Some things seriously need to be said about work

All right folks, some half important background:

I work, for now, a standard 40 hour job. I work at a company's corporate headquarters. I work in the technology industry, for a .com doing unix system administration work. I work until 1AM; just two hours of my ten hour days are during standard business times. Things like dress code here are lax. Use of language, in the environment I work in is not particularly regulated. You can say "fuck" all you like at 7PM on a monday, nobody will blink. My supervisors (shift leads) and my boss do so. My boss's boss's boss will do so in our presence. I think that's two steps down from executive level, plus or minus one. Also, though we are "skilled workers," we're some of the lowest in hierarchy and pay within the company: we are an essential team to keep our sites (the entire business) running, but it is work akin to mechanics in the industry. We've been called that. Data mechanics. Server monkeys. Network firefighters (though that one sounds cool). like typical mechanics, you don't typically have to worry about offending anyone or being a little rough. There's absolutely no dress code.

Obviously, this should not mean whatever we say will be acceptable. I'm sure racial slang would not go over well, for a simple example. This is as it should be. Some things, like hateful discrimination, should remain unacceptable in work environments. one way or another though, since we all know our direct co-workers on such a friendly basis here, it becomes the norm to be... well, a little normative. To jibe and criticize. I have painted nails at the moment. The left hand black, the right hand white. I was asked about this by a laughing coworker, and I made up an excuse. It was stupid, and I shouldn't have felt the need. Somehow, since the me they know is different, I felt like I shouldn't reveal something else. But if I were openly gay, queer, or transgendered, no one would ask me questions about it. It happens a respected application engineer (higher end, more skilled work than ours) is transgendered. Here's thee issue I have with this, it isn't that people of "alternative lifestyles" (a term I have an issue with, but seems used in the corporate world as if some sort of euphemism or category were necessary) have some extended ability to express, it is that social norms here are strong enough that I believe they've just revealed that they don't accept and openly judge those who do not fall in line with them, though will supress their judgments to some people. I think it's pretty shitty that these guys are willing to show they think its wrong to do something like that, and are probably more unaccepting than they come across to other employees.

Lets look at another issue. Someone brings up Dane Cooke. I mention that he loses points with me because of the message he spreads. When I was asked further I said two things, he's dumb-macho, and he's an anti-feminist misogynist. A shift lead says something like "what's wrong with that, he's a comedian?" The Coworker who started this said that I was a feminist. My shift lead shakes his head and laughs. He tells me there are plenty of good reasons to be an anti-feminist. Like obesity and children's grades, because a decline in those is a result of feminism. I look at him and say fuck off. He laughs. I tell him to go fuck himself, I will not be laughed at. I will not have this discussion. It was a quiet next couple hours. I had the "I'll go to HR" look in my eyes, I guess.

To me, this was like him saying: "There are plenty of reasons to be against equal rights." If this referred to race he would have been afraid to oppose me for a second. Why different when we're asked about sexism? Because that's what this is. I'm a feminist because society is still inherently (patriarchally) sexist. Otherwise I would only be a humanist. Right now, part of humanism is feminism. I think it's discouraged in society because it's unmanly. I think that's bullshit.

That's all I've got to say for now.