World pi record smashed by female mathematician with help of google

*themselves. I don’t want to lose the ability to describe reality. I don’t want people telling my children that black is white.

And the whole what do they look like thing is highly detrimental as well. What a woman looks like is irrelevant - everyone know what one is. Men since forever have derided women who look masculine. This situation exacerbates it. Is it really a woman? Who knows any more... And stereotypes come back in and women who do not fit certain ways of looking come under suspicion...

Indeed. I want to be in a society that does not encourage gossiping around corners. I want to be in a society where being truthful is seen as a good thing. I want to congratulate Emma. I don’t want that tainted by the knowledge that the reporting of their achievement has chipped away a little more at women’s ability to have words that define them.

I take back my original comment - as this is the FWR board I reserve my congratulations for women and not people who perform womanface.

Thing is, beyond this case there are ramifications for women's achievements. I don't want to look at women's photos and wonder if they are trans. I don't want women to be looked at and judged as 'feminine' or 'possibly trans'. The achievement of a TW is not the same as the achievement of a woman, and we should not have to attempt to distinguish which we are looking at. It's detrimental to all involved.

Have RTFT

This is a transwoman?

I have real problems with this being presented as a major achievement for a woman TBH.

It is a major achievement, but. Why not a major achievement for a transwoman?

These examples are / can / will be used to dismiss arguments that women are under represented in STEM.

Not rtft

Just the first few posts

Isn't it sad that now, when a woman is reported as doing something really amazing, or really awful, the first thought is, is it a cunty woman or a penis woman.

And the whole what do they look like thing is highly detrimental as well. What a woman looks like is irrelevant - everyone know what one is. Men since forever have derided women who look masculine. This situation exacerbates it. Is it really a woman? Who knows any more... And stereotypes come back in and women who do not fit certain ways of looking come under suspicion...

This is a terrible place to be. Watch the womens sports, woman wins.. Is she a woman like me (cunty) or not? It fucks it all up tbh.

Will read thread now :)

I was wrong... I honestly thought from the video that this was a woman.

Well that's a bit depressing.

When I saw this story earlier today I immediately saw a man, but I didn't want to presume anything. It pisses me off no end when men present themselves as women to get an extra pat on the back - I mean, in this case the feat is impressive whether by a man or woman, but the whole idea that we're supposed to celebrate this as a 'women in tech' inspirational story - takes the fucking piss, doesn't it?

That’s interesting lass, because I saw a man, not a transwoman.

As I said though, the point is not about this story, but about the fact that we creating a society in which it is no longer acceptable to be truthful about sex.

Two interesting perspectives:

But I guess it’s not a true picture of women in tech as she was obviously socialised as a boy and maybe even went through the whole of her school/university life as a boy.

vs

When I read the story, I saw the picture and saw a trans woman. Didn't think anything more about it.

If Emma is transgender and, according to pic above, Emma is and Emma is happy to state they are, then the glory story becomes more complex.

Should we be celebrating Emma trailblaizing for women in STEM, forging a path and showing a way for women?

Or is Emma a story of male socialisation, acceptance into IT world and promotion (trans at some point in this story), and then accepted as trans/woman in STEM, already at an acceptable level before 'achieving as a woman'.

Which makes it a very different 'inspiring' story for girls wanting to get into IT.

Version One: Female smashes Pi record
Version Two: Male who identifies as a woman smashes Pi record.

This is similar to sport:
Version One: Conneticut Woman smashes women's track record.
VersionTwo: Conneticut male who identifies as a woman smashes woman's track record.

Not in this case because of the variance of ability in intelligence, which isn't the same as sporting variances in athletic and physical ability.

But because our girls, and the wider world, are being gaslighted.

There is no evidence she is trans, other than your own short sighted prejudice about ehr looks

Oh come off it. FWR is usually choc a bloc with posters going on about how trans women never really pass/how it's obvious.

