We live in what’s called a “New age”, right? So what the hell is it with so many people thinking that females are incapable of using a computer? I run into these kinds of people mostly at electronics supply stores - Radio Schlock and Future Slop are the worst. Radio Schlock especially. Now I know this doesn’t apply to all R.S. workers, but every salesperson I’ve run into there has been male, and a big, knobby, stinky dick. I dread when I have to ask a question because it often leads to being belittled. Most recent incident, last week. My 7 year-old discman finally fritzed out for good, so I went there and picked out a new one that could read MP3/CD. As soon as I brought my choice up to the counter, the salesman looks at it, and then at me, and says as if I’m a kid, “This can read MP3’s as well as CD’s. Do you know what they mean when they say that?” I gave him a dark look and he shut up for the rest of our interaction. I can guarantee that if I had been a man, he wouldn’t have talked down to me like that. Other reactions to my queries/purchases have ranged from disbelief to amusement. Aww, look, the little girl is getting a print cartridge. She even knows which one she needs, how cute!
My dad started flooding me with those old kid’s books on introductions to BASIC when I was barely out of Kindergarten, starting me on an inevitable descent into geekdom. I mean, I have an uncontrollable affinity for C64 programs like Paperclip and GEOS. Fuckin’ GEOS! I’m a geekette, dammit! And I want them to seeeee!
Yeah. I know the feeling. Our family got our first computer circa 1986, a flashy Tandy with color graphics! Ya know, the kind with the keyboard and CPU in the same box. I had learned Basic, Dos, PC Logo, and various other languages by the time I was 10, and I only got geekier from there.
I have always been the one called upon at work to fix whatever the machines had wrong with them, and the funny thing is that I usually work with girls, and usually the problem was something really simple, such as the power not being on or something. I can see where some might develop those stereotypes, actually.
I just crack up when I have boys tell me to call them if I ever need any help with my computers. I don’t really shop for electronics, lately, and I usually scrounge my computer parts from old machines, so I haven’t had the same experiences as you, AFG.
I also find the same phenomenon occuring when it comes to cars. Not only can I drive circles at high speed around just about anyone I know, I could take their car apart, put it back together, and have it running better. But just let me walk into Autozone or Pep Boys and ask for something specific. I usually get something like “Are you sure that’s what you need? Why don’t you let me do a 100 point inspection and I’ll find your problem.” or “What’s a little girl like you gonna do with that big, complicated alternator?”
Just because you are a female and you can use a computer still doesn’t make it right. You see what happened females when females stated driving. The roads got clogged, people can’t get anywhere, and taxes went up. If females start learning to use computers in large numbers then the internet will get all clogged up like a toilet in a concert bathroom arena then no one will be able to use it.
Don’t you know that MP3 stands for Male Property the 3rd generation?
I’m in the same boat. While I am a man, I fix the computers of mostly women, and those stereotypes of women not knowing how to operate computers are consistently held up by your sisters.
Every time I fix something, it’s always something simple, or something I’ve told them how to fix a dozen times, and it just doesn’t sink in.
Granted, some of the chaps I run into at the Bombers Warehouse (a.k.a. radio shack) are extreme goofballs, but many of them are likely acting on some previous experience they’ve had. If they fail to give props to your geekness, give it to 'em with both barrels, and out geek 'em.
I’m not that savvy (I don’t take apart my computer and put it together, but if directed, I can put parts in and take parts out. I hyperventilate while doing it, but I can do it). Anyway, I know what RAM is, I know what MHz and GHz are, I know what a motherboard is, and I know what speed of dial-up modem is fast and what isn’t.
A few years ago I walked into one of those crappy used computer stores, looking for something cheap and crappy. Just to tinker around with. The guy automatically pegged me as an “AOL-I-want-to-chat-with-my-buddies” type chick and tried to sell me an ancient 486 with something like 178 meg hard drive, and a 9600 baud modem. (Which he had a sign next to, calling it “fast”!) Now, I wanted the computer, but I wasn’t going to pay what he was asking. I shocked him a few times (it didn’t take a lot to shock him) by insisting on the faster modem he had, by not wanting to pay for his dusty disks of Windows 95 (I had my own copy at home and it wasn’t installed on any other computer), and so forth.
He obviously hadn’t expected me to have even a particle of a clue, which did sort of give me an advantage. He seemed determined to not let me leave the store without buying something, so he threw in a lot of extras and lowered the price by a great deal. (I’m sure he did just fine though. I don’t flatter myself into thinking that I am that clever of a haggler.)
I grew up with my mum using the computer so I’ve always known women better than me at using computers.
When I worked in tech support there was only one woman that did it as well, and the amount of shit she had to put up with from customers, starting with
“Welcome to xxx tech support, how can I help you?”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I wanted tech support.”
“This is it.”
“… but you’re a girl!”*
and occasionally getting worse was downright embarrasing!
I haven’t met too many women that play computer games though. My sister is nuts about the Worms series and my girlfriend likes Diablo 2, but that’s about it.
*this is an honest paraphrase. It was that bad for her at times.
Amen to that brother! I can’t tell you how many times a woman has come up to me at work to ask if I could fix their computer. I go over to see what the problem is; see that it’s froze up; then I snidely respond with “Oh yeah, here’s your problem…” [presses reset button] :rolleyes:
And if that wasn’t bad enough my ex girlfriend called me over to her apartment one day because she said her moniter was comming up blank.
I drive all the way over there take one look at the situation to which I responded to her with “Yeah, it helps if you turn the moniter on…” [presses on/off buttun.]
But as per the OP I think that sales clerk at RS was a little over the top with “…do you know what that means??”
Holy shit, there’s someone out there who knows GEOS! I haven’t heard that name in like, forever. Did you know those guys released a PC version to try to compete with Windows in the early days? It was said to be a superior product but Microsoft conquered them.
As a fellow geekette, I blame other women. The “Ohh, teehee, a computer! I wouldn’t know what to do with a computer! Teeheehee” type of women. Geekettes may be increasing in numbers, but they’ll always be overshadowed by their shreaking, happily-ignorant sisters.
I’m just surprised that there’s so many men who let their women use their computers to post on here. If they didn’t show them how to log on we wouldn’t get these complaints.
And would you women please stop calling it a “'puter” and hiding the monitor behind a crowd of furry gonks?
Computers aren’t supposed to be cute or furry. They are supposed to be dangerous looking, with hidden recesses where unknown electronics hum and lights flicker. They are not designed to be friendly or cuddly. They need to say 'bow before my computational power, mortal! Feed me with wattage and be in awe."
Most importantly; they need to be in macho black. The days of the sissy beige box are gone. Computers have got serious! Grrrrrrr!
Love 'em.
So I’m a girl in a Bachelor of I.T. Yeh, there’s me and about 20 other chicks, in a course composed of about 500 people. Barrels of fun. It just makes it easier for me to sleep to the top
joking
Maybe, but people will often find a reason to talk down to you no matter who you are. I’m a male. I’m also disabled. I get belittled like you wouldn’t imagine. Now, I’m all for pitting these fucks, but I don’t think it should be limited to just women. This IS the new age after all.
In defense of the clerk, he was probably protecting the store by making sure you understood what you were buying, lest you realize it doesn’t work and demand a refund. There are a ton of people that do this, so now stores take some extra precautions. For example, when you buy an online only game from EB, they ask you if you know that it’s an internet only game before you purchase it. I don’t think it’s discrimination, they’re just used to twits who don’t know what they’re buying asking for refunds are screwing up their stock.
If it was an honest case of discrimination, best thing to do is politely educate them. Most perpetrators do it out of ignorance, not spite.