Girl Geek Dinner lady: The IT Crowd is putting schoolgirls off tech Sexism in The IT Crowd and other TV shows that chronicle of life in the tech industry is preventing women from considering a career in IT, said Sarah Lamb of women-in-tech-group Girl Geek Dinners. Jen from the IT Crowd The IT Crowd's Jen: Not an inspirational role model The portrayal of IT workers as sexist and women as …
The article actually laments the perception of IT presented by piss-poor writes/producers who think a Commodore PET in the IT Crowd or an XPS laptop in Sheldon makes them look knowledgeable.
Truth is IT is young dynamic profession that is much more interesting than Law (or accountancy); who’s practitioners are bereft of the emotional need to write idealised fiction to justify their years of toil. Maybe as IT matures, some technical authors will get so bored they will get round to writing a cracking screen-play, until then we’ve got Father Ted, Father Dougal & Mrs Doyle re-envisioned as Roy, Moss & Jen.. very funny.. but not exactly representative.
Read the article, consider being a girl-geek mentor.. you might even get…
Seems to me the male shareholders are just as daft as Jen in the scene where the internet gets broken. in fact none of the male characters exactly scream 'role model' do they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTBsm0LzSP0
I do think sexism in nurseries should be clamped down on - My little girl loves playing with cars, trains, computers, 'planes etc. just as much as (or more than) dolls and cuddly toys 'n stuff but she did go through a phase of not wanting to play with the cars and trains 'because they're for boys'. Since she didn't get that from her parents/grandparents it must be from nursery, probably the other kids, most likely boys who've been told by parents not to play with dolls cos boys play with cars 'n stuff. This is entirely my own, probably sexist, supposition. Tough.
Seems to me we shouldn't be worried about things like the IT Crowd, which just highlight and caricature stereotypes rather than creating them. Much more useful to eradicate prejudice during the formative years which may have a real impact on the rest of a person's life. I wonder how many women aren't interested in science/tech because they grew up thinking (or being told) that was 'boring stuff for boys'.
How many people don't like/aren't good at maths because they learned maths was hard before they learned maths?
Preconceived notions are bad m'kay? (Admittedly there are exceptions)
Passing them on to our children is worse.
Blaming a comedy TV programme for pre-existing stereotypes is retarded.
Interesting. I never thought of Jen as a woman, as such (other than the obvious). I thought of that character as more of a stereotypical manager. I am completely comfortable with negative portrayals of managerial staff.
For a show like The IT Crowd, it would be fairly easy to write a female geek character. They already have brilliant writers. But the entertainment industry as a whole has a whole lot more inertia to overcome before that kind of change could happen.
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"...
Spooner
Tell me then about your wife.
Hirst
What wife?
Spooner
How beautiful she was, how tender and how true. Tell me with what speed she swung in the air, with what velocity she came off the wicket, whether she was responsive to finger spin, whether you could bowl a shooter with her, or an offbreak with a legbreak action. In other words, did she google?
..."
Harold Pinter, No Man's Land, a Play by Harold Pinter, New York, Grove Press, Inc. 1975 p.32 [copyright 1975 by H. Pinter Limited]
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