And a lot of things that should in the abstract be harmless are not in reality. And yet, that's an abstract statement in itself. In reality, was this harmful?

And a lot of things that should in the abstract be harmless are not in reality. And yet, that's an abstract statement in itself. In reality, was this harmful? More specifically, was "the future of programming was on the line"? Were the comments "crushing a little kid’s dream"?[1] Adria, PyCon, and the man's employer can draw their lines where they like, and take the actions that they see fit, but there is no reason to assume that any of them got it exactly right in some objective sense. Pretending otherwise is just silly -- or defensive, in the case of a lot of folk in this thread. I'm sorry, but that's wrong. Reasonable people can disagree without any of them being "silly" or "defensive"[2]. Being dismissed with those kinds of labels for not subscribing to a dogmatic interpretation of sexism drives more men into outright misogyny than away from it. [1] http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/ http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont... [2] Or prone to "sloppy, biased thinking" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5412004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5412004