Gated community
Aug. 5th, 2013 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supergeeThere are apparently some boys who think that the geek world needs "gatekeepers," to keep out the riff-raff, and they volunteer. John Scalzi, speaking as a creator of what our culture is about, says, "Thanks, but no thanks."
I'm not a creator; I'm a consumer. I was and am a straight cis white male nerd with low social skills (for a mammal). I joined the community in the 70s when Star Trek had allegedly lowered the property values by bringing in lotsa women. And I have always been grateful to them. Instead of an overwhelmingly male culture where women were rare and fought over, I was in a nearly balanced community. I like that kind better: there is less symbolic mine's-bigger-than-yours, and I like associating with women. Furthermore, to reduce the issue to the most selfish and personal level, because there weren't a lot of men competing for a few women, that meant I could get laid.
That's no longer an issue for me, but I still like having lots of women around. Gatekeepers, go protect someone else.
I'm not a creator; I'm a consumer. I was and am a straight cis white male nerd with low social skills (for a mammal). I joined the community in the 70s when Star Trek had allegedly lowered the property values by bringing in lotsa women. And I have always been grateful to them. Instead of an overwhelmingly male culture where women were rare and fought over, I was in a nearly balanced community. I like that kind better: there is less symbolic mine's-bigger-than-yours, and I like associating with women. Furthermore, to reduce the issue to the most selfish and personal level, because there weren't a lot of men competing for a few women, that meant I could get laid.
That's no longer an issue for me, but I still like having lots of women around. Gatekeepers, go protect someone else.
