UPDATE, 11/4/2013: The artist who created Hacker Boy has also created the “Hacker Girl” sticker. Turnabout’s fair play and because I took them to task, somewhat, for no Hacker Girl originally, it’s only fair that I share the news. I’m not fond of pink, but that’s my issue, not theirs. The boy was blue. So the girl’s pink. Whatever. She’s a hacker. And a girl.
ORIGINAL POST:
Let me just start off by saying I am absolutely not accusing Facebook, or the creators of these stickers of being sexist.
But when I looked at the descriptions of these two new-ish Facebook stickers this morning, I was struck by something.
Hacker Boy is “a computer genius who doesn’t always play by the rules. He’s at a computer, hacking away, building, making, computing. Doing stuff.
Mobile Girl “loves chatting on her phone, and she’ll throw a tantrum if you take it away.”
These aren’t by the same artist, so it wasn’t done in concert. They came out at different times. I doubt highly anyone thought, “Oh, we should have a sticker about girls who like to talk on the phone and a computer geek boy.”
And that’s not the point. There is nothing wrong with either of these stickers. I know plenty of people of both genders who fit both tropes.
However, what struck me is the gender roles we keep putting ourselves in. Girls talk on the phone. Boys hack. That was the stereotype when I was back in high school (a long time ago). And yes, I got my own phone (not phone number, just phone) when I turned 16. And I did love talking on the phone. But whenever I had the chance to fiddle around on my dad’s PC (not everyone had a home computer then, either), I would fiddle and practice BASIC.
You know what? That’s all besides the point.
I struggled a lot in writing this post. It seemed ridiculous in some ways. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had.
The point is, what this represents is how far we haven’t really come in how we represent gender roles. I’m not asking for a “Hacker Girl” sticker, even.
Look. We know that seeing representations of ourselves is a very powerful thing. Will the Mobile Girl stickers cause any girls to suddenly forego computer science and stay glued to their phones, talking about boys? Of course not. Nor will the Hacker Boy stickers cause any boys to suddenly take up computer science.
I long for the day that this incongruity won’t even strike me.
Photo by Augustin Fest via Flickr Creative Commons.
I'm pretty sure Hacker girl came out first.
Why do you care so much….? o.O
@jguynn Thank you for sharing! It was one of the harder pieces I've written lately.
@BrittMichaelian Thanks for sharing, Britt!
@emspot @RedheadWriting Thank you both so much for sharing! Truly appreciated.
@RedheadWriting @AmyVernon We're human, visual. We must visually represent the changes we seek, & are working towards. #MissRepresentation
I understand how you feel. What we need is to form a world where All the spectrums are seen as the norm, so that these stickers would stick out as one sub-archetype. When we see it as normal for ladies to hack, at best it won't occur to us to see the mobile sticker lady as anything but a different kind of norm.
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I had the exact same thoughts when I saw these stickers!
@SharonTurcotte I originally wrote the post when Hacker Boy came out. It and Mobile Girl came out at the same time. Hacker Girl wasn't in the sticker store yet. I updated it after Hacker Girl showed up in the store.
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Like, truly. What really matters? You people are taking this WAY too seriously.
@AmyVernon Thank you for writing it!
@lizellevv @RedheadWriting thank you. That expresses my feelings so well. I struggled a lot with this post
@Tinu Exactly. I struggled so much in writing this. Thanks so much for your comment. Neither of these stickers was *wrong*. They just also weren't the only right.
@Steph Ritz Thank you! I feel so much better knowing I wasn't alone. I rarely struggle so much in sharing my feelings, but everything kept telling me to write this post.
@aryl As I noted in the post, it was an observation, and I recognize it isn't, in and of itself, earth-shattering.
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@AmyVernon Nothing worth doing is ever truly 'easy', so good on ya! Thanks for writing it. More women and men should. /@RedheadWriting
@AmyVernon I wouldn't have thought to write it. Funny how the gender bias strikes our subconscious first. Thank you for sharing; I'm sure there are lots of other people who feel the same way.
@AmyVernon What I don’t think you’re understanding, or rather, your complete and absolute failure to grasp the concept at hand, is the fact that they’re emoticons. They’re stickers. They’re for fun.
Stop being a killjoy, stop being a crazy-feminist (you realize men are put down more than women are, right? You understand that, right? And, if a job that requires physical labor pays a man higher, that’s simply because he can do more work. Go sit at a desk or something if you want more money. Jesus), and just learn to live life and have fun. At this point, right now, I’m simply laughing at you and your post. The fact that you even decided to write this piece is a bloody joke.
First of all, I am male. Obviously. Second of all, I relate to Hacker Girl, not Hacker Boy. Third of all, I USE the Hacker Girl stickers; and RATHER FREQUENTLY at that! (Guess what‽ My favorite color is pink, whaddaya know!)
Do you even know what “HACKING” is? Hacking is letting a program run and doing shit for you. It’s automated. It’s not the fast-paced “tiptaptiptaptiptap” attacks that you see in media. It’s boring. It’s sitting there and using technological knowledge to find weak-points in the written code and find ways to exploit them.
Girls? Girls post selfies and duckfaces.
Guess what, though? SO DO MEN.
Guess who also are considered “hackers”? WOMEN.
They only people allowing these stereotypes to exist are idiots like you who perpetuate them like the filthy moronic morons you are. For real, now, you understand, right? Feminism today is not what it once was. It is about male-bashing, it is about hating on men, it is about putting men down. See what I’m getting at here?
Let’s start a new movement: Maleism. Or, as you know it—from THE PAST—patriarchal society. BULLSHIT today. WOMEN are those on the higher pedestal, if ANYONE is.
in MY point-of-view (which I must add, is more well thought-out and less biased than yours and your cronies), we are all created equal. Each and every one of us. The fact that I have a penis shouldn’t make any difference to you.
Yet, guess what? It does. Because you’re a bitch. You try to get by it, shove it off, sugar-coat your writings with words like, “I’m totes not accusing…”, and “I long for the day that this incongruity won’t even strike me.”
Why not make it TODAY? Jesus, woman! (Watch, you’ll be insulted by a FACT. You ARE a woman, and thus, being insulted by that fact, insinuates that you wish you were a man. The fuck, woman? Talk about gender roles.)
You need to grow up, pick up your BASIC language book, and study a bit more. Either that or just fuck off the Internet and make this place happier, and what’s it’s meant for:
Porn and cats.
You’re welcome.
Signed with love,
Aryl
@aryl First, I just wanted to note that Livefyre didn't post your comment and I went to check my dashboard today and saw it unapproved, and just approved it, so that you know that I wasn't so thin-skinned that I wouldn't post your comment.
Second, I do understand they're emoticons. I like FB stickers and use them a lot as emoticons. I especially enjoy the Despicable Me stickers.
I'm not insulted by facts. I like facts. In fact, I agree that the Internet is mostly for porn and cats. When I talk to a class at Baruch about the Internet, I point out that porn is the most popular thing on the Internet. I also bring up cats.
So, there's that.
I'm not going to respond to everything, point by point, because you have your viewpoint, and I have mine. I'm not going to change your opinion, and you're not going to change mine, in a comment exchange on a blog.
I will take you at your word that you signed the comment with love, and appreciate that you actually took the time to read my post and comment on it - the length of your comment shows how much it actually meant to you to respond, so at least I provoked some thought, which is more than most things on the Internet do, no?
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