A chicken-or-egg thing

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Anonymous  #355379  Wed, 25 Apr 07 09:05 AM

Dear friends,

The author was talking about the reason why there are so few women working in the computer game industry:

"It's not so much that women look at the computer game industry and discard the idea of working in it. It's that the computer game industry just never even comes up on their radar. ...

It's a chicken-or-egg thing. If more women were playing games, they might get interested in computer games as a medium and might choose to pursue that as a career. But it's still stigmatized as boy thing."

1)I know "It's that the computer game industry just never even comes up on their radar " means  that "the computer game industry hasn't drawn women's attention". But I'm not sure about the figure of speech of "radar" here. Is it a metaphor?

2)I know there is a famous question in philosophy, that is "which is first, the chicken or the egge". But I still can't relate that question to the context. In the context, the author is sure "women playing computer games" will lead to "they work in the field of computer games". It doesn't involve a question. Right?

3)In addtion, what kind of figure of speech is used by using "a chicken-or-egg thing"?

A million thanks.

 

 

  
Philip  #355518  Wed, 25 Apr 07 03:46 PM
 Anonymous wrote:

Dear friends,

The author was talking about the reason why there are so few women working in the computer game industry:

"It's not so much that women look at the computer game industry and discard the idea of working in it. It's that the computer game industry just never even comes up on their radar. ...

It's a chicken-or-egg thing. If more women were playing games, they might get interested in computer games as a medium and might choose to pursue that as a career. But it's still stigmatized as boy thing."

1)I know "It's that the computer game industry just never even comes up on their radar " means  that "the computer game industry hasn't drawn women's attention". But I'm not sure about the figure of speech of "radar" here. Is it a metaphor?

2)I know there is a famous question in philosophy, that is "which is first, the chicken or the egge". But I still can't relate that question to the context. In the context, the author is sure "women playing computer games" will lead to "they work in the field of computer games". It doesn't involve a question. Right?

3)In addtion, what kind of figure of speech is used by using "a chicken-or-egg thing"?

A million thanks.

 

 

1) Something like that.  It has occured on their "mental screen".

2)  I think "chicken-or-egg" is misused here.  The question isn't "which came first", but rather the opposite.  I'm not sure I can suggest a good replacement.  The idea of "viscious circle" (one leading to the other) is the best I can do, but I think that's a little too negative.  Catch 22?

Help from others?

  
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