[SGVLUG] What kind of linux interest websites do you guys look at?

[David Lawyer]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 02:57:56PM -0700, Swantje wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 1:39 PM, David Lawyer <dave at lafn.org> wrote:
> 
> >
> > I agree.  But you should realize that men are genetically programmed
> > to treat women as sex objects while women are not programmed like
> > this.  Instead they are programmed to be selective so that the men
> > they have sex with will be good at helping them raise children.  Men
> > and women are inherently this way due to evolution and survival.  So
> > it's only natural for men to treat women as sex objects and it's also
> > natural for women to resist this and object to it.

I should have qualified this.  It's also genetically programmed in
people to conform to the norms of society to a certain degree
depending in part on the extent of enforcement of these norms.  So if
we had strong and enforced social norms of not looking at women as
sex objects then it wouldn't happen as much (or at least would be done
mostly in secret).  But alas, the Internet has contributed to
downgrading any such norms since porn sites mostly portray women as
sex objects and almost everyone has free access.  As you may know,
China was going to require porn-blocking software on their computers
(which could be disabled) but changed their minds, and will not
require it.  It was claimed that that it would block more than just
porn.

> So maybe in your eyes I'm just a woman "resisting and objecting", but I
> really think this is a lame excuse for men behaving badly.
I agree.
> It's not at all normal for men to treat women as sex objects.

But I think it is normal for some men to do so some of the time to
certain women.  This is why it's more likely to happen in any group
where the number of men greatly outnumber the number of women, like in
Linux.  Even if the probability is low that any one man will be like
this, if there are a large number of men and few women, the
probability that someone might behave "badly ??" greatly increases.  I
don't think it's because of Linux or computers.

> Even if there was some genetic
> instinct or something like that like you suggest, we're not animals living
> on instinct, but thinking people who can decide how they want to act.

Yes, but instinct also has an influence.

			David Lawyer
> 
> Why should Linux be any different than any other endeavor?  I think
> > most women are aware that many men will try to treat them as sex objects
> > and should realize that this is a natural phenomena which they need to
> > resist.
> 
> In most other endeavors I am interested in, men don't treat women as sex
> objects. And it's not natural of a thinking human to do so.
>