@teratology @mischievoustomato @thegreatape women did not really dominate computing. programming was seen as secretarial work, because they were just typing machine code in to a console after the male academic did all the design work on a blackboard.

computer workers in general were held with a much higher degree of respect as men of science though.

if i recall RMS' point it was more to do with how society assigns an arbitrary number to adulthood, one that societies don't even organically agree with. to a point you can't even ask them how they derive these dates either because its just kind of arbitrarily set. so whether something is legally pedophilia has a different result in the USA as it does the virgin islands, to japan, or those weird german states where age of consent is like 12, or France where age of consent is "whatever the judge feels like today"

its one of those things that is philosophically correct but a normal person's need to pass compliance tests would compel them to shut up and go yup law says this, weathers great innit