Sometimes when I post links, they’re simply interesting things I’ve run across. These, though, are essential reads:
Why the Trolls Will Always Win, by Kathy Sierra, Wired
A detailed post by Java expert and game developer Sierra describing the harassment and vilification she’s faced for the crime of, well, basically for being a woman in the tech world. While long and a bit rambling in spots, this is an important piece that, among other things, describes how harassers can sometimes transform slanderous assertions about their targets into “conventional wisdom,” details the damage that “trolls” can have on a person’s reputation (and their life generally), and offers some sobering reflections on the culture of harassment and how difficult it can be to fight.
She offers these thoughts on the ways in which Twitter can serve as an enabler of this kind of harassment:
Twitter, for all its good, is a hate amplifier. Twitter boosts signal power with head-snapping speed and strength. Today, Twitter (and this isn’t a complaint about Twitter, it’s about what Twitter enables) is the troll’s best weapon for attacking you. …
It begins with simple threats. You know, rape, dismemberment, the usual. It’s a good place to start, those threats, because you might simply vanish once those threats include your family. Mission accomplished. But today, many women online — you women who are far braver than I am — you stick around. And now, since you stuck around through the first wave of threats, you are now a much BIGGER problem.
And she takes on the “troll logic” of those who insist that unless there’s legal action no “real” harassment has happened:
You’re probably more likely to win the lottery than to get any law enforcement agency in the United States to take action when you are harassed online, no matter how viciously and explicitly. Local agencies lack the resources, federal agencies won’t bother. (Unless you’re a huge important celebrity. But the rules are always different for them. But trolls are quite happy to attack people who lack the resources to do anything about it. Troll code totally supports punching DOWN.)
There IS no “the authorities” that will help us.
We are on our own.
And if we don’t take care of one another, nobody else will.
We are all we’ve got.
Much of Sierra’s piece focuses on one of her biggest enemy in all of this, “hacktivist” Andrew Auernheimer, better known as weev. He’s posted a response to Sierra’s piece. It’s pretty appalling; weev is a hateful misogynist and white supremacist. Here’s a sampling:
Kathy Sierra is the epitome of what is wrong with my community. She had something coming to her and by the standards set by her own peers in the social justice community, there was nothing wrong with what she got.
I do not hate women. My colleagues include quite a few (cis and trans) women. I support women making tech. However, it is high time for the “women in tech” to get the fuck out.
The other essential bit of reading?
Telling My Story, by Adria Richards, Storify.
Developer and tech evangelist Richards, you may recall, ignited the fury of the Great Internet Lady Harassment Machine by tweeting about sexist jokes she overheard at a tech conference. At the time, she largely kept silent about the harassment she was getting. But now she’s speaking up and sharing the details.
In a series of Tweets yesterday, Richards posted screenshots documenting some of the worst harassment she’s gotten; this Storify collection pulls these together in one place.
Make the effort to enlarge and read the screenshots; they’re horrifying. And Richards promises to post more.
If there is one thing I have learned in the last year when being harassed online it is: DON'T BE QUIET ABOUT IT!
— Adria Richards (@adriarichards) October 9, 2014
While I’m posting links, here’s one that’s hardly essential but that’s pretty funny:
Local Chicago Man Would Like Women to Smile, Accept His Advances, by Kara Brown.
No, this last one isn’t from The Onion. It’s REALLLL.
Blerg. That was simultaneously depressing, infuriating and inspiring.
I sent that last Craigslist ad to several women in my office (who land all across the spectrum, from a conservative “non-feminist” to someone who is as far-left as I am). They were all equally disgusted, and they all immediately understood why a woman might wear earbuds and avoid eye contact while going about their daily lives — because they’re just trying to get around and don’t want to be stopped by total strangers demanding their attention.
It’s good that people are fighting back against the trolls.
I think Sierra accurately describes the fear and frustration about people equating “harmless” lulztrolls with people who are earnestly out to destroy someone’s real life. Also about the toxic nature of trolls trying to out-troll one another, because that’s how you get attention, and who gives a fuck about the people who get hurt right?
I LOVE the little Post-Script under that Craigslister’s patronising missive that says “DO NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers” !!!
I imagine the irony is lost on him, though.
Backing off from trolls/ street harassers/ whoever is trying to give you a hard time is tempting, but being silenced is not OK.
