It's also interesting that with no talent or when they suck, they get all hand-wavy, citing things like "I'm an artiste!" and "I'm unique and special". Yeah..no. To me, hand-waviness is a sure sign of mediocrity. That mindset of being thorough, I realized, as I get older, is definitely hereditary. Everyone in my family is extremely thorough; we're the kind who is always on time, plans everything and is conscientious.
My mom was in an Art store once (I was buying vellum for drawing out plans and this one was close to where I live) and she was highly irritated by an artist who splashed two blobs of paint on a canvas and was bugging me about what he should name his painting. She wanted to get out of there pronto. She is a highly logical, practical person and extremely thorough. One way to lose respect with her is to be all hand-wavy. She is no dummy and wants answers. Coincidentally, she has a great mind for mathematics (arithmetic, specifically), chemistry (which she has used for her entire career) and understanding cars and how they work.
One of my coworkers was telling me the other day that I"m scarily efficient and that when I do something, nothing is left to chance. I hope I continue to be that way. I want to also continue innovating and making, because that is one of the things that is frustrating to myself as a female. We aren't necessarily (and this is controversial, I know to say out loud but I'm very un-PC, unfortunately...I hang out with mostly guys 24/7) known for innovating; I see this a lot among other females in mixed groups, especially.
Let's face it; today females are basically encouraged from a young age to be consumers, and if you look at ads (even online), it is clear that these are targeted towards females. This is interesting because I was reading a while ago that long ago, they (females) were in charge of household spending (my mom still was/is growing up and has done a lot of side-accounting gigs just because she has a knack for it) and there was even a special part of the bank that catered to such an ideal. Somehow, it all changed, and today a lot of females aren't considered particularly savvy when it comes to finances, even though we are encouraged to spend through advertising.
Why aren't they encouraging females to make things and build things? I guess I feel like an outcast in that sense, and that is part of why I drifted towards hanging out with guys and this weird group of geeks who just likes tinkering.
Often, it is also because we (females, that is) lack the confidence, even if we have the knowledge. I've sat back multiple times myself knowing something was going to fail, but allowing it to crumble because some pushy guy thought he knew it all and I didn't have the energy or desire to point out the facts.
Just this week, we were making a capacitor in class and this guy kept using one piece of copper instead of two, even though I had cut two pieces for our group. He refused to listen until the teacher pointed out his mistake, even though I had said to him that he needed to use two (anyone who even knows the symbol in a schematic for a capacitor understands this; it's two plates/conductors separated by an insulator). And many many times someone will ask to speak to someone "technical" where I work, and almost immediately I will have to say "go ahead. I can help you." Believe me, I had to work for every single bit of trust from some of these people, and even so there are some people you can never earn the respect of because you just don't have the right appendage LOL.
It doesn't really bother me anymore, and it's not something I particularly fight for. It's just something I've noticed and I treat it the way it is and have immense appreciation for people who have mentored me and will give me a chance, regardless of what I look like.
In any case, I love making and creating, and I don't think I'd be happy if I'm not allowed to actually be in the thick of that sort of opportunity. So I'm going to continue to chase that and see where it leads.
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