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.
@Pear_tree: I’m wary of jumping to that conclusion, not the least reason being that it’s a fucking depressing conclusion, but if everything I’ve said here is correct, then what other explanation is there? The people who’ve been making death threats, they’ve been following this a lot longer than me, they have had adequate time to find out about that press release and read it. Not that a death threat be justified in any circumstance, but how is it that this nugget of info has been out there for so long (since 21 March I think) and it didn’t give those fuckers pause?
I guess I already know the answer to that. If a woman merely saying (shruggingly! smilingly!) “guys, don’t do that” is enough to set off the inner id of vengeant self-righteous patriarchal bullshit that resides within our society, then the response to that Tweeted photo might even be regarded as proportionate and measured.
Because mens behavior shouldn’t have consequences……..
You never know why someone was fired. It usually is a series of actions.
This is off topic, but several employees at my work were recently let go. Now we are short staffed and they are having to pay us overtime in order to make it work.
@reginaldgriswold: It’s like staring into the void here. I’m going to get off the internet now and go do some imaginary adventuring with my son.
PS: If any of you have little tackers with a thirst for thrills and adventure, but aren’t cool with the violence that usually goes along with them in movies, I recommend the “Journey” serious (Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Journey to the Mysterious Island). They’re crap movies in truth, very cliched, but to a 4 and a half year old they’re a revelation 🙂
@ Deoridhe
“First of all, Intent is not Magic.”
Yeah, I guess my post was more or less directed at him and people who might take his side anyway, as sort of a clarification.
“…The default setting to “woman does anything, anywhere, at anytime” is “How much of what she suffers was her fault”. Always. Anytime. No matter how much or how little an actual person is called out.”
Equally true and depressing. I just went through a situation like that yesterday when a friend of a friend explained how much his ex deserved all the talking behind her back because she broke up with him and not telling him why.
When I protested it was explained to me how insensitive it was of me, because:”He’s suffering enough, let him vent!”
-despite not knowing anything about their relationship and the fact that all the talking wasn’t even about her actions, but about how mentally unstable she obviously must be, how she was “ruining” these good men for the other girls, which of course then leads to theories that being in an abusive relationship would teach her to behave properly towards the…nice guys.Also, slut. Of course.
I’m sorry for kinda derailing and asking for explanations for the obvious, it’s just that I’ve seen and been part of a lot of these situations lately and I guess I’m trying to make sense of the arguments that come from otherwise sensible, intelligent people.
But thanks, your explanation really reminded me that I’m not obligated to try to relate every time.
The biggest complaint I hear from women in IT isn’t that the men there are always making sexist jokes, it’s that the men there don’t trust them. Anytime a woman approaches a group of men, they change the subject and talk as little as possible. The men are walking on eggshells to avoid offending women, and as such are very reluctant to help them with anything. Adria Richards really set back women with her actions, if you ask me.
She’s horribly hypocritical. She was making jokes about male genitalia on her Twitter account at the exact same conference: http://judgybitch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/dick-joke.jpg Not only did she not apologize in her blog, she had the audacity to compare herself to Joan of Arc.
She also completely misrepresented what they were saying. “I’d fork that guy’s repo” isn’t sexual at all in the right context. In IT, to “fork” something means to take code from an open-source software program and build a whole new program around it. Adria claims that she has an MCSA (Microsoft Certified Server Administrator) certificate. If she’s telling the truth about that, then I doubt she was ignorant of the term’s true meaning. Her “apology” is nothing more than an attempt to get people off her back and stop making her feel guilty. When she was taking the picture, she SMILED at the guys instead of alerting them to her actions or voicing her offense, and didn’t say a word to them.
@Hippie Redneck
Did you you even read this thread?
Because my mental image of your post looks like someone stumbling into a room uninvited and vomiting over the food…
Nothing you just said hasn’t been already talked about.
Also, as a woman in IT I can tell you, I never had to worry about guys walking on eggshells, ever. Of course, that’s just personal experience, as opposed to, well, hearsay.
@TomBcat
As a man in IT, I agree with you that I never witnessed guys walking on eggshells either.
Aslo, too, I have heard the the eggshells argument for decades and in a variety of fields, including law enforcement in the 1980s. It is not a new whine…
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.
@joanimal
arguments like these are as old as humanity itself.
Like my own, they are based on personal feelings and don’t say much about anything.
of course sometimes people walk on eggshells, and sometimes people are wrongfully accused. Who knew?
“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.”
Really?Good for you!
You either know many thoughtful people or don’t pay attention to these things.
On the contrary, the Joan of Arc thing wasn’t talked about until Hippie Redneck brought it up. Adria Richards also wrote, “Yesterday the future of programming was on the line and I made myself heard.” What a silly person! (Is that OK? You guys don’t consider the word silly to be an ableist slur yet, right?)
“On the contrary, the Joan of Arc thing wasn’t talked about until Hippie Redneck brought it up.”
Read the thread to find out everything about the appropriate way and place to discuss the shortcomings of Adria Richards!
“(Is that OK? You guys don’t consider the word silly to be an ableist slur yet, right?)”
Context!.
No, not yet – but it is up for consideration once we get the committee going. We need to elect people at the next grand conference, though, so it’ll take a while. Until then you’re probably better of using it on a provisional basis, with the understanding that once we get around to it, we can retroactively condemn you for using a word.
Poor sweetie. It must so very difficult for you to think about the implications of your words before you puke them at us.
Also, that should “the word”, not “A word”. We can’t condemn you for using “a word”, that would imply that merely stating your opinion was somehow wrong. It isn’t! Hurrah.
I love the people showing up now saying, by focusing exclusively on Richards, “yeah, that point you made about everything, everywhere, every time being the fault of women?” You are SO RIGHT. Thanks for proving my point, gentlemen. You’re a great object lesson.
Also really, really stupid. Especially the one trying to imply ableism isn’t a thing using satire. Man, you sure showed me (I’m right)!
You can’t use the word stupid, Deoridhe. That might imply that IQ exists.
You can’t direct comments at specific posters – that might imply distinct people have individual sentiments.
On the original post, I’m really disappointed at MRAs – the lack of originality, the same tired old “c*nt” and “b1tch” insults repeated over and over. Where is the poetry and the wit?
I love the “bwaaah she receive death and rape threats, if you criticize her, you’re a victim blamer” argument, especially coming from the people who bully a guy who receives death threats from the usual youtube lynch mob :
http://manboobz.com/2013/03/21/george-godley-terrible-pickup-artist-worse-human-being/
I suppose it’s also “victim-blaming” to criticize JudgyBitch who also happens to receive death and rape threats and had been harrassed by virtual vigilantes who’d threatened to “out her”.
Cry harder.
If Scrapemind and Co. are serious and not just trying to ruffle our feathers: Keep in mind that one of your sympathizers back there? Used fucking “AUTISTIC” as a SLUR. I could not make that shit up if I tried. Look at the company you keep and tell me if that doesn’t maybe say something about the side you chose to take.
All this drama about the fact that a woman made a complaint about how some guys were acting at a conference? Guys freaking out about this – you look really pathetic right now.
The reason I’m not on the crazy-is-a-slur side is because I won’t lie and pretend I’m one of you, and probably couldn’t if I wanted to, not because I want to be judged guilty of hating autistic people by association.
I can’t just make myself believe that crazy is a slur. Belief is not a choice.
ThomasR, is that you?