“In 1987, six gay activists in New York formed the Silence = Death Project and began plastering posters around the city featuring a pink triangle on a black background stating simply ‘SILENCE = DEATH.’ In its manifesto, the Silence = Death Project drew parallels between the Nazi period and the AIDS crisis, declaring that ‘silence about the oppression and annihilation of gay people, then and now, must be broken as a matter of our survival.’ ”
This is not the issue here I know, and many may think me hyperbolic for drawing an analogy, but we know that for many women not being able to deal with a harasser effectively COULD mean death. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but I am sure that all our lives would be easier if we felt we could tell those people ‘just NO’ and actually be listened to. Being seen as human beings, who actually have lives, feelings and opinions of our own!
Weev needs to be put back in prison
Anybody reading the KS article else getting the Related Articles including a couple about how important it is that weev doesn’t become a victim of “America’s paranoid war on hackers”? Poor showing there, Wired, might want to work on that algorithm.
“I do not hate women. My colleagues include quite a few (cis and trans) women. I support women making tech. However, it is high time for the “women in tech” to get the fuck out.”
One of those statements is unlike the others — in fact, it is in glaring contradiction of the others, which, let’s face it, are The Bigot’s Boilerplate (TM): “I don’t hate [insert a human group]. Some of my best friends / colleagues / relatives are [members of the said human group].”
Here’s a post from the Daily Banter explaining just how repugnant Weev’s views are:
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/10/ipad-hacker-released-jail-parties-glenn-greenwald-publishes-neo-nazi-screeds/
After reading that I lost a LOT of respect for Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
What is so frustrating about the sense of entitlement from this Craigslist guy is that he gets it. He gets that unsolicited offers or comments are frustrating and annoying, at best. He gets that someone with earbuds in doesn’t want to be bothered. But he can’t seem to put the two together and realize that women don’t want unsolicited compliments as they are walking down the street (hence the earbuds and sunglasses). All he sees is someone he thinks is attractive and he thinks that he should be able to talk to her, no matter what she is doing.
Let’s face it, these are not compliments for the woman. It’s the guy trying to show off and a woman who ignores him or tells him off is damaging that fragile male ego. His ego and his boners not my concern when I am walking down the street. Walking down the street, I want exactly one thing: to get where I am going.
To quote Jessica Williams:
From Deacon Duncan, on Kathy Sierra’s piece:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/alethianworldview/2014/10/08/more-than-just-harassment/
Did I post this last night? Sorry if it’s a repeat, but it’s Anita Sarkeesian on a similar subject speaking at XOXO:
(She talks about the skin bleaching accusation, among other things.)
ej, exactly. A lot of “nice guys” like that guy complain that they can’t read women’s signals. But he’s reading their signals perfectly: ne knows perfectly well that they don’t want to be bothered, and that in some cases (as in the women wearing sunglasses when it’s not sunny) they’re likely going out of their way to tell him and other potential “admirers” to leave them alone.
So he knows what they’re saying. He just doesn’t want to hear it.
I don’t know if anyone else but me will find this funny, but I’ve been reading a lot of the #GamerGate stuff on Reddit, and one thing their trolls do is come to other subs and make ridiculous and offensive claims, but “politely”, and then insist that you have to take them seriously because they’re polite. Sounds like some of our trolls, now that I think about it.
Someone on the anti-GG sub (GamerGhazi) found this cartoon that perfectly describes the experience of engaging with these dudes:
http://wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
“I do not hate women. … I support women making tech. However, it is high time for ‘women in tech’ to get the fuck out.”
Huh?
And that Jezebel article … wow. And what’s up with the sunglasses bit? Don’t people wear sunglasses to, you know, protect their eyes? I put on sunglasses anda big, wide-brimmed hat every time I go outside (I have very pale skin and a family history of skin cancer). If that makes me unapproachable, oh well.
Saying hi to passers-by is one thing; blocking their path is rude and even a bit intimidating. There is a guy at work who does this to me EVERY TIME, to the point that I purposefully take another route if possible whenever I see him coming. Normally I am running to a meeting, and he literally stops right in front of me and holds his hands out to his sides so I cannot continue. I think he thinks he’s just being friendly, but it doesn’t come across that way.
My interpretation:
1) He knows women don’t want to be bothered, because he gets the headphones and the glasses.
2) He thinks that they are obligated to ‘enjoy’ his compliments, and that receiving them should be a gift to all of womankind, even though they obviously don’t want said compliments. This is insulting to him.
3) Since unwanted compliments are still his gift wot womankind and must be enjoyed, women wearing headphones are not doing so in their best interest, and need to be told to behave like good eye-candy for him and be receptive, so they can get his gift of over-sharing.
