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Computer Love Computer Love

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I'm so sick of porn with my file sharing! What the hell BitTorrent tracker sites?

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BitTorrent is a file sharing protocol used to distribute large files.

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So instead of sending the file from one computer to the other which is known as

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peer to peer. What's happening is that everyone whose downloading the file is

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sharing with everyone else. So we're all taking little bits of information and that will

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eventually be compiled into a full file on our computers. It's a really efficient,

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decentralized way of downloading files. It's actually really ingenius.

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But as with most geeky technology, BitTorent tracking sites fill their ad space with

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ads directed at young men, not at people who look like me.

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One way that I can tell is because the ads are either "How to get ripped in 4 weeks!"

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or porn directed specifically at heterosexual young males.

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The images are women being debased and dehumanized to sell advertising for sex sites

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or online dating sites. Some are straight up pornography and others are just using

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pornographic images to entice young men to visit their sites.

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For example the Evony MMO used ads like this which clearly is using women's bodies

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to attacted boys to come play their game except I think their game was like a strategy

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MMO, like it had nothing to do with the women in the advertisements.

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And then these ads are clearly for porn except they are trying to pretend like it's the

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"classiest collection of nude art"

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All of these ads are just using women's bodies to appeal to geeks and gamers.

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People that look like this.

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I just want to file share without being bombarded by naked women and offers to

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meet ladies in my neighbourhood.

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I also don't want to download a virtual stripper who takes her clothes off

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on my desktop. And frankly I'm horrified at the thought of someone turning their

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computer on and having their own virtual stripper do a little dance for them

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everyday. That falls under the fembot category and y'all know how I feel about that.

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There are plenty of techno-geeks who are women so why do these sites insist on

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advertising only to men? That was a rhetorical question. I actually know the

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answer to that. Women are systematically left out of techno-geek culture.

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It's a boys club that's reinforced socially and culturally. It creates a space that is so

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undesirable for women to be in that they don't want to or they aren't give the

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opportunity to participate.

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Just look at the fact that less than 3% of open source programmers are women.

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Or how about the fact that only 13% of wikipedia contributors are women?

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It's not that women aren't interested in technology, it's that there are very real

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barriers for women to get involved and engage. Having ads on the BitTorrent

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tracking sites targeted at a very specific demographic of young hetero sexual males

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alienates and discourages women from participating. And these ads are only a teeny

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tiny little fraction of the intentional and unintentional barriers keeping women out of

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the boys club.

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I like technology and coding and science fiction and open source software and

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And I'm also told that the only place for women in this subculture is to be the

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"hot chick" or maybe the booth babe at a convention.

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We want to be full participants in geek culture and the only way that's going to

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happen is if we dismantle the boys club and tear those barriers down.

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Computer Love Computer Love