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> Harrasement is not a gender issue It's interesting that it can be true, but not change much in practice due to gender imbalance at tech conferences. Let's a
by pornel 11y ago
> Harrasement is not a gender issue
It's interesting that it can be true, but not change much in practice due to gender imbalance at tech conferences.
Let's assume that 1% of attendees (of any gender) are bad actors attacking the other gender. If a conference has e.g. 800 men and 200 women, then there will be 2 female harassers vs 800 men, and 8 male harassers vs 200 women. That's a 16 times difference in likelihood of being harassed ((8/200) / (2/800)), just from attendee imbalance, and no fault of any gender.
- PieterH 11y agoMost harassment at tech conferences is male-on-male, and it is not sexual. It is about power and control, and perhaps amusement. Sex, gender, height, choice of programming language: these are ways to create and exploit vulnerability. Sometimes I don't think psychopaths, sorry, bad actors, care about sex at all, except as a tool for controlling people.
- pvdebbe 11y agoIs making fun (not constantly though) of some bad languages now harassment?
- PieterH 11y agoIf it's used to intimidate and isolate, then yes. Remember school bullies? Same thing yet more subtle and stealthy. Often the model of harassment is indirect. For instance you have a group of people who are happy and working together. A predator arrives and sees opportunity. He sees another guy is protecting and coaching the group. So he slowly undermines and destroys this guy's credibility, provoking him to anger and finally making him leave. Then, the group is exposed and easy to play with. You almost never see it. Even when it happens to you, you can almost not see it. It is so slow, careful, smooth. This is why education of these patterns of stalking, isolation, and attack are so important.