“Remember when the internet was a male space?”
Um, no.
You missed the 60s, when programming was a female space. All that typing, they made the secretaries do it. When programming became cool, the men invaded, purposefully making it their space, driving women out of the jobs.
But they still had the skills to program.
So it wasn’t that hard to find women on the internet.
Probably a lot of the ‘guys’ you thought you were talking to were women who couldn’t be bothered typing ‘Age/Sex/Location’ or responding to same.
“but there is something I miss about this "male space" that was the internet.”
Aw, your private treehouse is co-ed. Poor little snowflake.
I made 16 patrols on purely male submarine crews. In fact, in 20 years, I only had two women in my chain of command.
But, no, I don’t miss the casual arrogance of men who think only women are offended by sexist jokes.
It was kind of silly. Someone tells an ethnic joke, that all the training says NOT TO DO, and if i complained, people would look stunned. “I didn’t realize you were Jewish.” And when the EEO lectures were about women, complaining about THOSE jokes drove people paranoid trying to decode my objections.
“There are other examples of this: Women became referees and commentators in male sports games. In the past, there were more martial arts schools where only men trained. There are probably hundreds of other examples.”
Yeah, watched this in the Navy. All the billets that were guarantees for promotion were male-only for the longest time, discriminating against women trying to have a career.
They fixed that. Women are all over the place, competing with the men for the choice billets, promotions, ranks.
“Don't you miss the feeling of being somewhere where just men talk with each other”
Frankly, no.
"More than that, don't you need it? Don't you need the rivalry, the jokes the appreciation, the feeling of being irreplaceable?”
Um, I get plenty of vulgarity in my office. We have 10 submarine veterans, one army vet, and one mother of three. We do try to rein it in if someone from the Front Office is in the room, but the rivalry is not missing. The same jokes are told. Every morning meeting we cross the rubicon.
Of course, you might get different results because when YOU tell a racist joke ,you’re not joking, are you?