When I read the story, I saw the picture and saw a man. I then chastised myself about how I must not let the issues arising from transgender ideology make me assume that everyone woman’s achievement reported in the news is in fact the success of a transwoman. I stopped myself from looking it up. I literally gaslit myself

When I read the story, I saw the picture and saw a trans woman. Didn't think anything more about it.

Emma Haruka Iwao was born male btw

if a transwoman achieves something is that still an achievement for women?

Her Twitter links to her Blogger account, but not as far as I can see a Google + account

Their Blogger account links to their G+ account.

When I read the story, I saw the picture and saw a man. I then chastised myself about how I must not let the issues arising from transgender ideology make me assume that everyone woman’s achievement reported in the news is in fact the success of a transwoman. I stopped myself from looking it up. I literally gaslit myself.

Tonight I have come to this thread and I realise how awful this ideology is for turning the world upside down without any thought for the ramifications and for truth.

I would hope it would go without saying, but my upset is not with Emma being transgender (I do not really understand the magnitude of Emma’s agreement, but it sounds great), indeed even if she is not transgender it really matters not at all because the damage has already been done by the ideology.

My trust has gone. This is the future. It is now normal and considered acceptable to mislead, normal to create a false narrative, false information, false records, false statistics. This is what is actively wanted. We are all supposed not to care, indeed we are all supposed to be right behind it because words have been redefined and the new meanings of the words are superior and more important. We are not allowed to want to identify sex any more, we are not allowed to identify female role models or understand sex specific structural problems. We are supposed to feel bad if we think sex is important. I feel really upset.

The image above is problematic. Her Twitter links to her Blogger account, but not as far as I can see a Google + account (FYI Google is closing Google + very soon). Maybe at one point she was OK declaring "I am a transgender and a software engineer" but now she isn't. At least one of the women who founded Lesbian Rights New Zealand spent several years identifying as trans.

The computational achievement is significant, and obviously the corporation wants to milk it for all it's worth, hence releasing the announcement on Pi Day (a long-standing thing in the US) and hauling the engineer out for publicity purposes. Emma - and any employee in a similar position - is a pawn in Google's playing strategy.

So, this was a trans woman?! I really loved pp's insistence that a prominent Adam's apple was not an unusual feature of a woman, however, I knows lots of women and I am yet to meet one with an Adam's apple. Nice try though.

I'm sure there was something in Caroline Criado Perez's book that said that Google wouldn't release the figures properly.

It would be interesting the know the make up of the wider team then. Isn't Google supposed to be massively male biased? I wonder if someone born a female would have been allowed to succeed in this.

I’m quite happy for this to stay a women’s achievement if it might help encourage young girls into tech careers.

But I guess it’s not a true picture of women in tech as she was obviously socialised as a boy and maybe even went through the whole of her school/university life as a boy.

It’s interesting because the photo is taken at Google during Tokyo Pride, and she was obviously quite open about this when it was taken.

The pi achievement was a team effort, and Emma has been chosen by Google as the leader and spokesperson. But all the publicity is just about her being a woman....

Their publicly available picture showing their pride at being trans...

I find that really sad - this is a massive achievement for anybody and Transwomen should be able to claim it as one of their own. It is not a women's achievement but it is being lauded as such (yes I realise the irony and that it is normally the other way around)

I don’t know how to link, but if you look on Emma Haruka’s google plus account which is linked to on her twitter account. Then her public post dated April 28, 2013, she is holding up a sign saying she is transgender.

bloody hell, I went to school with a tall thin girl with huge breasts. I can guarantee she wasn't born male.

That was exactly my fucking point.

if a 5 foot 6 man who was not overweight presented with DD breasts you'd have a pretty good idea that the "man" was actually born a woman.

Just like you can guarantee your friend is female just from looking at her based on secondary sex characteristics.

You see where I am going with this.

Was it ever shown that they weren't?

I don't believe so. The shooter was from Iran where men are forced to trans for being homosexual or risk execution but transition is paid for by the state. The shooter also committed an act almost never committed by a woman.

Half the internet (certainly not just MN, google it) thought she was a he and the other half thought the other half were TERFs for questioning it.