Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!emory!gatech!bloom-beacon!ora!ambar From: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Chess Message-ID: Date: 12 Apr 91 21:14:47 GMT References: <1991Mar29.020740.2687@world.std.com> <1991Apr1.030506.16835@athena.mit.edu> <1991Apr4.123252.1@dev8.mdcbbs.com> <1991Apr7.031214.3065@bilver.uucp> Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) Organization: Natural Language Incorporated Lines: 35 Approved: ambar@ora.com In article hrose@cs.bu.edu (Helen Trillian Rose) writes: Alex> == Alex Matulich Alex> And don't forget computer programming! This is definitely a Alex> male-dominated activity (often done as a hobby, too), and it's about Alex> the most lonely and un-packlike activity I can imagine. I don't agree. I'm female. I like to program/hack on computers. I even like to do this with friends (not all male, mind you) in a group, perhaps in a terminal room at school, perhaps elsewhere. It's actually more productive this way.... we don't end up spending all of our lives sending each other email asking questions on projects we are working on together. :) Hacking all-night is even more fun! I agree with the second poster; my first major socializing was done with a bunch of computer people, which is one of the reasons why I ended up in computer science. I had taken a few courses and enjoyed them, but hanging out (and going out) with computer people in the computer lab at my university was how I got into some of the more interesting things that could be done with computers. Certainly, you can find out about these on your own, but it certainly helps to have other people show you where to find the talk programs, the bulletin boards, and the games. They also showed me how to include assembly-language routines so I could make the games I wrote use cursor control, pointed out good classes, etc. We also spent a lot of time doing more "social" things, such as deadly lawn frisbee, movies, dinner, endless repeating of comedy routines, picnics in the park (more food and frisbees), philosophizing, etc. I found programming much less lonely than life in high school. The group I hung out with, by the way, was about 5-1 male to female, and the men seemed quite social to me. Muffy