I'm a Straight White Male: Here's why SCS's Gender Imbalance is Concerning
The only thing starker than my grades is the SCS gender imbalance. Though I am a straight, white male, I feel it is my duty to speak up about this issue. It’s a problem that keeps me up at night, long after I’m finished with my evening meditation and journaling on colonial structures. The statistics reveal undeniable systematic barriers, arbitrarily imposed by society and the office of admissions, that have funneled a brilliant, diverse workforce away from this hallowed institution.
You’ll see me at any Women in CS events in a hoodie, ethically produced of course, a cup of oat milk matcha in my hand. I make sure to ask questions that reveal my deep and abiding care and I contribute to conversations about women’s experiences with my own illuminating secondhand stories. Whenever a group project rolls around, I make sure to let the women, when there are any, on my team know I’m totally okay with them taking the lead even though they’re not a man like me. Sometimes they still insist I take the lead anyway, probably because they’re intimidated by how progressive I am. It’s a burden, being this aware.
Yet, despite all my advocacy, the imbalance remains. And, worst of all, it’s affecting my dating life. Listen, it’s not that I’m trying to benefit sexually and romantically from equality but I just think justice may happen to also help me.
Dating is tough when your school looks like the inside of a sock. Whenever I open Discord, it’s 400 unwashed guys arguing about Rust. I can’t flirt with that, even if Rust is sexy.
I’ve tried branching out—Design majors, BXA, even Dietrich—but it’s hard to relate when your entire identity revolves around debugging code and pretending to learn about machine learning as ChatGPT does the work for you. Females can sense desperation, apparently, even when you segue every conversation into Butlerian deconstructions of gender and sexuality. I even added “FeMenist” to my Tinder bio, right next to “Functional Programming Enthusiast.”
For all my efforts, surely I’m entitled to a girlfriend. The gender ratio is a gross injustice that affects me the most; after all, the females in SCS are already here, meaning they’re past the glass ceiling. Though they may not always be the most qualified, SCS has an obligation to me and them to let them in.