If a male IMer put "IM Guy" in his user title, no one would give a damn. Would you prefer that she'd put a more neutral title, such as "SEO Person" or "SEO Individual"?
While I don't think that gender has anything to do with success online, it's true that there are fewer women in IM and in IT in general. This is slowly changing but I think it's like anything, awareness is the key to acceptance. If more women were recognised as being a substantial force in the IM world, there would be less need for threads (and responses) of this kind.
I'm a girl. So what? I'm not going to hide my gender in order to avoid being disrespected. That seems like feeding sexism to me.
Like most others on this forum, I'm going to judge people based on their intelligence and their achievements, not whether or not someone's a boy, a girl or a crocodile. If you're a crocodile however, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't let it be known that crocodiles too, are interested in IM and as such, help remove the stigma that surrounds crocodiles in the workplace everywhere.
I both agree and disagree.
For minorities, it
is important to draw awareness to the
existence of the minority, that is true. On the other hand, that comes with some heavy downsides. By drawing attention to it, you basically lower the expectations out of the minority. By drawing attention to the gender of females, you are basically saying that
that is what defines females. As you said, males wouldn't get much recognition if they posted "SEO Guy". But instead they have to do something bigger than that; they have to have a service, they have to build a brand, they have to do other things for their title/identity to have recognition.
But females? All they have to do is say "I am a girl" and then they will immediately get recognition. That is weaksauce. You know what that does? It lowers expectations for females, and it lowers female expectations on themselves.
Females already exist in SEO/IM world. We know this. I don't believe that attention-drawing is needed for that purpose anymore. Instead, females just need to reach higher-heights on their own accord. Pointing out they are a female won't make that any better.
You don't have to
hide your gender, but notice most guys don't either. I am not suggesting you pretend to be a male. What I am suggesting is you only bring up your gender when relevant. Some people would put "SEO Guy" in their title casually. If you'd put "SEO Girl" casually in your title, then fine. But if you specifically put it in your title to draw attention to the fact you're a female, then you're exhibiting GOTIS.
If it comes up in natural conversation that you mention gender-specific things then sure absolutely. But people already know that females exist in the IM world. Talking about female pretty much does nothing now, except make you look like a typical GOTI and makes you look like you are looking for a free ride and being whiteknighted.
The stigma isn't that girls aren't interested on the whole in IM - that is pure fact. The stigma is that girls don't take it seriously. Well, when you choose to showcase your gender specifically to showcase your gender, then you're pretty much sending the message that thats all you have to showcase, thereby furthering the stigma.
And unfortunately that is a reality on here. Most of these threads of "GIRLS POST HERE" have brand-new accounts with very few posts being like "oh hai I'm a girl lets stick together!!!" just making the stigma
even worse.