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October 28, 2004
Newsflash: Women design databases too
Page 27 of Cal Henderson's recent presentation, PHP and Flickr, discusses the merits of denormalizing data. One bullet point reads: "Normalised data is for sissies."
The assertion sparked a bunch of lively discussions about the merits of data normalization vs denormalization. But one person looked beyond what was said to how it was said.
Wonder why I don't think that's very funny.
Now, I can hear the "Can't you take a joke?" comments already. I realize that the 'sissies' point was meant as a harmless joke. But 'Normalised data is for wimps' would've had the same meaning. It's the gender connotation, the equation of female ('sissy') with weak that bothers me.
In calling out the comment, I'm not aiming to shame Cal and all the people that echoed the sentiment, but to remind others: choose your words carefully, think hard about where they come from, and which direction those who hear them will continue in.
Posted by Gina at 10:21 PM | Permalink
Comments
I don't think the 'sissies' term usage was meant in any fashion to put down women. It's funny, I think *you* feel the gender differences a lot more than Cal Henderson or Joey deVilla.
This is a lot similar to racism, and if you look at rap groups, you'll see they are as racist or more than white folks. The fact that they are on the lower end of the scale does not make their attitude any less wrong.
You need have a much more positive attitude, placing yourself above insults. Particularly, if the insults are not there.
Posted by: Sérgio Carvalho at Oct 29, 2004 8:00:13 AM
If it's not an insult then where is the humor?
Posted by: Michelle at Oct 29, 2004 9:11:55 AM
If something offends people (and yes, I'm offended too, the constant repetition of these kinds of things is so wearing) and there's an easy alternative, why on earth keeping being offensive?
Posted by: Jill at Oct 29, 2004 11:23:09 AM
It's hard to "have a much more positive attitude, placing yourself above insults. Particularly, if the insults are not there" - especially when you could recently catch a few moments of the TV coverage of, oh, say, a national political event where the famous former-actor governor of a big U.S. state went around very publicly calling people "sissy-men" if they voted for anyone other than the candidate he endorses. Lack of awareness that the incident Gina describes in this post isn't just an insult but a symptom of a social problem (and a big one) is no excuse for it. What's more, purposely ignoring little symptoms like this will merely end up perpetuating the problem.
Posted by: LiL at Oct 29, 2004 11:59:39 AM
I'm not offended by the sissy remark per se. What's more important is what
underlies the remark.
There is a new book, Sun Tzu Was A Sissy, that's just out. I realized
that the reason said author didn't like The Art of War is that the Taoist
approach to conflict and strategy espoused in The Art of War is a very
yin-yang, feminine-masculine, anima-animus holistic integration. It's
certainly not entirely masculine nor entirely feminine but encompasses
transcends both.
The worst thing the author can say to appeal to Western tastes is that
all this Eastern stuff is for sissies - because yes, it is integrating the
feminine.
Alan Watts talks of how the West despises the feminine aspect within
ourselves - and this isn't about just males. I think that internal
rejection often gets projected and externalized in interaction with females
too.
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez at Oct 29, 2004 7:04:22 PM
Evelyn, thank you. Your points are very logical, sane, and well-taken.
You know, I wasn't offended by the sissies remark either. Not at first. In fact, I followed with great interest the discussion of database normalization until the switch flipped and I read Joey's comments and thought "Hey! Something in there is sexist!"
Then I got all riled up.
I guess it is that our culture rejects or despises the feminine parts of us. That's why it's funny to denigrate men by calling them chicks. Acceptable to say "don't throw like a girl." Considered witty to say an accepted convention in db design is for sissies.
That's what the real issue is here, and I wrote this because I wanted to point that out to folks.
Posted by: Gina at Oct 29, 2004 8:01:03 PM
I usually use "You throw like a girl!" as a compliment. :-)
It's kind of funny, but I usually don't think of "sissy" as denigrating women, but yes, it's not terribly complimentary. ("Sissy" is what my sister and I call each other with affection, usually.) There are a lot of insults out there which denigrate an entire class of people. The one that annoys me most is when my students say "That's so gay!" or, and this is perhaps the weirdest one, "That's so Jewish." They haven't any idea that what they're saying is belittling an entire group of people. All they're trying to do is belittle the person about whom they're speaking. (Not that this is any better...)
The only thing that I can do as a teacher is draw attention to it when they do it and should they persist, take disciplinary action.
Posted by: Trina L Short at Oct 30, 2004 9:38:26 AM
Has any of you read Feelings of Inferiority yet?
Posted by: Giao at Oct 31, 2004 2:11:28 AM
