Here with my boyfriend
From Geek Feminism Wiki
(Anyone got a better name for this?)
Here with my boyfriend is a common assumption found in geek communities. Women are assumed to be present because they are tagging along with their boyfriend, husband, or similar, rather than being independently interested in the subject at hand.
This occurs at many geeky events including
- Technical conferences
- User groups
- Hacker spaces
- Science Fiction conventions
- Comic conventions
- Historical re-enactment events
Note that if a woman does have a boyfriend in a field or a geek community, that shouldn't undermine her own interest and knowledge and right to be there.
[edit] Examples
At YAPC::Europe in 2001, at the Speaker's Dinner, while wearing a speaker's nametag, I was asked if I was there with my boyfriend. --Skud 11:24, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
The one time I've been asked this was at linux.conf.au 2009, the same year I was solo chair of the programme committee. Thayvian 22:57, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
There was a report of a female delegate being assumed by the registration desk for LCA2009 to be there for the Partners Programme. 202.129.81.102 04:37, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
