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by LaGrange 4836 days ago
The biggest problem in many such cases isn't really the name, but the reaction to complaints. Perfectly the name would be fine from the get go, but if it wasn't, people say "hey, that's crap", organizers change it, case closed. Real crap starts when people start freaking out that "OMG feminism has gone insane!", and it's that reaction that is the real symptom of big problems. All because someone deemed the name more important than the likelihood a woman would feel welcome in the conference proper.

Similarly in the case of PyCon: joke was crap, someone called it out. Instead of an apology and admission that it shouldn't have happened, two people lost their jobs, and a lot of whistleblowers will be discouraged from speaking out. All because people think their freedom of joke making is more important than the likelihood a woman would feel welcome.

People do know those aren't complaints about direct harassment – just about a lot of individually tiny things that, once taken together, breed an atmosphere that encourages harassment and discourages participation. And sure, some women can deal with that – but they shouldn't have.

Also, a dong joke wouldn't be an issue in a perfect world, but we're not living in one.
2 comments
vidarh 4836 days ago
The PyCon incident blew up because of the tweeted picture, which to many of us was _far_ worse than the stupid joke. Complain to the organizers, sure. Make fun of them at the conference, even.

But the tweeted picture to a large number of followers took it well into harassment, where the joke wasn't.

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jm3 4836 days ago
Hard to imagine anything more horrible or harassing than posting a photo of someone.
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vidarh 4836 days ago
Do you seriously not understand that the problem is not that she "posted a photo of someone", but the context?
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Joeri 4835 days ago
That photo got two people fired. Seems serious enough to me.
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roberto 4836 days ago
From what I understand in the Pycon incident there was an apology and admission that it shouldn't have happened, and parties were happy with the result. The problem came later because of the tweeted picture.
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