“It’s not unlike a group of male advertisers sitting around a table considering whether they should solicit a female colleague’s perspective on a particular ad campaign. That might be considered condescending, but its equally likely that her opinion may be of value, if not uniquely “feminine” in some way.”
Not “might” but would be considered condescending. It’s classic privileged behavior to essentially ask the token X to speak for Xs. And Eliezer hits on exactly why it’s privileged and condescending. Because if they really cared about her opinion, they would already have specific questions to ask, rather than merely “solicit her perspective” so they can check “woman” (or in the original case “artist”) off on their checklist of countries heard from.
“It’s not unlike a group of male advertisers sitting around a table considering whether they should solicit a female colleague’s perspective on a particular ad campaign. That might be considered condescending, but its equally likely that her opinion may be of value, if not uniquely “feminine” in some way.”
Not “might” but would be considered condescending. It’s classic privileged behavior to essentially ask the token X to speak for Xs. And Eliezer hits on exactly why it’s privileged and condescending. Because if they really cared about her opinion, they would already have specific questions to ask, rather than merely “solicit her perspective” so they can check “woman” (or in the original case “artist”) off on their checklist of countries heard from.