Feminists don’t care about the gender gap in ballet. Why should we care about the one in tech?

Article here. Excerpt:

'What, if anything, do ballet and tech have in common? The obvious answer is that both fields show highly disproportionate gender distributions.

Less acknowledged but no less relevant is this uncomfortable commonality: Both are industries where it pays to be in the sexual minority. I know, because I was a ballet dancer for 16 years.

In the ballet world, men’s unfair advantage in hiring and casting is as widely understood and as rarely acknowledged as is the rampant anorexia. A less skilled male dancer is more likely to land a role or get a job than a female dancer of comparable skill. Due to the scarcity of men, the hurdles to a professional career are distinctly lower than they are for most women.

Anyone who says something similar about women in the tech industry does so at their own peril. It is assumed and unquestioned that pervasive sexism and systematic discrimination against women are to blame for their underrepresentation. But then, how did a field like tech, once dominated by nerds regularly bullied by their more athletic and popular peers, suddenly become replete with toxic masculinity?

The answer? It didn’t.
...
I salute women who work in fields where they’re outnumbered, but I don’t appreciate or support policies that patronize women at men’s expense for the sake of “diversity” in any occupation, under any circumstances. My female friends in STEM agree, and they aren’t the ones pushing for these ridiculous reparations.

As for the radical feminists, you might ask them, if they feel so strongly about equal representation, why didn’t they themselves pursue a degree in engineering? Expect to hear something like, “well, I did always prefer English, and calculus was such a bore.”'

Like5 Dislike0

Comments

In ballet, men are rare commodities, which is why they get more opportunities and better pay. You have to have a man for certain roles.

Male ballet dancers were more common and respected in Russia than over here, but few US men dream of becoming a ballet dancer. Some Russian ballet dancers became quite famous over here, Nureyev and Godunov.

For me, it's a little late to go into the field. :)

Like1 Dislike0