[hackerspaces] Hackers, feminism, and bullying

[Michel Gallant]

Having an effective, visible anti-harassment policy is a great way to
encourage women to attend and participate.
On Jan 18, 2013 8:00 AM, "Yves Quemener" <quemener.yves at free.fr> wrote:

> I can understand the dating sites thing, but the social network? I do not
> find it awkward to add someone to my contacts if I had a 2 hours technical
> discussion or working session with. It could be courting, sure, but it
> could also be simple convergence of interests.
>
> The one you propose seem even more unjustified and hard to enforce. When I
> meet someone with interesting projects, it seems natural to google what he
> or she did achieve in the past.
>
> However, here is a proposal for women who fear they could be stalked online
> : do as do many gray-to-black hats, political bloggers, and several
> demomakers : use a pseudonym. If Mary Sue does not want to see a dozen geek
> try to friend her on facebook, she can give another name (I however
> consider it polite to mention it is a pseudonym but this may be just me).
> Several persons (all males with a concern for privacy) did this. Our public
> list of members only give their pseudonym.
>
> I would argue that this rule, however, is more an anti-harassment rule than
> a way to promote a more balanced gender ratio.
>
> On 18/01/13 12:45, Bill French wrote:
> > Greetings, again, from heavily armed, definition crazed, white, male,
> > America!  "America: Why are we so dumb?"
> >
> >     /Rule #1: When a girl comes through the doors, do NOT try to find
> >     her on social networking or dating sites!
> >     /
> >
> > It's weird to me that this is the only piece of practical (right or
> wrong,
> > it's practical to understand, if not implement) advice i've picked up in
> > this conversation.  I really hope I didn't miss anything else.  As a
> white,
> > male, 30ish person, president of a mostly male hackerspace (current list
> > has us at 15% female), i recognize that the attitude of "please, just
> tell
> > me what to do, so we can fix this!" is not very helpful, but short of
> going
> > for a masters in women's studies, i'm not sure where the middle ground
> is.
> >  I don't even know if Women's Studies would be the right thing to study.
> >  Maybe it is even offensive to say that.  I don't know!  I think
> basically
> > being called a clueless idiot who doesn't get it, especially based on
> > factors of my birth beyond my control, is not the middle ground, either.
>  I
> > hate to see such "teaching moments" get wasted.  I want to learn.  Who
> here
> > wants to intentionally oppress women?
> >
> > I do know that I love my mother, my wife, and my sister (all different
> > people, to be clear) and would not want them to ever feel uncomfortable
> or
> > unwelcome *anywhere* by *anyone*.  But I don't know where to start to
> learn
> > how to be better, how to help other be better, and make our space the
> best
> > it can be, that is reasonably practical among everything else I need to
> do.
> >  /I also want to hack./
> >
> > ANYWAY, rule #1 bothers me, could rule #1 be changed somewhat:
> >
> >     Rule #1: This space respects personal privacy.  All people entering
> >     this space have a reasonable expectation of privacy.  To that end, do
> >     not Google, Facebook, or otherwise search for anyone, their families,
> >     or their friends without explicitly asking them directly for
> >     permission, first.  Everyone is here for their own reasons.  If you
> >     want to know, ask them, wait for them to tell you, or mind your own
> >     fucking business.
> >
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
>
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