Women don't have the same passion for open source men do? Really?? [LWN.net]

Women don't have the same passion for open source men do? Really??

Posted Sep 22, 2009 15:10 UTC (Tue) by Lefty (guest, #51528)
In reply to: Women don't have the same passion for open source men do? Really?? by Skud
Parent article: FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software

Oh, I think you want to be careful, there, Kirrily: Bruce is likely to accuse you of being "sickly nonlinear".

In point of fact, in my attempt to discuss the issue with Bruce at the Community Leadership Summit, I found myself being interrupted in mid-sentence by Bruce over and over so that he could provide me with an apparently endless series of reasons why I was wrong to bring up RMS' behavior at GCDS: "He's got Asperger's, he's incapable of perceiving when he's offended anyone, he's incapable of apologizing when it's pointed out to him that he's offended anyone, he's been doing the same joke for fifteen years, you're not a girl, and there's really not a problem, anyway."

(The resemblance to the argumentation here bears an eerie familiarity, in fact. Bruce seems to have thought this through and, sadly, this is the best he can manage.)

At which point I decided "this wasn't a discussion", and left to find someone more interesting to talk to. Fortunately, there proved to be no shortage.

For the record, I personally view this "outreach effort" on the FSF's part, absent any acknowledgment of past bad behavior and any commitment to do better in the future, as being in essence a whitewash.

Just sayin'.

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