5 ms·

Of every claim you have heard, this is the one you think isn't real?

by bluehat 12y ago

MrScruff 12y ago
I think the reason you always see these sort of responses in these threads is that most men really have zero awareness of what women have to put up with in everyday life. If we imagine that only 1 in 20 guys is a creep or worse, and that all of these men will remain regular offenders throughout their life, that's still a huge amount of individual incidents of women being made to feel uncomfortable (or worse). When you look at it this way, it's easy to see how a woman might find herself being harassed in some way or another on almost daily basis. Discussion with female friends bears this out. I personally know of several guys who, while I'm not claiming they've committed any crimes, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them alone with female friends. But because a lot of men don't have any first hand experience of this sort of behaviour, it's difficult for them to believe it's real.
- exodust 12y ago
  Give me a break. She's been raped, bribed, assaulted, abused... the list goes on. Could it be any more dramatic? I see a movie in this. Perhaps someone is writing a script? More fiction: "I have spoken at a professional conference and had about two dozen drunk fully grown men shout-chant at me to take my shirt off." If you can't recognise that as BS, I can't help you. I'm not denying sexism exists in the world, but we shouldn't deny that some people do have a tendency to fill in the blanks of an otherwise uninteresting but personal incident in their lives to give it more attention. She needs support and help, and probably not the wrath of comments like mine. But as "someone on the internet" I have no reason other than to call it as I see it. The other possibility is she suffers from schizophrenia and actually believed two dozen men were chanting at a professional conference for her to take her top off. Most conferences are recorded... let's see or hear the tape. Show me the evidence of this event and I'll donate $500 to the charity of your choice. She wrote this for international women's day. But it's not about women, it's about her, and it's fiction. My advice to her would be to stick with robotics, games and the other interesting things she does, and report incidents as they happen to the relevant authorities. MOST MEN in tech are decent human beings, and I for one am not going to sit here and take an article meant for international women's day turned personal vendetta aimed at an entire industry and the men within. With lines such as "fundamentally change the balance of power between genders", and "sexism in tech is out of control"... she has a hidden agenda, and I'm not on board. Good luck to her anyway!
exodust 12y ago
Nope. She has all sorts of fictionalised anecdotes going on in her article. Can I know for sure? No. But I trust my BS meter more than this troublemaker. She describes herself as a "troublemaker" on her Twitter profile, which may or may not mean she makes things up to get attention.
- MrScruff 12y ago
  FYI, you're responding to the OP. And whatever your thoughts on her article, perhaps you should just keep them to yourself on the off chance that, you know, you might be wrong. She mentioned she can produce evidence for the DEFCON story elsewhere in this thread so you might want to get that $500 ready.
  - exodust 12y ago
    > you might want to get that $500 ready She said the cameras weren't rolling. And I said I wanted recorded evidence, so my $500 is safe. The reason it's safe is not because the cameras weren't rolling but because 24 men never chanted "show us your tits". Who knows, maybe one idiot in the crowd did... but 24 didn't. I just watched some of her talk on youtube, and she has the crowd in her hand. She owns the topic and gets laughs and respect. Even the youtube comments are all positive. If you ask me, she seems like a bit of a wild child. She's cheeky, she doesn't give a f--- about anything. She's smart. And the crowd is into her stuff. If the "show us your tits" incident actually happened, it may well have been a failed attempt at extreme irony or bad-taste humour because of her obvious talent at the subject matter rather than any literal "sexist remark at a woman because she's a woman". I'm not defending such behaviour, but with everything like this, intent and context needs to be closely examined. She's come out and used it as example of "sexism in tech" when it might well be an example of "robotics geeks showing respect by way of a clumsy and deliberate disregard of civilised discourse.". Perhaps it was an attempt at nodding to the Las Vegas themed "bad behaviour" after dark, combined with a nerdy attempt at being funny, all in an attempt to get the attention of this girl they actually admire. Context and intent is everything. And her article doesn't take that into account. This is the reason she writes below in caps "it's all okay we worked it out"... meaning the incident at DEFCON.

