And so the Internet has found a new woman to hate. Most of you are probably already familiar with the Adria Richards debacle that’s developed over the past several days. If not, Jill at Feministe has a good summary of events:
Adria Richards, formerly of the company SendGrid, was at a tech conference this week when some dudes behind her made a series of inappropriate and sexual jokes. Annoyed by the pervasiveness of misogyny in the tech world, she snapped a photo of them and put in on Twitter with a complaint. One of the conference organizers spoke to the men and they apologized. Totally reasonable! Good response, PyCon. Later, one of the dudes got fired. Instead of getting mad at the company that made the choice to fire him, the internet hordes descended on Adria. She was on the receiving end of rape and death threats. Her address and phone number were published. Her blog and her company’s website came under DDoS attack. Oh and then her company, SendGrid, fired her.
Like Jill, I think firing someone for a “dongle” joke is an overreaction, to say the least. But Richards wasn’t responsible for that; indeed, she told the fired man she hoped his employer would reconsider and take him back.
SendGrid’s firing of Richards is far more problematic. It’s one thing to get in trouble for acting like a sexist boor; it’s quite another to get in trouble for simply pointing out someone else’s problematic behavior. Richards faced a virtual lynch mob for simply documenting an example of the everyday sexism that permeates the tech world; by firing her, SendGrid essentially sided with the mob.
Is “lynch mob” an unfair term to describe those who’ve gone after Richards? No. In this context, the term is sadly apropos, as the target of all this online “activism” is not only female but black – two strikes against her in the minds of many of her, er, “critics,” who attacked her as a “fucking nigger” as well as a “cunt.” (The more genteel racists referred to her derisively as a “diversity hire.”)
Numerous commenters have already documented some of the appallingly racist and misogynist attacks on Richards. (The links in the above paragraph contain plenty of examples.)
Here, I’d like to focus specifically on the attacks on Richards coming from Men’s Rights activists – that is, from people who like to think of themselves as upstanding human rights activists for the 21st century, virtual equivalents of Martin Luther King. In fact, many of the reactions of MRAs show them to have far more in common with the bigots who fought against the civil rights movement than they do with King.
In the Men’s Rights subreddit, the MRA masses gave more than one hundred upvotes to a graphic describing Richards as a “racist, sexist and hypocritical cunt.” Evidently pointing out that white men as a class have certain advantages in the world is a kind of “racism.”
Elsewhere in the subreddit, aasorted commenters indulged themselves in gendered slurs. Greyfeld got dozens up upvotes for comments denouncing Richards as a “feminist cunt” and a “screeching harpy cunt.” DerpaNerb described Richards as “a racist/sexist cunt [who’s] clearly … not capable of doing her job properly.” Buster2209 scored 160 upvotes with a comment describing Richards as a “stupid bitch [who] brought it on herself.” Cyridius simply declared “I hate her because she’s a dumb ignorant bitch.”
Others happily gave the Men’s Rights movement credit for Richards’ firing. The execrable EvilPundit got 180 upvotes for a post essentially endorsing the virtual lynch mob and declaring Richards’ firing to be proof that the Men’s Rights movement had entered a “new phase.”
Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Pundit, but there’s nothing new about men harassing and threatening a black woman.
AnnArchist – a former contributor to Reddit’s now-banned Beating Women subreddit — reacted with indignation to someone who pointed out Richards had been harassed:
Over on A Voice for Men, where the locals describe themselves with no sense of irony as Men’s Human Rights Activists, there was much rejoicing over the firing of Richards, who was variously described as an “entitled bitch,” a “sociopathic bitch,” a “femshit” and a “bush pig.” Naturally, the c-word, applied to all feminists, made an appearance as well.
Daflory hoped that Richards’ firing would be the start of an industry-wide purge:
Adria Richards seems like an entitled narcissist, who had become used to deference as a moral authority through her impeccable credentials as a diversity goddess: black, Jewish, and female. …
No one ever told Adria Richards that she was at best only an tolerated guest in the world of tech, and she could either play by male rules and contribute, or get lost. Hopefully other feminists in tech will get a similar message.
And August Løvenskiolds’ mind went straight to the gutter:
[A]fter being outed as a betrayer of her customers, none of them will want to work with her, and any tech company that hires her will instantly lose credibility.
She’s going to be hard-pressed to find a job as a sex-worker unless the light is quite dim.
Taking a step back from the particulars of the incident, Mark Trueblood wondered if a man strike might help to put things right once again:
I’m pretty sure Amnesty International doesn’t exactly endorse this sort of “human rights” activism.
OKAY I’VE CAVED
Squeeee! at kitty cuteness
Yay, Kitteh’s!
I’m just hoping it’s gonna be big enough across the bust! I went for the plumaga stratus in purple and brown.
It should be, the material is really stretchy, and if it doesn’t, Helen is completely awesome and returns won’t be a problem.
I just read that it’s recycled, washed cotton jersey on the top, so it should be plenty stretchy, yes. It’s only an inch difference (assuming my self-measurement was accurate). I saw that about the returns, too. 🙂
::jiggles up and down wondering when parcel will arrive at work::
::starts thinking of what boots to wear with dress::
::brain fizzes::
Say, there’s an example of the evil difference of prices here and in the US. Pair of Camper boots I got in LA: about $200. Price for the same things here (admittedly a year later): $330.
Bastards!
Late here, but kitteh and cloudiah I can email you both if you want to discuss the mass exodus in private.
Sure, Argenti, but not tonight. Too sleepy for a substantive conversation about something painful. (By that I mean, feel free to email but I probably won’t respond quickly.) (And it’s even later where you are!)
If you’re awake enough and feel like it, sure. (Not 5pm yet here.)
