Toys, Trolls and Women in Tech
As a founder there is a bizarre whipsaw effect that happens on a near daily basis. One day, you are crushing it. The next day you are nearly crushed. And some days are just bonkers.
Like the one I had the other day that says so much about the joy of being “A Woman on The Internet” — and about exactly why I founded my startup, RaceYa.
I’m currently running a Kickstarter to fund production of our awesome customizable radio-controlled race cars that help kids — yes, girls included — explore science and engineering.
Last week we were given a lovely boost by none other than the lovely Fred Wilson. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s a prominent New York investor and prolific blogger. He’s taken bets on the likes of Twitter, Tumblr, and even Kickstarter. So yeah, it was kind of a big deal when he picked RaceYa to spotlight for his Funding Friday email and blog post.
They say you should never read the comments, but if you have an hour to kill and a strong stomach, go read this one.
If you don’t have an hour to kill the TL;DR of the 4 page screed is that girls are genetically unsuitable for STEM subjects because…reasons and also, apparently, ballet.
Don’t ask me to explain. It’s unhinged.
But more importantly, it’s not remotely uncommon.
There is still a segment of the populace that is incensed because women keep trying to be full-fledged humans in charge of our own destiny. They are furious that we are not content to be locked inside tiny little boxes of their making. They trot out tired pseudoscientific, biological-determinist nonsense in a vain attempt to “prove” that women must STAY IN OUR LANES! That’s just nature, “Sweetheart.” (Oh yes, you know it’s gonna be good when they bust out the “Sweethearts.”)
BTW if you are reading this, you are doing so on a device ‘Nature’ never intended. Same is true for wearing pants, eating farmed food, living in a house, using plastic…you get the idea.
Yet women have been doing all the things forever. And that makes the trolls very, very angry.
They cannot stand the idea that a little girl might actually love glitter and sparkles and ALSO grow up to be a race car driver like Danica Patrick. Or be an adventurer like Jade Hameister. Or engineers like Jessica Droujko and Kimberly Bryant or brilliant science communicators like Dianna Cowern and Emily Graslie.
I have no idea why they feel this way. I cannot see how a woman’s success is harmful to them.
It’s like that great cartoon on climate change…
What if girls are as welcomed into the fields of their choosing as boys have always been? What if there were no more leaks in the pipeline? What if girls didn’t drop out of the sciences starting in middle school? What if women didn’t abandon college majors and engineering jobs because of pervasive harassment, unequal pay, and blatant discrimination? What if women the world over were able to do the work they love without having to constantly defend their right to be there. What if everyone were given the same opportunities to thrive?
Wouldn’t that be just awful?
So I’m going to share with you my super top secret (totally-not-secret) agenda for RaceYa. I want to give girls and boys a roadway to curiosity about how the world works before they hit the roadblocks put there by the Gender-Industrial Complex. (That’s a real thing, btw — see?)
It’s not to “make” girls like “things” that only boys are supposed to like. I want boys and girls to play together. With the same toys. But in their own ways. Because boys and girls are different. And that’s a good thing. Difference is not a defect.
We’re making race cars with a difference. They are for girls. And boys. And ALL the kids in between. They are customizable so you can express your personality your way through your car. They are educational so kids can see how STEM gets used to solve real-world problems. They are raceable because it’s a lot more fun when we all play together. But I warn you, when we take RaceYa out to the playgrounds, girls play with it longer and fight for it harder than the boys do.
So fire up the glitter cannons and start your engines because we are coming for the trolls — and it will be pretty!
Immense thanks to Cindy Gallop for being the first to call out the troll on Twitter, and to Fred Wilson for his epic smackdown of the troll on his blog. Gratitude doesn’t begin to cover it.
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