Pubescent boys have long known that "girly" and "sissy" are among the worst epithets that you could pin on a growing guy. Call it sandbox sexism: a demeaning insult that teaches young boys that manly is always superior to feminine. Adults, of course, should know better -- but this week, not one but two technology magazines have been reduced to disturbing Barbie doll metaphors and "girly" name-calling. Just when Hewlett Packard's new CEO, Carly Fiorina, thought women in computing were getting some respect, the technology press turns around and slaps women with that sexist "Barbie" label.

First, we get John Dvorak dismissing the iBook in his latest PC Magazine column for being too "girly," too "effeminate," something no frat boy would ever want to use. "The only thing missing from the new Apple iBook is the Barbie logo," he writes. "You expect to see lipstick, rouge, and a tray of eye shadow inside when you open it up. You don't expect to see a 12-inch LCD; you expect to see a 12-inch mirror. No male in his right mind will be seen in public with this notebook."

Putting aside the general merits of the iBook's design (which, I would argue, bears no resemblance whatsoever to a woman's compact, and doesn't even come in pink), Dvorak's article is chock-full of sexist stereotypes. There's the assumption that girls don't really use computers, and that therefore all computers should be designed to appeal to men first and foremost. Then there's the notion that "girl" equals makeup -- and Barbie. And finally, we're reminded that no man would want to be associated with anything "girly" -- just to carry around an object that some might find effeminate is an "embarrassment." (Someone at the UK edition of PC Magazine must have realized that his column was a sexist gaffe: there, the "letters to the editor" link at the bottom of the column suggests that "Dvorak is dealing in sexist stereotypes and is biased because he writes for PC Magazine anyhow.")