So everybody knows by now that Google thinks us nerd ladies are in fact dudebros with penids right?
I opted out of that shit post-haste, but that was mostly because I didn’t want to deal with what might come out of changing my gender to reflect accurately who I am. Because I’m not sure what the result will wind up being. Will I change their algorithm? Will it be smart enough to realize that ladies in fact do enjoy these things, and start to realize that “women who love ipads might also be interested in learning about the new lineup of ultrabooks from CES”? Or will they simply start advertizing to me that which they believe all women love? I mean, sure, I enjoys me my makeup and clothes and making my hair did, but I ain’t exactly the fashion industry’s target demographic, especially considering my idea of a “cute outfit” is neon tights, shorts, and a brightly colored Transformers tee. And there are exactly zero people in Hollywood I want to “keep up with.” (Okay well except for maybe Jane Espenson. Lady is a baller, yo.)
The shorthand version of this problem is “gender essentialism” — basically anybody who enjoys these sorts of things, gaming, technology, programming, comics, science fiction, well they must be a dude obviously, because girls don’t like those things. It does everybody involved a disservice, I think.
So yeah, thanks Google, for affirming what I knew all along: I am between the ages of 18 and 24, and I have a huge penix.
Although on the plus side, this led to one of my more-favoriter twitter conversations (I’m @geardrops).
