There is a concept in law and HR of a "hostile work environment", which is why the original joke would have been unacceptable per the PyCon conference guideline

There is a concept in law and HR of a "hostile work environment", which is why the original joke would have been unacceptable per the PyCon conference guidelines that attendees agreed to. It's not necessarily harassment of her in particular, but that doesn't make a backdrop of sexual innuendo and double entendre appropriate for a professional conference either. The actual joke wasn't really that bad (certainly not to the point of warranting termination of employment), but I can understand why Adria would be uncomfortable. I certainly wouldn't feel welcome at a music festival where an audience was talking about all the geeks they'd be giving wedgies to, even if they weren't talking to or about me specifically. The issue with Adria was what in particular she chose to complain about (mere sex jokes are indeed not harrassment of her in particular, and make her look hypocritical), and especially how she went about it.