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The latest cycle of overheated rhetoric and misinformation about CSS includes accusations that CSS and its practitioners are being “dismissed”, or “systematically devalued”, or that this alleged dismissal is “about gender privilege and exclusion”, and that this disrespect of CSS is somehow fueled by, or connected to, an idea called “CSS in JavaScript”, which is apparently a secret conspiracy, or something like that.
I’m keenly aware of the deep-seated challenges relating to diversity and inclusion in our industry, and the need to address them.
However, simplistic notions that “CSS people are being devalued” involve elementary misunderstandings about what CSS actually is, where it fits in the big picture, and even what a “CSS person” is. Even if you’re not interested in the culture wars, and/or do not agree that they are relevant to CSS, there is still plenty of value in stepping back, taking a deep breath, and taking an calm look at some of the important issues relating to CSS in today’s world.
You may want to read this article in conjunction with my companion article on “CSS Anti-patterns”.
What is CSS?
We need to start off with the basics — what is CSS? It turns out to be a combination of things.
First, it’s an architecture — a set of interrelated concepts — about how to style web pages.
Second, it’s a extensible collection of specific properties, such as color.
