I’m married to a feminist. My wife, Kate Harding, knows athing or two about rape culture, bad guys and misogyny. (In fact, she’s theauthor of “Asking For It” forthcoming from Da Capo Press in Fall 2013.)
She haslong shared with me stories about women being treated shabbily both in reallife and online. (You wouldn’t believe the vast amount of “I hope you die you f-ingb-" and much worse that female bloggers,in particular, have to put up with. **) And hey, I work in technology, so I’veobserved misogynistic behavior myself, and in particular, at a few differentconferences over the years. (Don’t take my word for it -- read about the crappy attacks aimed at one attendee who loudly complained about sexism at a recent technologyconference. I know that some folks I respect will disagree with me, but upon reflection, I think it is good that she spoke out, reminiscent of the Hollaback! movement.)
Anyway. Because of all of that, I guess I would never have thought it was agood idea to write something up for a deliverability tips/news blog in theguise of asking women at a particular conference to “come up to my room andthrottle my IP address” or whatever the heck that was supposed to be. But, it feels that perhaps I come at this from a different perspective, becauseof the people I know and what I’ve learned from them. (And for the record,MAAWG has an excellent conduct policy.)
I’m sharing this all with not to shame anyone, but to educate. Please, listen and learn, and try to make the world a better place. Don't make these problems worse, not even a little bit.
( ** There is much worse I could link to. My wife has blogged about online harassment at length. I couldn't even share the link to my favorite post on a PG-rated blog. Email me for the URL.)
I’m married to a feminist. My wife, Kate Harding, knows athing or two about rape culture, bad guys and misogyny. (In fact, she’s theauthor of “Asking For It” forthcoming from Da Capo Press in Fall 2013.)
She haslong shared with me stories about women being treated shabbily both in reallife and online. (You wouldn’t believe the vast amount of “I hope you die you f-ingb-" and much worse that female bloggers,in particular, have to put up with. **) And hey, I work in technology, so I’veobserved misogynistic behavior myself, and in particular, at a few differentconferences over the years. (Don’t take my word for it -- read about the crappy attacks aimed at one attendee who loudly complained about sexism at a recent technologyconference. I know that some folks I respect will disagree with me, but upon reflection, I think it is good that she spoke out, reminiscent of the Hollaback! movement.)
Anyway. Because of all of that, I guess I would never have thought it was agood idea to write something up for a deliverability tips/news blog in theguise of asking women at a particular conference to “come up to my room andthrottle my IP address” or whatever the heck that was supposed to be. But, it feels that perhaps I come at this from a different perspective, becauseof the people I know and what I’ve learned from them. (And for the record,MAAWG has an excellent conduct policy.)
I’m sharing this all with not to shame anyone, but to educate. Please, listen and learn, and try to make the world a better place. Don't make these problems worse, not even a little bit.
( ** There is much worse I could link to. My wife has blogged about online harassment at length. I couldn't even share the link to my favorite post on a PG-rated blog. Email me for the URL.)
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