[johnbm]

Criticizing a woman, even calling her a bitch, is not misogyny. Misogyny is hating women because they are women. What OP described is just heckling.

And what OP did is white knighting, i.e. a man defending a woman, because she's a woman, in order to appear virtuous. Like posting about it on HackerNews.

[kbenson]

No, what he did was reinforce what is acceptable social behavior in that situation. While the specifics of the situation may have spurred him to act quicker or in a case he wouldn't have, that's irrelevant. The behavior being called out is unacceptable no matter who is giving the talk. People did not attend the talk to hear people heckle the talker, there are other forums for that (stand-up, and there are some talks which might be more comical and some light heckling might be acceptable).

Rude behavior was called out. It's rude regardless of the people in each position in this scenario.

[dragonwriter]

> Criticizing a woman, even calling her a bitch, is not misogyny.

Calling a black person a "nigger" isn't racism -- but (outside of specific contexts that weaken this conclusion) its a pretty strong indication of racism, and (subject to pretty much the same contextual considerations) not addressing it normalizes racism, whether or not the actual utterance was motivated by racism. The same is true with "woman", "bitch", and "misogyny" in place of "black person", "nigger", and "racism".

> And what OP did is white knighting, i.e. a man defending a woman, because she's a woman, in order to appear virtuous.

I don't see any indication that it was done "in order to appear virtuous", which is, you correctly note, an essential feature of white knighting.

[imron]

> Criticizing a woman, even calling her a bitch, is not misogyny

It might not be misogyny, but it sure says a lot about the person using such language.

[throwanem]

> What OP described is just heckling

Nah, heckling takes volume. You don't heckle sotto voce for just your buddies to hear. You do it at the top of your lungs for everyone in the room to hear. Say what you like about heckling, it takes a certain degree of grit.