There’s no way I’m buying these, but wouldn’t they have been hilarious to wear to the London Olympics?
http://www.revolveclothing.com/DisplayProduct.jsp?product=HUDSON-WJ555&c=Hudson+Jeans&d=5
Classic! 😀
LaightTempest: @pecunium: As someone who doesn’t frequent a lot of these conventions (or any, actually), I didn’t realize a lot of these situations were handled so poorly and understand why she did what she had to do. I still think she needed to pay for the consequences for how she handled it (not by being fired, though). This doesn’t change the fact that by not giving them a chance to correct themselves and humiliating them on the internet – where everyone other than the PyCon/SendGrid staff would react for themselves – she turned this into a huge PR issue that her company wanted to avoid at all costs. What would you do in this day if you were a company? No one wants to deal with a potential major sexual harassment case.
No. Not at all.
1: What does she need to “pay for”? She didn’t do anything wrong. She reported them to the PyCon staff. The people she reported did something inappropriate, not her.
2: Her company didn’t fire her to avoid a PR problem. They fired her because terrorists attacked them.
So what you are saying is that doing what she ought to have done justifies some level of “accountability”, but being sexist is something which ought to be coddled.
Bullshit as to this: . What would you do in this day if you were a company? No one wants to deal with a potential major sexual harassment case, what the fuck are you on about? What sexual harassment case? Are you saying that because she took offense at offensive behavior she is going to file a sexual harassment case? And that to do that firing her for this (which may in itself be actionable) and telling anyone who has a grievance with an employee that they can have them fired by engaging in that sort of threat is going to make hiring keeping good employees more likely?
Right. The short version of your message is, “if she’d just kept her mouth shut and ignored it there would have been no problem.”
You are saying that people who post her address, with the photo of a decapitated corpse and say they will do the same to her is reasonable? No, of course not, but when challenged you say she, “shamed them on the internet, and she has to pay for it.”
Nice company you want to keep.
HippieRedneck: @TomBCat I read the post. There was no addressing of her deliberate misinterpretation of the “Forking” phrase, Or the fact that she herself made dick jokes. Or the fact that she took those guys’ pictures in a passive-aggressive manner, without saying a single word to them.
That she made dick jokes isn’t relevant. Any more than what a woman was wearing, or drinking, is relevant to rape. Any more than it’s relevant that I once gave money to a panhandler is if I get mugged.
And even if it were relevant to the merit of her complaint (it’s not) it doesn’t justify what was done, and is still being done to her. Esp. not if you read the things the company that fired one guy, and not the other (they both worked for the same company) said.
I am impressed that you can read her mind, and theirs, to know both what was intended, and that she deliberately misconstrued it (i.e. she wasn’t offended, and did this from some other agenda; she was mendacious). You know this because she said she didn’t take direct offense at the forking comment, but at the way it was riffed with the dongle follow up.
That’s some impressive psychic talent. Jeanne Dixon better watch her back.
@Cassandra says those would be super funny to wear at olympics. too snug though.
Bridesmaid: I have never been, but my friend is certain I will be hers. I did do flower girl: burgundy dress done in velvet with a white lace collar *gags*
I wear dresses pretty much exclusively if I am not at work.
I don’t wear fast flats. However, I did ballet so I have ballet shoes and they fold up nice and cozy. I always feel like dancing in them. I never did enjoy pointe shoes. Of course those don’t fold up flat.
@Cassandra says: forever 21 is too short for me. All the dresses end at my upper thing area. I’d flash someone for sure I’m 5’8”………ok closer to 5’9”. They have some great tights though.
Disclosure: I am…intoxicated at the moment.
Scrapemind: As a man, I have never noticed men telling women to smile. As a white person, I have never noticed white people always wanting to touch black people’s hair.
As a human being you aren’t very observant, got it.
Sid, I was referring to that sort of thing, as well as Christian mystics like Hildegard of Bingen.
Then we can add Christian Mysticism (esp. the issues surrounding Anchorites) to the vast list of things about which you seem clue-impaired.
Yeah, I was thinking that the difference in height might more some Forever 21 dresses from “short” to “the world is your gynecologist”.
You’ve both been emailed…not that kitteh didn’t just reply to me 🙂 I’m sure you’ll see it soon enough cloudiah.
And yeah, it’s 2:17 here, but I don’t sleep. At least, not without industrial strength sleeping pills and I’m not in the mood for another 15 hour night, fuck it, I’ll stay up.
Just looking at Forever 21’s site (hadn’t heard of them before, I don’t think they’re out here) and yeah, their dresses are mostly very short – some nice maxis in there, though.
There are some pretty blouses and tops in there, though most of them look too casual for a wedding, to me.
I like Forever 21 because they do a decent job of imitating wool with cheap materials. Important if wool turns your skin fun and interesting colours.
I do wonder who they think they’re designing for, though, since most of their stuff is the right length for me and I’m significantly smaller than the average American woman.
@ Kittehs
The quality is kind of crap, but if you’re looking to do a trend for cheap you can’t beat Forever 21, and imo the sizing is more consistent than H&M, etc. Though that might be because I’m short and a lot of H&M stuff is in “is this a tshirt or a dress?” territory for me. Zara is much better overall, but it’s also more expensive.
“Clue-impaired,” now that’s a term I like. It suggests the need for Gumby Surgery with a clue-by-four.
Hellkell: Could you include me on the studio sale notification?
Perhaps this will prove how surprisingly stodgy my fashion sense is, but lately I’ve been living in Ricki’s clothes. Just bought these last weekend and I am quite delighted with them. Under a skirt, obviously.
@ Viscaria
Tip for those of us who can’t wear wool against the skin – French Connection’s Babysoft sweaters and dresses. It’s warm, soft, and not itchy at all. Plus you can machine wash it.
Oh for goodness sake Viscaria you do not need another generic sweater