I am not a “wogrammer”

wogrammer1So apparently the COO of Facebook is trying to make the word “wogrammer” – a woman programmer – a thing.  (Thanks to Vicky Harp for pointing out this infuriating thing.)

I cannot stress how fundamentally opposed I am to this, new, stupidest of ideas. Why? Let’s delve into a little bit of common wordage. Here are some of the things I have done in my life, and yet I am not:

  • A shef
  • A database administrateher
  • A drivher
  • A runnher
  • A computer useuer
  • A she-mathemetician
  • A carpentress
  • An authress, a technical wo-riter

Why am I none of these things? Because I don’t, in point of fact, need to use my womanly parts to take part in any of these professions and hobbies. I refer you here to a related graphic, on a related topic:boygirltoys

Equality? Yes. Equal pay? Absolutely. Silly that we’ve only had the right to vote for 95 years? Oh, yeah.

Do I want a special term that separates and isolates and from the huge male majority in my profession? No, no, no. I am a DBA. I am a programmer. Women in the profession do the same job as men, the same way.  Don’t tell me to identify me as something different; I’ve spent all this time trying get people to see me as a part of the team.

7 thoughts on “I am not a “wogrammer”

  1. Jen McCown Post author

    There will inevitably be comments about Sheryl Sandburg’s (the COO’s) program itself, which is meant to highlight women’s achievements. This in itself is a good thing. There’s been enough of a struggle getting women into IT that highlighting achievements is a positive. Setting up a separatist term is a negative.

  2. BrettC

    The funny thing is that when I first read “wogrammer” I thought of an overly reactionary programmer. You know, more of a “whoa-grammer”. Or someone whose code elicits a “whoa” from others who see it. I would never have guessed people would be trying to make a special name for women who develop code.

    I have a word for people like that, but it’s not new: MORONS!!

  3. Ed Watson

    My daughter has done community theatre for years and she would be infuriated when someone called her an actress. She would say the job is acting which is done by an actor like a baker does baking, not a baktress. She was so convincing that the theatre changed their awards to Best Male Actor and Best Female Actor.

  4. Robert L Davis

    I think you should change ” A database administrateher” to “A database admenstruater”. 😀

    @Jules, you are if you believe what The Bible says (and I don’t).

  5. Chris Nelson

    Let me contact my sis-tem admenstruater about these and “check my privileges”. That may require woager approval.

  6. DBS

    All the time and effort women, and some men, have spent trying to make women an equal partner, can go down the drain. Caused by one idiotic person who knows no equal rights history.

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