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  Thursday, October 02, 2003


A few days into the term, and after determining that there were no women in our class, someone bought "The Kiss", a poster of two (fully-clothed) girls kissing on a bed, and put it up in the real time lab to keep us warm on those long nights of coding.

Just ten minutes ago, two people I've never seen before came into the lab and informed us that there's been a complaint and the poster needs to be moved so that it's not visible from outside the lab. We happily complied.

Just five minutes ago, a different guy came in, and said that in fact it had to come down altogether. Since the guy who owns it isn't here, this hasn't happened yet.

I don't really care about the poster, but what bothered me is that the guy said something like "Do you guys wonder why there are no girls in this class? Use your brains." Actually, I do wonder about the lack of women in math, and especially CS452, but I don't think the reason is that simple. After all, the poster went up long after every woman in 4th year CS decided not to enroll in the class. Sure a group of guys behave differently when there are no women around, and that explains the poster, but I don't think it makes the environment hostile to women. In fact, most CS students would be happy to see a more equal gender balance in their classes.
10:31:58 AM     comment []



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