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Where Are All the Women of Color Hackers in Movies? (modelviewculture.com)
3 points by christianbryant on Jan 29, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


I imagine that film studios feel more comfortable pandering to a known audience with characters they identify with rather than gambling on a potential new, different audience that may not identify at all with the characters.

The proportion of hacker films with WOC hackers likely mirrors, if not exceeds the proportion of WOC among hackers, which is to say the industry is not very attractive to WOC (or women in general).


I can't argue without numbers, but I can say that I've known many female hackers. Perhaps the issue is less that they are out there and more that they stay outside the industry because the industry itself hasn't been friendly for a period of time to them. I suspect that is changing now, however, with the amount of women I see at events like Black Hat as both presenters and attendees. Also, extending the term "hacker" to its traditional meaning, I know even more women who program and fit the moniker hacker for their FOSS work.

And honestly, we all know the film industry is a business, but wouldn't more money be made with the inclusion of hackers from a variety of backgrounds? Star Wars blew records out of the water and one of the key heroes was black. While I wasn't particularly impressed with the story, I did love the actors and characters they presented. Strong female heroine, strong black hero. We are seeing more films with software engineers and software topics, and it just seems natural to acknowledge all areas of that world, from the dark net, to the underground, to the start-ups and the Enterprise.




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