4) Women also should smile for him and every other dude, because being pretty is what women should be for. Who cares what you’re thinking about! You should be smiling, even when thinking about ebola, because the dudes seeing you don’t know that you’re thinking about ebola and you frowning because ebola is bad gives them sad boner feels. At the very worst, while contemplating a virus that has currently killed over 3,000 people, you should have a neutral expression. Otherwise, please do smile.
Anyone want to visit his town, wear headphones, sunglasses. and a pro level scowl?
I’d be down, only tickets are expensive and I don’t want to deal with that much street harassment. Plus, I’d be wearing jeans and a ratty tee instead of his preferred sweaters and scarves, because I’m Alaska grown and it’s too warm down south this time of year for a sweater, so I wouldn’t be ruining an adequately appealing image with my scowl…
Cloudiah…
THAT CARTOON IS AWESOME!
Who’s a cute pinniped! You are! Wait, no… you are so obnoxious! NOT A CUTE PINNIPED! GO AWAY!
That’s also almost word for word from some of our trolls.
Hello. I’m a first time commentor on this site. I read the nazi’s response and would like to comment on the frequent use of adjectives to present Sierra as insane and childlike. He describes her as mentally ill and “histrionic,” as well as having tantrums like a toddler.
There is great historical precedent to write of women who say uncomfortable things as insane or attempting to infantilize them to offset any opinion they have. A good example that happened only in 1927 was when Carrie Bell was forceably sterilized after her family had her institutionalized because she was raped and impregnated by a family member. Of course the Supreme Court had no problem with accepting that she was “feeble minded;” eugenics was very popular at the time. But of course the case has never entirely been overturned.
It is a bit frightening to realize that my grandmother was 11 when this case happened. She is 97 now. Reading his response makes me think that in many ways those 97 years never happened.
You can be hurrying to the bus to get to your chemo session and some guy’s trying to hold you up saying “Hey baby, give me a smile!”.
The thing is, headphones are so damn effective that when I lived in a big city (SF) and had to walk 17 blocks to work every day, I went out and bought a *larger* pair because the earbuds aren’t always visible, I still have these big honking headphones which are super nice, but totally something I wouldn’t have purchased for sound. They’re huge and semi-impractical, but freaking awesome for being able to pretend you can’t hear assholes.
Bull-fucking-SHIT. Newsflash, Weev: “women in tech” and “women making tech” are ONE AND THE SAME.
And if you don’t like them there, get out yourself, Auernheimer, you gaslighting, misanthropic fucking intestinal parasite.
My right to talk to you about your appearance ends where your right to be left the hell alone begins. It’s not a difficult concept.
Also not a difficult concept: I don’t get to control someone’s reactions to my comments. If I’m silly enough to make unsolicited comments about a woman’s appearance to her when she’s clearly not receptive to any communication at all, I have no right to get pissy if she ignores me or regards me as a creep.
And to pretend guys don’t understand when women are sending out “don’t talk to me” body language is bullshit. It’s pretty obvious. And the number of “But how do I start a conversation with a woman I don’t know?” posts on the net show that the point is being missed – you don’t have an automatic right to be engaged in conversation with someone just because you want to talk to them. That’s a bilateral agreement, not something you impose on somebody else.
@Bina:
I can only assume he was trying to make some kind of point about “Women In Tech” being a label that has outlived its usefulness – kind of a counterpoint to Leigh Alexander’s “Gamers are dead” concept.
Except of course Alexander’s point was that gaming is becoming more diverse, whereas that asshole is trying to make some point about outspoken women harshing his buzz over being a totes awesome dude in tech by demanding they are also treated as full people.
Exactly. “Gamers” as posited by GamerGaters are a subgroup that NEVER represented the whole of the market, or even (gasp!) a majority. Adult women are in fact the largest subgroup of electronic and online gamers. And the industry was originally much more inclusive and acknowledging toward them. The overgrown boy who likes jiggly boobs and bang-bang guns is a later development, and a poor one for the industry to cater to. He was never the leading demographic, even though sexist industry propaganda would have us believe he is.
Same thing goes for women in tech (and yes, I’m going to use that phrase, because). Women have ALWAYS been in tech, from the moment Ada Lovelace made Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine” work. And women were the first computer programmers in the 1940s. (The men were all at war, so plugging data into the big room-sized putes with the vacuum tubes was women’s work.) Grace Hopper, Hedy Lamarr, yadda yadda. They are ALL women in tech. They have always been there, integral to it, even if largely unrecognized.
And if some unpersecuted douchebro doesn’t like them facts, too bad for him. I got others. There’s a lot more where that all came from…