5 ms·

Disgusting! It's equally appalling that this has happened to her numerous times. wtf?

by faramarz 16y ago

eli 16y ago
What's worse is that isn't really an outlier. Hard numbers are tough to come by, but sexual assault really is that common.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  And the more loosely we define "sexual assault" the more common it becomes. Words are awesome that way. :)
- usaar333 16y ago
  It's certainly common, but it is radically different across demographic groups. I find it very hard to believe it is common for women to get sexually assaulted at a tech conferences full of intelligent, upper class , and generally meek around women guys. I'm sure it unfortunately does happen, but I doubt it is something occurring every other conference.
  - callahad 16y ago
    > "I find it very hard to believe it is common for women to get sexually assaulted at a tech conferences" And that's the crazy part. It doesn't make sense. You've got intelligent folks, not the dregs of society or anything, and yet, it is common. I attended a tech conference earlier this year in which one of the attendees set up an open space to discuss "invisible diversity" (transgender / genderqueer, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, etc.). 1/10th of the conference's attendees presented as non-male, while 1/2 of this particular open space presented as non-male, which seems to indicate that it touched on a subject of particular interest to folks that didn't fit into the white, cisgendered, male majority. More interestingly, most of the non-male individuals in attendance explicitly stated that they felt sexually threatened at most conferences. Crazy, right? But when someone makes that claim, and sufficiently many others offer their assent and echo the claims, then I'm left having to believe that, yes, those things do happen, and at a far greater rate than is directly visible to you or I.

5 ms·

Disgusting! It's equally appalling that this has happened to her numerous times. wtf?

by faramarz 16y ago

Disgusting! It's equally appalling that this has happened to her numerous times. wtf?

eli 16y ago
What's worse is that isn't really an outlier. Hard numbers are tough to come by, but sexual assault really is that common.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  And the more loosely we define "sexual assault" the more common it becomes. Words are awesome that way. :)
- usaar333 16y ago
  It's certainly common, but it is radically different across demographic groups. I find it very hard to believe it is common for women to get sexually assaulted at a tech conferences full of intelligent, upper class , and generally meek around women guys. I'm sure it unfortunately does happen, but I doubt it is something occurring every other conference.
  - callahad 16y ago
    > "I find it very hard to believe it is common for women to get sexually assaulted at a tech conferences" And that's the crazy part. It doesn't make sense. You've got intelligent folks, not the dregs of society or anything, and yet, it is common. I attended a tech conference earlier this year in which one of the attendees set up an open space to discuss "invisible diversity" (transgender / genderqueer, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, etc.). 1/10th of the conference's attendees presented as non-male, while 1/2 of this particular open space presented as non-male, which seems to indicate that it touched on a subject of particular interest to folks that didn't fit into the white, cisgendered, male majority. More interestingly, most of the non-male individuals in attendance explicitly stated that they felt sexually threatened at most conferences. Crazy, right? But when someone makes that claim, and sufficiently many others offer their assent and echo the claims, then I'm left having to believe that, yes, those things do happen, and at a far greater rate than is directly visible to you or I.