\See edits/acknowledgements below])

I work in the tech industry as a computer programmer. My team is comprised of 5 guys (read: males, guys, men, dudes, people born with dicks, without uteruses or vaginas...got it? k.) and the company just hired on a female programmer to be onboarded to our team.

Immediately upon hearing this news, some of the guys in our shared, off-company chatroom (guys will be guys, right?) immediately started making comments along the lines of she'll be a shitty programmer just because she's a woman and Sublime [our text editor we code in] doesn't look much like a kitchen.

I refrained from partaking because I have no interest in being a misogynist asshole and refuse to judge someone's abilities to perform their job function until I know how they, specifically, work. I know female computer programmers who are out-of-this-fucking-world intelligent and far better coders than any one of these guys on my team.

Well, I tell the story to a female friend of mine as we are discussing these gender issues and whatnot and she had the fucking audacity and the balls (heh) to fucking tell me that I should have said something and reprimanded me for the behavior of these other men.

I am not going to talk shit about a woman when I know nothing of her behavior and skill/competence at her job, but I absolutely REFUSE to be held accountable or culpable for the actions of other men. Me speaking up or otherwise trying to reprimand them is futile; I am not going to change their views or behavior one single bit and it will only cause tension on our team.

I can't fucking believe this. It blows my mind that I am practically being held responsible for the actions of another man. This is bullshit. This is toxic femininity if you ask me. Chastising a man as if he himself were responsible for the actions or words of another person. Fucking bullshit.

-----

[Edits: Thanks guys. Lots of nails being hit right the fuck on the head here with tangible, actionable advice that I should have fucking known -- I am, admittedly, sort of new to this whole getting the fuck fed up by this feminist bullshit thing, so I am learning how to handle these stupid situations and not waste my time trying to have these conversations or defend myself with these fucking lunatic women because it never, EVER, goes favorably. I will add more specific edits/acknowledgments of what is being said here, and I'll try to get back to as many specific comments as I can because I am seriously burning some midnight oil here coding my ass off. Thanks.]