[lingrush]

I was similarly taken aback by her apparent dismissal of feminism. For most of her post, she outlined the subtle institutional sexism that enables her would-be rapist and prevents her from taking any effective action.

Does she believe that by giving credence to the feminism that challenges the less overt sexist attitudes and actions in the community, we divert attention from 'real' violence towards women? Perhaps she's aware of the fact that many dismiss feminism categorically, so she's attempting to distinguish the violence towards her as a real offense.

Either way I agree with you, but I also can't blame her for writing it the way she did. I hope that the incredible guts it took for her to write this post encourages other women to be vocal about their own experiences of this nature. I hope this gently open a dialogue on sexism with an undeniable and overt demonstration of sexism in the community. But right now, I hope that the community supports her.

[wpietri]

The way I read a lot of that apparent dismissal of feminism was as a way to get her community to see her complaint as legit. That is, by saying "I'm not one of those feminists, the ones that get upset at every little grope," she's trying to underline that she has a serious incident to report and is not blowing it out of proportion.

Honestly, I think that's heartbreaking twice over. Not only is she working in a context that she perceives as hostile to her getting respect and equal treatment, but she apparently feels that she has to bad-mouth those pursuing equality just to have a hope of getting people to accept her assault report at face value. And all that comes on top of getting assaulted and robbed and almost raped. That is hideous.

From what I understand, the infosec community has been in an uproar lately about somebody objecting to some sort of sexual content in a conference talk. So perhaps she feels she's speaking in a context where she really has create a lot of distance between herself and the people on the losing end of that uproar.

Like you, I really admire her for speaking out like this. After my mom died a couple years back, I learned from her sisters that she had been raped as a teen, and had insisted on pressing charges and testifying in court, despite social pressure to just let it go. I was immensely proud of her. I still am.