Maëlys McArdle

Blog

  • International Chess Federation Bans Trans Women

    International Chess Federation Bans Trans Women

    The International Chess Federation, FIDE, has banned trans women from participating in women’s events in a new policy:

    In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made. Such decision should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE Council at the earliest possible time, but not longer than within 2 (two) years period.

    Trans men meanwhile risk demotion:

    If a player holds any of the women titles, but the gender has been changed to a man, the women titles are to be abolished. Those can be renewed if the person changes the gender back to a woman and can prove the ownership of the respective FIDE ID that holds the title. The abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level (e.g., WGM may be transferred into FM, WIM into CM, etc.).

    If a player has changed the gender from a man into a woman, all the previous titles remain eligible.

    The implication from these two policies is that women are less intelligent than men, and their titles are worth less. There’s an absurdity to this.

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  • Towards a burn-out world

    Towards a burn-out world

    For the third time in my career in tech, I’m experiencing burn-out.

    Part of it has to do with working at a start-up. But I think much of it can be attributed to what it’s like working white collar jobs in 2023, compared to twenty, thirty, forty years ago.

    The promise of advancing tech was a reduction in workload. Yes it automated straight-forward tasks, but the vacuum did not provide a reprieve. Those tasks were simply replaced with ones requiring a higher cognitive load. Eliminated were the inherent breaks of walking to the printer or now with GitHub Copilot, even writing easy code. I always have to be “on”.

    Then there’s communication. Whereas before you could only have a conversation with one person at a time or spend time drafting a letter – it’s now commonplace to have three conversations simultaneously on Slack. Again, no break. That’s also why I look at Shopify’s derision of meetings with dismay; I get it – meetings can be a waste, but it’s yet more mental pauses eliminated.

    Finally, work used to end with leaving the office. That’s not standard anymore. Like so many in this business, I’m regularly on call and not compensated for it; when I’m not on call I’m still expected to be reachable 24/7, and my days get stretched by the other timezones some of our colleagues are in. Part of that is a scope creep to my occupation; we’re not just writing code but making sure production stays up, while taking advantage of that attention to pump out more features with less testing, causing more downtime.

    I’m so exhausted. On my weekdays, I get up, go to work, and then as soon as I’m done I go to bed. The only time I have energy to do anything is on weekends. And yet I feel fortunate – I’ve watched so many careers outright vanish as a result of automation with nothing to replace them, and more yet face significant reductions in quality of life.

    I feel bleak about it; everything is trending worse not better.

  • I’m addicted to my phone

    I’m addicted to my phone

    I have heard a definition of addiction as being “an increasing and compulsive tendency to avoid, pain, boredom, silence, inner development, and moral responsibility by displacing it with outer stimulation.”

    Jim John Payne, Being at your best when your kids are at their worst

    I’ve been having a good few weeks. I took a five hour trip to Midland to attend their Butter Tart festival. I’ve been on the water with my kayak. I’ve gone to the Fringe Festival and watched a friend perform a one-person show. I went to a small town to watch another pal sing. I attended both Asian night markets. I ate delicious ice cream at a queer vegan snack event. The Great Glebe Garage Sale was a hoot. I participated in a Jeep meet. There’s more I’m forgetting.

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  • Anti-trans mob in Ottawa

    Anti-trans mob in Ottawa

    On Friday (June 9th), a mob of transphobes descended on three Ottawa schools in the west end. They believe that educators are corrupting cisgender children into becoming trans; a reformulation of the old “the gays are recruiting children” trope.

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  • It’s terrorism.

    It’s terrorism.

    Neo-Nazis at Toronto storytelling event

    A week before starting to write this article, neo-Nazis showed up to harass families attending a storytelling event in Toronto. They were incensed that the story was read by a person wearing outfits associated with a different gender. Among the detractors was the leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party and members of White Lives Matter Toronto.

    In the past year, gender diverse people across Canada and those who associate with them at story times like this and other events have faced violence that includes:

    This is terrorism.

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