Plugins: Just Sexism

This is the last one for the year and it’s a couple people who are just plain idiots about the world.

I wanted to find the one where the guy went into a massive transphobic rant about ‘real women’ but since I can’t remember the exact term he used, I’m struggling to find it. If I do, that’ll get added.

To Sir, With Love

A lot of people default to ‘dear sir’ in emails to Plugins. I, being not a sir, have a pre-defined reply I used to remind them the Internet has women and women code, moving on.

FYI, you shouldn’t assume the people reading your email are only male. You often won’t know someone’s gender in email. It considered more universally polite to address a group (or an individual) by name or team name.

That’s not terrible, right?

Once in a while people are asshats and tell me not to be so touchy and I make a note of that in their account (it usually comes back to haunt them). More often, though, they apologize and explain they’d not been taught that, and we all learn from this experience.

Similarly I tell people not to call a reviewer ‘My dear’ because that implies a relationship we do not have. That’s easy to mess up when you’re ESL, and the reply actually explains that you would say “Dear Reviewer” instead. This is, generally, well received. I’ve only caught a couple complaints and one was a guy from Texas, who got livid I suggested his English wasn’t too good.

It really wasn’t.

Daily Life of Women Online

Starting off simple with some nameless people. All of these are comments or weird replies I got in the process of plugins.

First up, we have this cheerful fellow who, after being corrected about calling me ‘sir’ for a couple DAYS, finally replied with this:

Btw I saw ur talk on wordpress.tv yesterday, and realized that you’re a lady (a gorgeous one!).

Then we have this weird Slack Message from someone I never talked to before:

Thank you Mika you made my day love you.

And also this one, later that day from someone else.

Just love you for what you did to me today 🙂

Shortly before WCUS (the second or third one):

Hi.. good to see u on wcus speakers.. getting my tickets to fly US from PK for the show
Best of Luck

This one came via my contact form, after a plugin was rejected (because he never finished fixing it). My mother would argue that I am, in no way, ‘too’ feminine. My wife would say I’m perfectly feminine. Me? I’m happy with who I am.

P.S. Yeah… I understand you have no obligation to reply… or to do NOTHING. With that sentence you proves very feminine, perhaps TOO feminine…

And of course, Mr. Hugs.

Corrections made, is attached the new version.

hugs

In case you gents were wondering what it’s like to be a woman online, it’s that.

If You Have to Ask…

Mid review, there was this one:

p.s.
Before contacting, I looked you up on the net, and when I realized that
you’re girl and having this much passionate for coding, my respect
grew²
(hope this didn’t sound sexist)

It did. And I replied to him, telling him it was sexist. He did not take that well.

Gender Is a Construct Anyway

This fellow started by going off about his plugin being ‘rejected.’ It was pended (and he’s why the email tries to be SUPER clear about that now), but he didn’t read. I suppose I should’t have been shocked when he replied to the ‘Sir’ reminder like this:

FYI: When you correspond with people, you should give your name so they don’t have to guess whether you are male, female, shemale, or a fourth gender.

‘shemale’ was a term that was used to call transwomen back in the 80s/90s, but we’ve come a long way since then. Also it was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. This guy may later get his own post, because he made a petition to get me ‘fired’ for telling him to sanitize his shit.

It’s a Cycle

First up, we have Bumper for anyone who likes Pitch Perfect.

I sincerely apologize for unconsciousness caused by my address. I am just 27 this month and have never been lucky enough to see any female programmer. Maybe their menstrual cycle affect their ability to pay high level of concentration in this field. But I really appreciate the ones who break the ice.

Bumper

In the end, I rejected the plugin because everything was filled with that kind of tone after. Seriously, he stuck to his guns that women couldn’t dev, and went on to posit I was menopausal. Or rather … past my prime. Yes, he actually suggested I was able to succeed as a plugin reviewer because I must not have to deal with my period anymore.

Boop Beep Robots

Buggy (also not his real name) had trouble with his account. He emailed asking for help, and started with “Dear Sir”

He got the normal reply, followed by directions to actually help him.

Foolishness has many levels, yours is very polished, thus shiny!! Who cares who read the email, i just needed an answer. If you feel the email was meant for a male reader, you could hv put aside the email until a passing male reply that!! However I appreciate you CAREfree attitude to reply me. Thank you human/robot!!

Not really sure how it’s foolish to remind folks that people of all genders work on WordPress, but off you go to the block bin, Buggy.

Don’t Default To Sir

The last thing WordPress needs are people that misogynistic, and dumb, dealing with people in the community.

If you can’t accept that some people in WordPress aren’t men, you need a new hobby.

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

I’m Mika (aka Ipstenu) and I’m complicated. I’ve been on the net since the days of dedicated terminals and Novation CAT modems and solved Missionaries and Cannibals (or Goats and Cabbages) before I was six, and blog about WordPress and technical/computer things at Half Elf on Tech.

See Full Bio