A university professor at the University of Maryland faced a particularly ignorant mansplainer after she tweeted about computer programming language Java the other day.
Jen Golbeck, who often tweets about her experiences programming and her thoughts on topics in computer science (being a professor in the field), shared this tweet:
While most people tweeted back empathetic replies and their own experiences, one guy figured it was his chance to show her what’s what.
To which Jen had the BEST response.
BOOM!
Unfortunately Ludovic didn’t really get the reason people were so offended by his comment, and why the ‘gender card’ was being played.
However, many tweeters came forth to help him out, explaining that it was because he had assumed she wouldn’t know how to code, being a woman and all.
Jen later took to Twitter to express her frustration about this, given that she experiences it very often on social media.
She later told Mashable that it can be hard for some men to see the gender angle to this argument, but it certainly exists.
“I can understand that if you never see what it’s like to be a women in tech, you may not realize how much we get patronized and assumed incompetent by default. I tried to explain that to a few people, and a couple guys really got it and acknowledged that women probably got a lot more of these comments than male coders would.
Some refused to acknowledge there’s a sexist component, even though I point out they never get emoji winked at when people criticize their coding skills. The best threads you’ll find in there are men mansplaining that mansplaining doesn’t exist.”
Go Jen for standing up on this issue!
