Only 5.3% of US welders are women. After years as a professor, I became one

I just bought a gas lens set for my welder and it included cups called the BBW and the FUPA. When I was taking MIG classes, they had a jar of anti-spatter gel called cooter snot tip dip. Can’t imagine why women are so rare in the profession…

I’ve been a tourist in a number of different trades, and welding beats them all for hostility and resistance to safety practices. You get called a pussy for wearing a mask, but of course the manganese fumes from welding steel will give you brain damage. I’ve been advised to run cutoff wheels far above their rated RPM, which risks explosion. It’s sad because welding might as well some combination of knitting and calligraphy but with metal. It’s great.

Cooter is a Black dialectal term for a turtle originating from the Mandinka language, and you can see a turtle on the logo of that product.

that's called "plausible deniability"

I’m glad someone is here to argue on behalf of the cooter snot company.

Are turtles also known for their snot, in which tips are frequently dipped?

> I just bought a gas lens set for my welder and it included cups called the BBW and the FUPA. When I was taking MIG classes, they had a jar of anti-spatter gel called cooter snot tip dip. Can’t imagine why women are so rare in the profession…

Makes sense. I suppose if women had invented these things, they would have been able to name them something nicer.

Deniability for accurate and true reasons is just a subset of plausible deniability

Hahaha, wow. The other products on that page do a wonderful job of disagreeing with parent’s explanation.

This was my experience exactly working on a welding crew when I was 19. We worked 12s 6AM-6PM (or 6PM-6AM if on a night shift) and often worked longer. The longest shift I worked was nearly 20hr, which was great because every hour past 8hr was worth 1.5x.

"Safety" was "watch the fuck out and don't get hurt." I didn't have access to a respirator even if I had known enough to want one.

I did have enough sense to listen to the old guys who said your body can't take that kind of work for more than about 15yr without starting to break down, and that I should go to engineering school instead.

There was one (1) female welder that crew of at least 20 and she put up with a ton of overtly horrible stuff. She was also incredibly good at welding, I saw her once burn an entire 7018 rod without looking, no helmet, just by feel, and the slag came off in one piece.

No, but the substance looks like blue snot and you dip the hot tip in it.

What is the Mandinka people’s relation the Camel Toe and One-Eyed Snake products advertised on the website?

There's a "one eyed snake" product too, why are we not complaining about how men will be driven from the profession with such sexist talk?

Then there's One-Eyed Snake something penetrating oil spray from the same company.

The idea that sexual innuendos somehow differently affect men and women is rather strange.

Sexualizing the product name at all is more hostile to women than the reference is hostile to men.

Are you suggesting women are less able to take hostilities than men ? Since now we have inuendos from both.

Context matters. In a 95% male profession, making hostile comments about women is absolutely more of an issue than similar comments about men. And vice versa in a predominantly female profession.

Men from a profession that doesn't have these issues would probably name them something nicer too.

I'm suggesting that the "inuendos from both" is the wrong analysis and that the workplace issue would be the sexualization of the product name being used as a tool to harass women (there would probably also be comments made to men, but harassment would predominantly be towards women).

What the fuck? Explain exactly what you mean by what you wrote. Actually, never mind. I don't care. Just please delete your worthless comment.

Please use PPE. My dad and grandfather were both mechanics (not welders, but adjacent) and both contracted very similar bladder cancers most likely from skin exposure to a particular solvent bath chemical.

There is no reward for macho or risky behavior, only a painful/miserable death and shorter life, and less time with family. So many male members of my mom's extended family died early from tobacco use and from industrial and agricultural hazards.

That means breathing fumes, unknown substances, or fine dust without a respirator (or smoking), not using gloves while handling chemicals/coatings/etc., or putting oneself in mechanically risky situations.

TL;DR: Just use PPE.

They cost money, they're a hassle, they're not fashionable, their benefit isn't immediately obvious but so is a seatbelt until there's a known problem like DDT, asbestos, tetraethyllead lead, dirt particulates, or fiberglass.

Hostilities from men towards women are much more dangerous and women have the correct response to be more vigilant about them.

With respect to welding, $2k for a PAPR helmet is stil a hard pill to swallow!

Women face higher consequences for pregnancy so you would expect attitudes towards sexual suggestion to be different. Also, when you're talking about a group where the gender ratio is like 20:1 the woman is going to be the butt of a disproportionate number of the jokes.

There is Cooter from the original Dukes of Hazzard TV show, a man: https://dukesofhazzard.fandom.com/wiki/Cooter_Davenport_(Ben...

Fun fact: the actor playing Cooter was elected a US Congressman.

You should see the bill for tumor removal!

Keep in mind that there are other products that fulfill the same need. This is essentially just novelty branding.

I wear a 3M 7502 half face respirator behind my 3M Speedglas autodark mask and it fits just fine. A proper integrated system would be nicer but this setup is safe and works for 1/10th the price. Also if it's not too hot and humid I can leave safety glasses on which is convenient for grinding--just flip up the visor and go for it, no safety squints needed.

I only weld at the edge of my garage, with the door open, with a fan running, and while wearing a respirator. Thanks for looking out for me and others.

There aren't so few women because the language is gross. The language is gross because there are so few women.