Since you asked…

In a surprise upset, a Twitter follower actually asked me what I think about a gender-equality-in-technology issue on which I had decided to remain silent. Alas…

In February  the Violet Blue BSides SF talk (about harm reduction in the arena of drug fueled sexcapades) vs Ada Initiative thing happened. BSides leadership got spooked by a complaint and pulled her talk unilaterally. I was of the opinion that different conferences cater to different audiences, so the idea of having a sex-based talk isn’t troublesome in the right environment. Throw a trigger warning on it and let people decide for themselves. The speaker has bona fide credentials and having watched a similar talk she did for 29c3, it was unlikely that the the content itself would be in any way sexist or poorly handled. I was dismayed to watch Ada Initiative’s credibility plummet as the fiasco progressed, because despite individual baggage brought to the organization, the work they’ve done overall has been clearly positive.

Less than a month later, PyGate happened (or Donglegate, if you prefer). In this case, I thought the conference organizers handled Adria’s complaint well. They took her report and removed the offenders, per their posted guidelines.

However, every other plot point in the story has #WellThatEscalatedQuicky attached to it. 

• Since women are constantly told they’re “over reacting,” I’m trying really hard not to be judgey (and sponsor money was involved, so that raises the bar, etc.) about whether this must have been the best|worst “fork my dongle” joke in history… Bottom line: If someone is offended, we should deal with it. That doesn’t mean every reporter-of-sexism is an infallible representative of Justice, or is allowed to speak for all members of [possibly offended group] everywhere. (see: pulling Violet Blue’s talk)
• If I was offended by a joke (in the perfect world where I’m not  stressed to the point of irrationality), I would have said so directly to the people involved. If their response was a hearty “Go fuck yourself!”, I’d probably rage-tweet about it and then escalate to the organizers (people may dispute this choice, but it’s what I’d do). If I didn’t feel comfortable talking to the jokers in the first place, I’d take it to the organizers quietly, offline. If the con’s response was sub-par, again, to the interwebs! In any case, jumping straight from joke to execution in the court of public opinion set off a chain of events that was… sub-optimal.
• The hateful responses Adria received went so far into crazy-town that they do nothing but reinforce the misogynistic undercurrent that is ever present in technology… on the internet… in the world at large. Yes, people lost their jobs over this debacle and that sucks. But someone actually sent Adria a photo of a bound and bloody woman with her address on it. 

So to answer the initial inquiry…. I watched PyGate while wrinkling my nose and continually muttering “Well, that’s unfortunate…” with the voyeuristic luxury of someone uninvolved in the real consequences of the event and its aftermath. Even though I didn’t necessarily agree with Adria’s choices, there was no benefit to me saying so in the midst of watching her receive endless hateful messages. I actually felt compelled to say supportive things to counter the attacks, and I knew that went against my initial reaction to what this was supposed to be about. So I said nothing.

I usually regard the Anti-Porn feminists with the same side-eye I use for the Being-On-Girls-Gone-Wild-Is-Empowering feminists. In the past, these distinctions haven’t been necessary when it comes to feminists in technology. We could all rally around “Hey, I’d like a job, please!” and “No, you don’t need to help me solder that.” It’s so much easier when there are clear causes to support, when the offense doesn’t need a “you had to be there to get it” tagline, when cons were gatherings of individuals with common interests and not summits of corporate representation. 

It’s a sign of success that we’ve progressed to the point of arguing about the official response to a dongle complaint. This may be a period of overcorrection, but that means we are moving. I just hope we find the middle road before we lose what little hard-fought credibility the “sexism in technology is real” memetic has garnered.