I've always found Munroe's position on gender equality weird - despite what he says, he 'others' women in his main work. Female stick figures have long hair, even if the strip has nothing to do with gender. Male stick figures have no such indication. That is: 'male' is 'default'.
I fail to see how the males aren't just the female stick figure with short hair. Your viewpoint is at fault here, not the comics.
I see what you mean in a way - that the male stick figures don't have long hair. Again, though, this is only your viewpoint - very rarely is the stick figure's gender actually mentioned in the text of the comic or otherwise. Besides, not all females have long hair, many of the not-overtly-female stick figures may also be female despite not having long hair. Only your viewpoint, again.
The internet: where you can argue about the gender of stick figures.
Well, a couple of things here. Firstly, when the gender of a character is revealed, it's in line with what I've said. There are no long-haired males or hairless females.
Secondly, long hair denoting femaleness is a cartoon trope and that's how it's used in xkcd (note my issue is not the trope itself here, but that it is used by someone who says they're passionate about equality). Using your argument, you could argue that the cartoon characters with long eyelashes and pink bows in their hair could be male, but of course in real terms that's never how they're seen.
I see what you're saying, but I don't think these two are in any way inconsistent. Gender equality starts with breaking down people's assumptions. If people just saw stick figures, I think they'd assume they were male. Thus, to break that assumption, he needs to do something to make it clear that some of them are women. So, if he has scientists talking about something, having half of them be women should, hopefully, ingrain a little more that women can be scientists.
I find your defense very strained - essentially you're saying that Munroe draws 'stick figures with hair' and it is just coincidence that male 'stick figures with hair' are indistinguishable from a normal stick figure.
This is part of the 'othering' of women - "you look different to what 'normal' looks like".
In any case, common male hairstyles in anglo societies still stand out from the head, as much as the non-dangling part of ponytails.
