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Comment by zem | Hacker News Reader

i see no problem with their wanting to start their own hackerspace. in fact, it seems to fit will into the hacker mentality of "don't waste time working with a broken system; go build your own good one from scratch". if it gets applauded when elon musk does it, why not when liz henry does it too?

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I agree with this, it was a good experience to help start a new space with a new approach, AND still love and support the other (any-gender) hackerspace I've been involved with! It doesn't really have to be a dichotomy - in fact the SF Bay Area has quite a lot of maker/hacker spaces!

For sure I agree that the "ignore the noise and do your own thing" is valid if all you want is to hack on stuff. But I understand feminists (in general) as working towards changing society for the better, and I fail to see how isolationism accomplishes that.

Historical analogy: do you want to go the Booker T. Washington route, and hope that there will be a Martin Luther King later on? Or do you go the MLK route straight away?

it's not isolationism, it's providing a welcoming space for people who have historically lacked one, and ensuring that they are in the majority there. that is absolutely one way to change society for the better.

can you think of a way to have a free-for-all hackerspace where women are in the majority? because the dynamics are very different if you are not.

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