In my father's working career, he wore a business suit and a tie. He addressed his boss as Mr. Slate, not "Rocky" and his boss called him "Rockford", not "Jim."
Women in his work world were secretaries or factory floor assemblers and testers.
I did not break new ground for women when I decided to become an engineer, but I was a rarity. Even so, the work place I entered had already shifted significantly. Men were not in business suits, and women were wearing slacks -- oh, sure, there were pants suits, dresses, skirts, and "uniforms", but it was a lot more relaxed.
The biggest change, though, was that we no longer addressed people by their last names. My boss was not "Mr. Stevens." I called him "Durwood." Even the CEO would sign his memos and reports as "Elvis." Okay, that was weird since his name was "Joe," but whatever.
My point is that the work place had become warmer and more personal than it had been in my father's Brave New World. It had moved away from rigid, nearly militarized formality where a person was known by their father's or husband's name. People were recognized as being individuals.
I don't know if the introduction of women into a formerly male-dominated work place was responsible for that softening, that added level of familiarity, comfort, and family-feeling or not. I just know that being addressed by a personal name is a lot cozier than being addressed by a tribal name.
You're probably going "huh?" round about now, so let me elaborate a bit further.
On the Usenet newsgroup I use to sharpen my sticky little claws is a doofus who has decided that calling a certain female US Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate by her first name constitutes sexism. It's a part of the diminution of womanhood, akin to calling a black man "boy." Or "articulate."
Yah, I'm talking about calling Hillary "Hillary."
Is it?
Sexist?
Not specifically in Hillary's case, because, hello, it's pretty much how she's been marketing herself. But is there something dark, something wrong with using the familiar when addressing a person? Or is that notion something that's still all stone age and part of the militarized machismo crap we've been moving away from?
When you get right down to it, I don't like being called "Mrs. Rubble." It makes me feel like I'm supposed to be Barney's property. Or old.
Maybe it IS sexist, but I think that if it is, then bring on more of that kind of sexism.
Oh, and let's put some floral drapes on that window, while we're at it and do you REALLY think your feet belong up on that table? PICK UP THOSE BEER CANS NOW, MISTER!!!
I prefer to call her Evil-Tax-Dollar-Money-grubbing-Thunderthighs-Harpy-Bitch-From-Hell.
Is that a problem for this retard as well?
It's not one bit sexist to call her Hillary. People refer to Guiliani as Rudy and to Rush Limbaugh as Rush and to Oprah Winfrey as Oprah and nobody screams their fool head off about that. What a stupid argument. Fact is, the men who are running have common names. Well, except for Obama, and people say Obama because it rolls off your tongue easier than Barack.
Anyway, if her last name were "McGill" or "Jacobsen" people would probably call her that. Because her husband was president, referring to her as Hillary distinguishes her as an individual more than Clinton.
http://blogs.chron.com/cragghines/hillary-iowa2.jpg
and even a few years back ...
http://www.alarmingnews.com/archives/Hillary.bmp
I think we should refer to all the candidates by their middle names. Barak would be known as "Hussein".
President Hussein has a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you think?
So you've been an engineer for 25 years, have you noticed any change in the working environment or had it already gone to hell by the time you entered?
I began working as an engineer in 1972, in those days you could wear levis and t-shirts and sneakers to work and you came in when you wanted and left when you were done. In fact if you didn't wear levis and t-shirts to the interview likely you wouldn't be hired.
By the time I bailed around 2000 you had to wear fucking slacks and show up on time and leave when the fucking bell rang. Too many people had entered the field and (software) engineers became a commodity to be fucked over however the employer desired.
Of course by then Microsoft had coined the term "good-enough software" so the field had been converted to shit anyway.
Have you observed any shifting of this sort during your 25 years in the engineering bidness?
Changes? It really depends on the region and the company. A dear friend of mine preceded me by 10 years in the field. He and his cohorts had to wear nice slacks and long-sleeved button down shirt, but could not wear a tie because of hazards with machinery (he's a mechanical engineer type and had to interact on the factory floor). They were never given the option to wear jeans and tee-shirt. This was east coast, large corporation. In my experience, however, we went from having to dress nicely (ca 1980s) and all sitting in a bull pen arrangement with gray steel-case desks, to getting to wear "nice" jeans and sitting two to a cubicle with Haworth modular furniture, to wearing pretty much anything as long as your private parts weren't exposed and sitting one to a spacious, high walled cube.
Men today come in wearing big baggy shorts and clean but not terribly nice looking tee shirts. Women engineers tend to wear anything from jeans to capris to attractive dresses. We're now expected to sit in library carrel type "cubicles", and will soon go back to being in cattle pens.
The biggest change is moving from being considered a non-entity commodity, toward being a highly valued individual with feelings that must be considered, back to being a non-entity, replaceable commodity.
In the interests of accuracy, polite is dead (coff), Candidate Hillary Clinton might be favored.
So many times I see people say - "Bush" -
He's the fucking President. Call a spade a spade.
And why can't I get a cute picture by my name, huh?
- -
Okay,
Father Luke
The fact is that people will attempt to belittle others using whatever tools they have at hand. So Bush is "Dubya", among other choice nicknames. And if someone wanted to discredit Hillary way back by calling her by her first name (suggesting that the first-name is for children, servants, and women but Real Manly Respect-Worthy Leader Types get to be called Mr. This and Senator That, then so the fuck what? That is their problem to deal with, truly, because if someone argues that you HAVE to call according to the masculine-driven rules of some former society in order to accord them with respect, then it is that person who is being sexist, really.
And why can't I get a cute picture by my name, huh?
Gravatar, dude.
But you gotta use the same e-mail address in your post that you use when you sign up for Gravatar.
First-lady William Jefferson Clinton.
Bwahahahahahahahahah!
Gravatar, dude.
But you gotta use the same e-mail address in your post that you use when you sign up for Gravatar.
Did that.
Plus? The people over at TypeKey? Have this to say:
The site you're trying to comment on has not
signed up for this feature. Please inform the
site owner.
So, there's that.
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Okay,
Father Luke
Durwood!