No Tools for You: A Century of Men Policing Women’s Tools

[adafruit@fosstodon.org]

No Tools for You: A Century of Men Policing Women’s Tools

In 1925 a doctor said vacuum cleaners will make women lazy. In 2026 mastodon dudes said the same thing (and worse) about a woman engineer using a tool to make a CAD part.

https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/16/no-tools-for-you-a-century-of-men-policing-womens-tools/

[kwayk42@sechtor.social]

@adafruit how about you stop trying to claim discrimination that someone used 'a tool' and accurately report that people were (rightfully) upset that you're using AI slop to do things

You USED TO BE for hobbyists and now you're for theft of IP by supporting AI

[lea@lea.pet]

@adafruit@fosstodon.org are we deadass comparing people being upset about AI slop to discrimination now

[lea@lea.pet]

@adafruit@fosstodon.org jesus fucking christ i thought adafruit was chill

[inaction_figure@fosstodon.org]

@adafruit

Wow. First, thank you, @adafruit , for all you do for the #STEAM community and those of us who just want to tinker, learn, and create.

It looks to me like you had an idea and used AI tools to do some of the leg work to get it done. And that you checked the work before “shipping it”. That is a perfectly legitimate use of AI.

It also sounds like you were tinkering and learning about the tools as you went, too. That is the spirit of creativity.

Keep up the good work!

[jiub@not.an.evilcyberhacker.net]

@adafruit@fosstodon.org a lot of the people who complained about your use of ai slop weren't men ffs (myself included)

you're ruining your reputation. i liked paying a premium to support adafruit, but no longer

[magic_smoke@blahaj.zone]

@adafruit@fosstodon.org

Those same men would only take issue with a man using a vacuum cleaner because its "a woman's job".

People take issue with generative AI for a multitude of reasons, most of which are completely unrelated to "laziness", have nothing to do with sex/gender, and everything to do with enabling venture capitalists to drain the planet of its resources.

As a woman who makes her creations herself, I find this extremely insulting.

Fucking do better.

[kholerik@social.tchncs.de]

@adafruit People who use AI are disliked and called out by many people, regardless of sex or gender. Stross made a dumb mistake, but this blog post is just as bad. Can we just collectively drop this stupid shit before it gets even dumber?

[renedudfield@fosstodon.org]

@adafruit hard agree. Thanks for writing this up. Same ethics “experts” seem awfully keen to take away these tools from the disabled, and the economically disadvantaged too.

Whilst these tools exist, why not take the fight to the rich and powerful doing the actual bad stuff? It’s a lot harder than writing hateful internet messages to people just trying to get by.

As usual, women are taking the brunt of new technology job losses. Translators, educators, customer support. Deny tools = deny work.

[bobbins@bobbinsrobots.com]

@adafruit This is amazingly embarrassing. Just astoundingly bad. No.

[sterophonick@wetdry.world]

@adafruit "AI Slop isn't harmful you guys are just misogynistic" lmao???? where's the part where your company collapses for being operated by the world's greatest piece of shit

[sterophonick@wetdry.world]

@adafruit how much more embarrassing can you get?

[burnoutqueen@todon.nl]

@renedudfield @adafruit

I am actually disabled and I don't use AI. Saying that I'm too stupid to do things myself, that I need Sam Altman's and Elon Musk's slop machine because I can't make things fast enough, is an insult

[witchgirls@woof.tech]

@adafruit You really did not have to post this.

[burnoutqueen@todon.nl]

@renedudfield @adafruit

I am also a trans woman

[julieofthespirits@kolektiva.social]

@adafruit i am a woman and I feel your argument is deeply misogynistic

[magic_smoke@blahaj.zone]

@adafruit@fosstodon.org Shit like this is why I can't upgrade my NAS this year. The machine which stores the VM where my local git server lives, and the pool which contains the repos themselves.

Its why replacing broken parts cost more than buying brand new hardware did two years ago.

Why so many of our fellow open source developers are getting absolutely bombarded by useless pull requests.

AI companies are the reason women like me are gatekept from the tools they need to create and share their creations.

https://mashable.com/article/ai-hard-drive-hdd-shortages-western-digital-sold-out

https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/

[burnoutqueen@todon.nl]

@adafruit I am a trans woman and I hate AI slop.

I don't support using tools invented by anti environmental, sexist, pedophillic men.

ChatGPT is used to objectify women. It is used to devalue the work of young and disabled people. It is an insult to the craft of electronics. It is an insult to the disabled. And it is an insult to the thousands of women who have been put into porn without their consent by way of "genAI" technology.

[burnoutqueen@todon.nl]

@adafruit and no, none of the other models are any better.

Grok is in the center of a pedophilia scandal, for just one example.

[teflontrout@beige.party]

@renedudfield @adafruit "employed by Microslop"? Shocking