So a female tech evangelist is at a technical conference, and overhears two men behind her making what she assumed to be lewd jokes, in the main conference hall, during the presentation.
She turns around, snaps a picture, and posts both the picture and commentary about how offended she was by them, then proceeds to tweet conference organizers who pull the men out of the conference. She then posts a long blog post about how she stood up for women everywhere by standing up to these sexist pigs
End act one.
Act two:
One of the men involved explains his perspective on reddit, indicating that the first comments were not of a sexual nature, and the second joke wasn't started by him, nor did he participate, however he wanted to thank this female evangelist for publicly calling him out for sexual discrimination which resulted in him being fired that morning.
The whole thing erupts as people call the woman a bully, and the company she works for gets ddos'd to the point where they can no longer serve their customers for many, many hours. It appears this is still ongoing.
Shortly after the female tech evangelist is fired and the company she worked for posts this publicly on their Facebook page, assuming that it might quell the raging masses.
Act three:
Who knows?
Right now I can't help but think that it would have been better if she simply turned around, asked the men to stop because it was making her uncomfortable, and moved on. However the conference had a record number of women that year 20% - which is huge in the tech world - and openly proclaimed their diversity and zero tolerance for any kind of abuse, so she was certainly within her rights to request the conference organizers become involved. But the public shaming on twitter (she has a very large following) seems a bit above and beyond what is reasonable action to take against someone for a verbal offense.
The company that fired one of the offenders is at fault, in my opinion, for taking things to the next level, but that's not the interesting point I'm thinking about.
The loss of her job, and the very public hanging she's receiving, sends a very strong message to women in the tech community that if they speak out about offenses and discrimination, they may find themselves without a job.
Even if her public shaming of these men was over the top, and even if they didn't actually say anything that should have been offensive if she heard the whole conversation and had the proper context, the fact that she tried to discuss it publicly, then was publicly beaten in return and lost her job is rather distressing.
I honestly feel everyone's being harmed in this situation. Both companies are losing great people. Both people, the conference, and one company are airing dirty laundry that probably should have been kept behind closed doors, unless one party refuses to deal, then maybe public shaming would be reasonable to get them to understand the problem.
But it's obvious that all parties involved are generally reasonable people, and it seems that if they had discussed things privately first everything would have been resolved without the resulting mess.
Of course, the next generation puts everything on twitter and Facebook. At some point there is no private space, at least no in the minds of the upcoming generation, everything is up for public consideration.
Either way, it's quite an interesting mess if you want to dive in. Google for "Pycon Adria Richards" if you are curious. Everyone seems to have an opinion.
May cooler heads prevail.
She turns around, snaps a picture, and posts both the picture and commentary about how offended she was by them, then proceeds to tweet conference organizers who pull the men out of the conference. She then posts a long blog post about how she stood up for women everywhere by standing up to these sexist pigs
End act one.
Act two:
One of the men involved explains his perspective on reddit, indicating that the first comments were not of a sexual nature, and the second joke wasn't started by him, nor did he participate, however he wanted to thank this female evangelist for publicly calling him out for sexual discrimination which resulted in him being fired that morning.
The whole thing erupts as people call the woman a bully, and the company she works for gets ddos'd to the point where they can no longer serve their customers for many, many hours. It appears this is still ongoing.
Shortly after the female tech evangelist is fired and the company she worked for posts this publicly on their Facebook page, assuming that it might quell the raging masses.
Act three:
Who knows?
Right now I can't help but think that it would have been better if she simply turned around, asked the men to stop because it was making her uncomfortable, and moved on. However the conference had a record number of women that year 20% - which is huge in the tech world - and openly proclaimed their diversity and zero tolerance for any kind of abuse, so she was certainly within her rights to request the conference organizers become involved. But the public shaming on twitter (she has a very large following) seems a bit above and beyond what is reasonable action to take against someone for a verbal offense.
The company that fired one of the offenders is at fault, in my opinion, for taking things to the next level, but that's not the interesting point I'm thinking about.
The loss of her job, and the very public hanging she's receiving, sends a very strong message to women in the tech community that if they speak out about offenses and discrimination, they may find themselves without a job.
Even if her public shaming of these men was over the top, and even if they didn't actually say anything that should have been offensive if she heard the whole conversation and had the proper context, the fact that she tried to discuss it publicly, then was publicly beaten in return and lost her job is rather distressing.
I honestly feel everyone's being harmed in this situation. Both companies are losing great people. Both people, the conference, and one company are airing dirty laundry that probably should have been kept behind closed doors, unless one party refuses to deal, then maybe public shaming would be reasonable to get them to understand the problem.
But it's obvious that all parties involved are generally reasonable people, and it seems that if they had discussed things privately first everything would have been resolved without the resulting mess.
Of course, the next generation puts everything on twitter and Facebook. At some point there is no private space, at least no in the minds of the upcoming generation, everything is up for public consideration.
Either way, it's quite an interesting mess if you want to dive in. Google for "Pycon Adria Richards" if you are curious. Everyone seems to have an opinion.
May cooler heads prevail.
