vicki@mathcs.emory.edu (Vicki Powers) (03/02/89)
In article <6577@ecsvax.UUCP>, news@cs.duke.edu (System News Recipient) writes: > > I was part of my life in a group of outcasts. We hacked all night. > We have never talked about sex/girls (at least in the terminal room, very > little outside the terminal room). No woman was a part of the group, and > I (as a date-less young man) wondered why. > > That's my question to you and other women who were in a similar situation. > What did the guys do that caused you to feel uncomfortable? This doesn't answer your question, but ... I have a different story. My first year of high school I was miserable : I was considered weird, a nerd, etc. and abandoned by those who had previously been my friends and who were in hot pursuit of the "in crowd". One day I wandered into the "math resource center" and discovered a bunch of (all male) weird, nerdy outcasts. I also discovered these people were smart and alot of fun to be with. So I stayed and was accepted with no problem. Later another female (who had also been "abandoned" by so-called friends) joined the group. We were all interested in science, math, and Monty Python. I had a romance with one of the men in the group (the first for both of us), this helped my self-esteem enormously. I found this group supportive, and I no longer felt ashamed to be good in math. I am still very close friends with a few of these people, and ever since I've always been attracted to "nerds". And I "grew up" to be a mathematician. Vicki P.S. The word "nerd" has bad connotations, but I can't think of a better one. Besides, as I said, I like nerds!! -- Vicki Powers | vicki@mathcs.emory.edu PREFERRED Emory University | {sun!sunatl,gatech}!emory!vicki UUCP Dept of Math and CS | vicki@emory NON-DOMAIN BITNET Atlanta, GA 30322 |