone is interested in attending, please sign up on our mailing list.

Thanks!

Regards,

Steve

[Greg Benner]

Sounds like fun, wish I was a chick now! :P

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[Jonathan Hitchcock]

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 5:20 PM, Greg Benner <gregb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sounds like fun, wish I was a chick now! :P

We're calling them "women" these days.

[Greg Benner]

I was talking about myself, so who would be offended but me? Thanks though.

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[Steve Barnett]

Woah, there!

Greg: although Jonathan was quite curt with you, his point is valid. I realise your comment was in jest, but using terms that some people might find offensive or derogatory is not okay (regardless of who they're directed at). I realise that this is not a perfect comparison, but if we were running a Previously Disadvantaged workshop, would it be okay for a white person to say something like "wish I was a [racial slur] now!"? I'm sure you agree it would not!

Looking through the RailsBridge Cape Town site and Code of Conduct, you'll see that we're trying to be welcoming, and don't use chick, lady, or other terms like that. If you (or anyone reading this) spot something dodgy, please tell us and we will immediately change it.

Jonathan: thank you for speaking up. Could you please offer something more constructive, though? Please help fix this, rather than just point out what's broken. Maybe throw in a few links to pertinent pages of the GF Wiki, or a post from Jezebel's tech tag?

Regards,

Steve

*crosses fingers and hopes no-one invokes Godwin's law*

[Steve Barnett]

p.s. I'm happy to discuss this further over email.

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Naga
www.naga.co.za

st...@naga.co.za
021 447 8343
078 111 2163

P O Box 124, Newlands, Cape Town, 7725

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[Greg Benner]

Sorry guys this seems like some grade A trolling, and I took a bite.

I've asked my feminist girlfriend and she see's no problem with the usage of chick in this sense.

For example if you had a female friend and you were casually hanging out it would be more appropriate to say, "I'm going to hang out with my chick friend today" rather than "I'm hanging out with my woman friend today" As that implies a different and somewhat pervish context.

Coming from a country that never had slavery, promotes equal rights,  and is probably the most politically correct country in the world I speak with some experience. You also shouldn't compare gender equality in the tech industry with racism, ever.

I would also like to say that women are able to speak up for them selves and don't need misogynist troll-men to defend them.

Cheers!

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[Gavin]

If you guys remember my talk last meeting (see what I did there?) you'll recall I pointed out that tone doesn't carry well over text. This kind of discussion happens far better in a high-bandwidth situation. Can I stick my nose in and recommend getting together offline?

[Steve Barnett]

Thanks for trying to help, Gavin.

Closing this thread before it gets any worse, though!

Cheers,

Steve