Of every claim you have heard, this is the one you think isn't real?

by bluehat 12y ago

Of every claim you have heard, this is the one you think isn't real?

I think the reason you always see these sort of responses in these threads is that most men really have zero awareness of what women have to put up with in everyday life. If we imagine that only 1 in 20 guys is a creep or worse, and that all of these men will remain regular offenders throughout their life, that's still a huge amount of individual incidents of women being made to feel uncomfortable (or worse). When you look at it this way, it's easy to see how a woman might find herself being harassed in some way or another on almost daily basis. Discussion with female friends bears this out. I personally know of several guys who, while I'm not claiming they've committed any crimes, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them alone with female friends. But because a lot of men don't have any first hand experience of this sort of behaviour, it's difficult for them to believe it's real.

exodust 12y ago
Give me a break. She's been raped, bribed, assaulted, abused... the list goes on. Could it be any more dramatic? I see a movie in this. Perhaps someone is writing a script? More fiction: "I have spoken at a professional conference and had about two dozen drunk fully grown men shout-chant at me to take my shirt off." If you can't recognise that as BS, I can't help you. I'm not denying sexism exists in the world, but we shouldn't deny that some people do have a tendency to fill in the blanks of an otherwise uninteresting but personal incident in their lives to give it more attention. She needs support and help, and probably not the wrath of comments like mine. But as "someone on the internet" I have no reason other than to call it as I see it. The other possibility is she suffers from schizophrenia and actually believed two dozen men were chanting at a professional conference for her to take her top off. Most conferences are recorded... let's see or hear the tape. Show me the evidence of this event and I'll donate $500 to the charity of your choice. She wrote this for international women's day. But it's not about women, it's about her, and it's fiction. My advice to her would be to stick with robotics, games and the other interesting things she does, and report incidents as they happen to the relevant authorities. MOST MEN in tech are decent human beings, and I for one am not going to sit here and take an article meant for international women's day turned personal vendetta aimed at an entire industry and the men within. With lines such as "fundamentally change the balance of power between genders", and "sexism in tech is out of control"... she has a hidden agenda, and I'm not on board. Good luck to her anyway!

exodust 12y ago

Nope. She has all sorts of fictionalised anecdotes going on in her article. Can I know for sure? No. But I trust my BS meter more than this troublemaker. She describes herself as a "troublemaker" on her Twitter profile, which may or may not mean she makes things up to get attention.

MrScruff 12y ago
FYI, you're responding to the OP. And whatever your thoughts on her article, perhaps you should just keep them to yourself on the off chance that, you know, you might be wrong. She mentioned she can produce evidence for the DEFCON story elsewhere in this thread so you might want to get that $500 ready.
- exodust 12y ago
  > you might want to get that $500 ready She said the cameras weren't rolling. And I said I wanted recorded evidence, so my $500 is safe. The reason it's safe is not because the cameras weren't rolling but because 24 men never chanted "show us your tits". Who knows, maybe one idiot in the crowd did... but 24 didn't. I just watched some of her talk on youtube, and she has the crowd in her hand. She owns the topic and gets laughs and respect. Even the youtube comments are all positive. If you ask me, she seems like a bit of a wild child. She's cheeky, she doesn't give a f--- about anything. She's smart. And the crowd is into her stuff. If the "show us your tits" incident actually happened, it may well have been a failed attempt at extreme irony or bad-taste humour because of her obvious talent at the subject matter rather than any literal "sexist remark at a woman because she's a woman". I'm not defending such behaviour, but with everything like this, intent and context needs to be closely examined. She's come out and used it as example of "sexism in tech" when it might well be an example of "robotics geeks showing respect by way of a clumsy and deliberate disregard of civilised discourse.". Perhaps it was an attempt at nodding to the Las Vegas themed "bad behaviour" after dark, combined with a nerdy attempt at being funny, all in an attempt to get the attention of this girl they actually admire. Context and intent is everything. And her article doesn't take that into account. This is the reason she writes below in caps "it's all okay we worked it out"... meaning the incident at DEFCON.