Saturday, January 28, 2012

Google genders engineering

Your categories:
Business & Industrial - Business Finance - Venture Capital
Internet & Telecom - Service Providers - ISPs
Jobs & Education - Education - Teaching & Classroom Resources
Science - Engineering & Technology - Robotics
Your demographics:
We infer your age and gender based on the websites you've visited. 
Age: 35-44
Gender: Male
I've checked out my Google ad preferences. Classic. If you like technology then you must be male.
If there weren't so many other examples of gender by design, this would be depressing. But I've seen magazine display racks, toy shops and clothing stores. There are so many fronts to fight this battle on.

What scares me is feeling as though I've been coopted. As Google collects data from more and more places, where will it be ok to be female or middle aged or anything not associated with my work or public persona. I don't wan't to turn in to a stereotype. I'm tweeting #VAGINA more frequently to keep female technophilia alive. Let's encourage alternatives and defeat stereotypes. 

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