This article is a mess, and those who are conflating sexism in technology with the increasingly mainstream cultural attributes of programmers are making a serious mistake. I have known meathead programmers who treat women as respected equals, and I have known cartoonishly Aspergery nebbishes whose jaw-droppingly sexist utterances would send any sane woman sprinting from the hackerspace. In between, I have seen a number of ordinary young men — guys whose personal style and mannerisms would be unobjectionable to the median Beach House listener — give presentations at conferences that alienated, angered or hurt the women in their community.
I’ll submit that the project of making women feel comfortable in this industry — a project that is very worthwhile — has basically nothing to do with whether that industry’s men work out, wear their baseball caps backward, or listen to shitty music.
Believe me, I don’t like it when douchebags start showing up at my favorite hangouts, either. But it’s important to distinguish our insular cultural grudges (which can be fun!) from our insistence on equality and fairness (which is actually important).
I think everyone should learn to write code. That includes the mouthbreathers, if they behave themselves.
It’s interesting that Matt Van Horn is cited as the quintessence of brogramming when he isn’t even a programmer – but I guess you already addressed that the article is just bad in the first sentence ;)