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Subject:Re: Help Systems and Gender Differences From:mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM Date:Mon, 11 Apr 1994 10:22:18 EDT
With regards to the feminine/female and masculine/male distinction:
An essential distinction to be made. There are obviously strong
historical reasons for using masculine/feminine to describe the "sets" of
user behavior, but when it comes to applying the insights to the workplace,
the descriptions are misleading. I believe the original poster (or have I
lost track?) did describe differences in approaching documentation in
terms of male/female, not masculine/feminine. Was this a case of "reverse
engineering" from research on masculine/feminine roles?
In any case, I'm in favour of blander terms, perhaps analytical/holistic?
Even as a secure heterosexual male, I wince at being called feminine.
Holistic sounds less threatening to my masculinity (in its original sense :-).
Since the attitudes now described as masculine/feminine are probably
artifacts of gender-typing and societal roles, it probably doesn't help
us get away from those types and roles to keep referring to the attitudes
in terms of gender.
FWIW, BTW, I don't write with a particular person of either gender in mind.
I'd have to think for a while before I assigned a gender to my computer,
and I'd rather not. Maybe I'm just repressing my inherently sexual world
view, and the dichotomous world-view is hard-wired into me. But that seems
rather limited (gosh-darn it, there are plenty of shapes in the world,
not just curves and straight lines!). I bet a lot of theories about
why people write went out the window when writers switched to keyboards
(and that phallus-shaped pen was relegated to the desk droor). And I gave
up my pen without any feelings of anxiety at all :-)
Sorry for the long digression - it's a Monday, and I won't really wake up
till someone gives me a deadline :-)
Later,
Michael Priestley
mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
Disclaimer: The above represent my views at the time I wrote the note. I
hereby disclaim responsibility for them, just as IBM disclaims responsibility
for me.
