[NTLK] Women of Newton

M J Pittman mjpittman2013 at gmail.com
Sat Sep 16 18:29:53 EDT 2017


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-KA7rZW6tw

On Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 11:36 PM, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:

> I am not saying Noah shouldn't do so.  All I was saying is that the
> "knee jerk" reaction if someone is not represented it is an agenda or as
> you put it, not doing a good job and quietly excluding is sad.
>
> Yes it can be a chick-and-egg thing, or not.  It could be because they
> were influenced, and then perhaps that is not where their interests lie
> either.  It is a very grey area and hard to know, yet people assume,
> hence my point.  Yes I know there is a danger that one can be ignored
> too without trying to.  But the assumption part is what I was mentioning.
>
> To be clear, I am not opposed to "Women of Newton" at all.  Or anyone of
> any race/gender for that matter.  We are all people, the other details
> don't matter.
>
> -Dan
>
> On 9/15/2017 11:45 AM, Steven Frank wrote:
> > The quiet danger is not so much a particular "agenda" that's maliciously
> and purposely setting out to exclude women and other underrepresented
> groups, but by creators who passively contribute to the problem by simply
> being unaware of it, or choosing to ignore it, and thus not putting effort
> into more equal representation.
> >
> > Noah is to be applauded for looking past the low-hanging fruit, and
> making an active effort to bring more balance to his film.  It's easy to
> simply interview the obvious candidates.  Seeking out into the far corners
> to blend in the stories of the lesser-known participants is harder, and
> will without question result in a more interesting documentary.
> >
> > There's also a chicken-and-egg thing that happens over the very long
> term (generations) where particular groups don't appear to be "interested"
> in a certain topic, because they don't see portrayals of people like
> themselves in media about that topic in their formative years.  If young
> girls are rarely exposed to strong role models in computing or science,
> then yes, they will take away the message that it's not "for them", even
> though it's untrue, and look for a career elsewhere.  Same thing with boys
> and careers that traditionally are occupied by women; it cuts both ways.
> >
> > Anyway, I don't know if it'll help, but I'll put out a call from my
> Twitter account for Newton women!  :)
> >
> > Steven
> >
> >
> >> On Sep 15, 2017, at 7:57 AM, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> But it shows how our society tends to accuse about such aspects.  Just
> >> because a group of people are not covered/included very much in a
> >> particular film or whatever does not mean bias on the side of the
> >> producer.  It could be there weren't people of that race/color/gender
> >> that were interested (or were unavailable).  People are different and
> >> those of a certain race/color/gender tend to gravitate more to certain
> >> interests.  It is a fact of life.  Not all of course, but to always
> >> assume first they are excluded because of an agenda?  Yes it has
> >> happened in the past, but that does not mean it happens all the time
> >> either, and if you don't have a "perfect balance" does not mean you are
> >> bias.
> >>
> >> -Dan
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