Is BP just for guys?

[Account Closed]

A recent BP blog article by Scott Trench had the phrase “. . . guys like us here on BiggerPockets . . . “ 

I commented about the gendered language, because if people don’t realize they’re doing it, it can never change.  

Scott, the author, didn’t reply, but sure enough, a cis white guy did. I got “put in my place” in a paternalistic, mocking way—or at least, that’s what the guy was trying to do, it appeared.

Without any response from Scott, who’s both the author and CEO of BP, but given the apparent ambivalence over exclusionary language, I’m taking Scott at his original word. Maybe he really did mean “guys?” Maybe women weren’t the target audience at all?  Is BP just for guys? 

Given the treatment of Christine Blasey Ford last week, I wasn’t going to ignore gender-biased language from a leader in the BP community, even if it was inadvertent, and even though it’s hard to speak truth to power. 

So I wonder, is BP just for guys? Did I buy a membership in the wrong club?

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/commercial-multifamily-market-trigger-recession/

[Scott Trench]

Hi everyone. I think you are right that this is a great example of unintentional bias. I'm always looking to improve and was certainly not intentionally trying to exclude women, but it's stuff like this that needs to be called out. I am sorry and apologize for my exclusionary word choice.

Some people say it's not a big deal - that's on them. It is a big deal to unintentionally offend someone, especially, as you note, when I am in a relative position of power. I hope that folks who did read the post will not immediately think of me as someone who is intentionally trying to exclude anyone, and I am actually quite upset that my carelessness did! I hope instead that you'll think of me as someone who needed to be called out in order to learn. I hope that you'll read some future posts and watch immediate improvement take place. 

I've updated the post to remove that word, and apologize for not replying to your comment. I often won't follow up on the comments on a post after a few days, and I suppose I just missed this one. Again, I'm sorry.

Good call out @Account Closed