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Written in a New York Times article and summarily paraphrased here,
Elissa Shevinsky can pinpoint the moment when she felt that she no longer belonged. She was at a friend's house watching the live stream of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon, when she saw that it opened with two men who developed an app called Titstare. After some banter, one of Titstare's developers proudly proclaimed, "This is the breast hack ever."
Ms. Shevinsky felt pushed to the edge. Women who enter fields dominated by men often feel this way. "It's a thousand tiny paper cuts," is how Ashe Dryden, a programmer who now consults on increasing diversity in technology, described working in tech. Women in tech like Shevinsky and Dryden advocate working to change the tech culture from inside-out, but other women like Lea Verou write that,
' women-only conferences and hackathons cultivate the notion that women are these weak beings who find their male colleagues too intimidating...As a woman, I find it insulting and patronizing to be viewed that way.'
This all being hot on the heels of engineer Julie Ann Horvath's departure from Github as a result of similar concern.
Any of you care to address your own personal experiences or opinions regarding the subject matter; as well as the accuracy of the articles' stories compared to the industry-at-large?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday April 07 2014, @12:35PM
The defining characteristic of a context in which hitting on women is fine is that the woman you're hitting on doesn't have to be there, and can leave whenever she chooses without repercussions. Among other things, that means other patrons of Joe's Bar are probably OK, but the barmaid is not unless she's clearly inviting that kind of behavior. Bonus points if she has friends in the vicinity who will help protect her if she decides you're a creep but you refuse to back off when told to do so (which happens frequently).
A lot of guys don't realize why, so let me spell it out for you: 1 in 4 women in the United States will be sexually assaulted or raped and roughly 1200 women are killed each year in the US by a current or former intimate partner. That means that smart straight women who are talking to a man they just met are in part deciding whether he's a danger to her. To get an idea of what the world feels like to women, especially physically smaller women, imagine that every single female person over age 13 or so has the ability to beat or kill you - suddenly going out or even going to the bathroom without some friends for backup seems like a really stupid idea.
A woman who is at work probably has to be there to earn the money she needs to do whatever it is her non-work life entails. Just like you. Hitting on her at work is out of line, because she can't choose to not be there and often can't just tell you to go away and leave her alone. If you do like somebody at work, there are ways of handling it politely, but start out by getting lunch, not telling her how hot she is.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @12:51PM
Continuing to harrass a woman that makes it clear that the attention is unwanted is clearly not ok and not what this discussion is about. It's the "thousand cuts" whiners that complain about things that are not directed at them personally, making problems where there are none and in the process devaluing words such as sexual harrassment and sexist.
As far as rapists are concerned I have no sympathy for them and would have no problems with implementing death penalties for rape.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Vanderhoth on Monday April 07 2014, @01:18PM
It politically correct to say such things, but there are a lot of cases of false accusations and often very little evidence. Evidence is one of the main reasons more women don't come forward when they've been raped. If there's solid proof and the rapist is a repeat offender I might side with you on that, but I'm definitely not ok with being put to death if some girl from my past claimed I raped her, Julian Assange anyone?
Up until I was in my twenties I had no idea how screwed I could have been if one of the girls I'd slept with in my teens got pregnant and decided to claim I'd raped her as a way of redirecting mommy and daddy's rage.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @01:41PM
Of course it's not ok to judge someone unless there is solid evidence regardless of the crime, this is hardly unique to rape, merely accusing someone doesn't make them guilty.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @05:32PM
Mere rape accusations have ruined many mens' lives. Oftentimes those accusations are found to be lacking for evidence, and sometimes they are found to be baseless or even fabricated, sometimes maliciously. In the cases where a rape accusation is made up, the lying female almost always gets off scot-free, usually she isn't even named and shamed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @01:06PM
As long as we're being statistically hysterical, let's imagine we live in the real world, under the laws of physics, where we don't have to imagine that every single female person over the age of 13 has the ability to kill you.
Because they do.
Welcome to real life. It's dangerous to go alone. Take this kitten.