Linux and feminism

[MS]

Is there any kind of popular association between Linux and feminism?

[Valtam]

[MS]

No, seriously, I thought, there is something to it in the Linux world.

Like, y'know, according to certain popular beliefs, the world is ruled by the rich elite composed of typically white elderly men, who like to impose various defensive conditions upon the society - which they influence - while it seems that the women have been historically the most suppressed group, regardless of political conditions. Which is why, some viewpoints claim those white elderly rich influential males, are particularly afraid of women and femininity, being the reason for discriminative social orders brought to happen. Long story short, Linux is kind of a rebellion against those white rich influential Microsoft elderly men, is it not?

I speculate that the landscape of modern GNU/Linux is adequately depictive of the femminile mindset in self government and dynamics of progress. In other terms, Linux is a woman.

For further conspiracy theories, has anyone noticed the swastika symbol written into the logo of the Windows operating system? But it is not a nazi swastika. It is the buddhist swastika, meaning "good luck to you on your way to completion". It indeed seems to work. Microsoft effectively scores in every valid field, save maybe for the mobile phones, where it was outdone by other patriarchal, defensively minded, insecure but highly motivated oligarchies. Not perfect, but good enough to eventually take over the competition.

[Sprintrdriver]

So then what do you say when installed Linux ?
I have her installed ?
She's laid into my harddrive ?

I don't think that will sound too satisfying for a "she".

[MS]

[member=6945]Sprintrdriver[/member], I consider it more a thing of a mindset behind the scenes rather than anything associated with body or sexuality, assuming that Linux is a woman. Like, think of the gender philosophy. It is all about the mind being given priority over the bodily conditions, therefore, there is the notion of the sexual identity the mind has, rather than the body. Gender is about the sex of the mind influencing the sexual identity of a body in the aftermath, rather than thinking of a body as being the defining factor. Linux is a mind of a liberated woman, imposed upon social movement, focused upon software engineering.

But there is a hook, you see. Feminism, draws a lot from the patterns of masculinity. In order to be able to initiate or uptake a discussion with some people or parties, first you need to learn the language or certain codes of values popular among those with whom you would wish to have a dispute. Feminism, therefore, is not femininity. Feminism is quite masculine. I would even speculate feminism was invented by males.

The rich ruling elite, that is.

EDIT:

So how does femininity relate to all this Linux feminism that I argue towards? In this case, the femininity - as an order of things - would be used as a tool against the patriarchal patterns dominating the field.

PS.

For instance, look at the logo of Apple. Is it not just the symbol referencing the judeochristian excuse for patriarchy, being the cornerstone of the Northern culture?

In this regard, what is Tux? Tux is an anti-symbol. It is a toy, a symbol that is meant to refer nothing.

[Albrecht Stefan]

There are certain associations, it's not a joke. Let's take LinuxChix as an example. It's a women-oriented community for Linux users.
An interesting read about Patricia Torvalds >>
Torvalds 2.0: Patricia Torvalds on computing, college, feminism, and increasing diversity in tech

[Swamp Rat]

Not at all sure if you, [member=8170]MS[/member], are just having fun here or trying to cause a furor or just a thought topic. I am not convinced by your statements. Females can be very reliable, like Linux, but so can males. Both can also be extremely unreliable. Both can at times be obstinate. Both can also be very compliant. Neither gender has exclusive ownership of creativity, compassion, intellect, or depravity. Both genders also share numerous attributes.

I have never considered Linux as having or exhibiting any gender. Nor have I ever addressed any of my computers by either a male or female name, nor have I ever given any of them any name. How you consider Linux and/or your computer is your perogative.

For those of us who ignore the entire Linux/computer gender thinking, I offer the video below (if I can do this correctly). I suggest that viewers NOT be swallwing any liquid while watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFptlmGCOVI

[The Repairman]

.

[Swamp Rat]

The only Linux female I can think of is Nixie Pixel.

I have watched a few of her YouTube videos, but I find more "meaty" videos from others, mostly males. However, I have been a registered member of the Ubuntu Forums for at least 6 years -- and still am a member -- and know that a few well regarded members and forum moderators are female. Their advice and suggestions are every bit as valuable as those made by males.

Linux may be more used by males than females, but that doesn't make it have any gender attributes any more than cars have. It may be that human males simply enjoy solving technical problems generally more than human females do. Or maybe males prefer to not have inscrutible devices that we can't comprehend any more than we can comprehend human females.  :

[Artim]

Oh well, maybe some males Linux users can simply "identify as" females and bring balance to the community.