<story><title>How I, a woman in tech, benefited from sexism in Silicon Valley</title><url>http://huyenchip.com/2017/08/09/sexism-in-silicon-valley.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>imartin2k</author><text>&amp;quot;I have the feeling that we’ve been only addressing one side of the story. It’s the side where women are victims. I’m here to tell the story of how I, as a woman in tech, benefited from sexism and that men can be victims too.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Something that keeps bugging me - and this is in no way limited to tech - how being a victim has become an identity to many, which is almost worn as a badge. While I do what I can to emphasize with every individual who has been exposed to discrimination, harassment (and while as a white man I experienced most likely much less of this, although not nothing), a scenario in which everyone walks around all day long feeling as the victim (followed by the inevitable selective perception and confirmation bias) cannot function.&lt;p&gt;I recently listened to a philosophy podcast which started with a line which has since been stuck in my head &amp;quot;In a time in which being a victim offers so much social capital...&amp;quot;. (edit: I recalled the quote slightly inaccurately, but the point was the same: &amp;quot;In a culture in which there is so much social currency connected to being a victim...&amp;quot; In case you are curious, it&amp;#x27;s episode #105 of philosophizethis.org)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know what to do
about it and I in no way want to diminish the harm that those who feel like victims experienced. But whenever victimhood is becoming an identity, things are getting out of hand.&lt;p&gt;(the feeling of being a systemic&amp;#x2F;structural victim can be found on all sides of the political&amp;#x2F;ideological&amp;#x2F;gender spectrum of course).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rjbwork</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s an article that has some links talking about this phenomenon a few years ago.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;victimhood-culture-in-america-beyond-dig&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;victimhood-culture-in-amer...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;TL;DR There are traditionally 2 kinds of culture - honor, and dignity.  The west tends to be predominantly Dignity culture.  Asia and Africa tend to be predominantly Honor cultures.  This idea is that we are seeing a shift into a culture that combines both of these - the victim culture.</text></comment>
<story><title>How I, a woman in tech, benefited from sexism in Silicon Valley</title><url>http://huyenchip.com/2017/08/09/sexism-in-silicon-valley.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>imartin2k</author><text>&amp;quot;I have the feeling that we’ve been only addressing one side of the story. It’s the side where women are victims. I’m here to tell the story of how I, as a woman in tech, benefited from sexism and that men can be victims too.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Something that keeps bugging me - and this is in no way limited to tech - how being a victim has become an identity to many, which is almost worn as a badge. While I do what I can to emphasize with every individual who has been exposed to discrimination, harassment (and while as a white man I experienced most likely much less of this, although not nothing), a scenario in which everyone walks around all day long feeling as the victim (followed by the inevitable selective perception and confirmation bias) cannot function.&lt;p&gt;I recently listened to a philosophy podcast which started with a line which has since been stuck in my head &amp;quot;In a time in which being a victim offers so much social capital...&amp;quot;. (edit: I recalled the quote slightly inaccurately, but the point was the same: &amp;quot;In a culture in which there is so much social currency connected to being a victim...&amp;quot; In case you are curious, it&amp;#x27;s episode #105 of philosophizethis.org)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know what to do
about it and I in no way want to diminish the harm that those who feel like victims experienced. But whenever victimhood is becoming an identity, things are getting out of hand.&lt;p&gt;(the feeling of being a systemic&amp;#x2F;structural victim can be found on all sides of the political&amp;#x2F;ideological&amp;#x2F;gender spectrum of course).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rdtsc</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a new modality of getting the upper hand if you wish.&lt;p&gt;In some contexts showing how wealthy or strong one is works, but in other contexts that doesn&amp;#x27;t work, so showing how much of victim one is works well. Even more, the interesting phenomenon is if the person can&amp;#x27;t really swing looking like a victim, they&amp;#x27;ll gain the upper hand by claiming to deeply care about other victims.</text></comment>