Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice | Hacker News Reader

Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice

newstatesman.com

15 pointsgreggman13 comments

The idea that there are a limited pool of stereotypes that most female characters in video games are drawn doesn't seem to me to be at all controversial. Anita Sarkeesian is possibly the dullest, least-controversial feminist ever; that she would be targeted for this basically says any woman could be.

These harassers are attempting censorship through intimidation and abuse. The question is how we stand up and condemn their cruel, petty, misogynistic behavior in a way that will do any good.

One example: when Heroku/Mongo/Apigee/etc rescinded their support from the Sqoot API Jam after women were offered as one of the perks alongside beer.

There are many things to do, but a solid first step is not tacitly condoning hateful speech or deeds.

The next step is to create a welcoming environment. It's not obvious how to do it (for example, avoid employees taking a dark unsupervised walk to their mode of transit to go home), but would you want to be somewhere where random anonymous strangers could verbally assault you, and you had no legal recourse? That's the social environment that YouTube has made.

More internet misogyny. Fortunately, this one comes with a way to actual give for the cause.

This has been here an hour and only one comment (prior to mine). I wonder why.

Hacker News is about as receptive of this topic as a porcupine is of balloons.

“Stay away stay away stay away!”

Thank you for replying. Yes, I am aware of the trend. I have been a member for around three years. But I wonder why that is.

There is a fair amount of discussion of things like women in tech and sexual harassment in the work place. I wonder why these types of posts seem to put such a chill in the air and get a reaction of "I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole..." even though other related topics generate quite a bit of serious, mostly respectful discussion.

People on HN are there to talk about tech, and they prefer it to happen within the confines of what is currently the majority demographic: young male tech person who’s every-day life doesn’t involve constant harassment.

Talking about the subject of sexism in tech means the members of the majority demographic have to start acknowledging their own privileges and mistakes (made in the past), two things they’d rather avoid altogether. Understandable, but unhelpful.

There are lots of great folks on HN, and lots of women, too. However, their voices often get drowned out by the other group. I know of many female developers / engineers who have abandoned HN because the systemic misogyny became too unbearable to be confronted with on a daily basis.

Again, thank you for replying and have an upvote, but I respectfully disagree. My impression is that it scares people in a way that makes them afraid to talk about it.

I am not afraid of difficult subjects of this sort but many people are, and usually with very good reason. You and another commenter have already come out gunning for people here when the only "crime" may be discomfort or fear of saying the wrong thing on a very loaded topic. God forbid they give you and others actual ammo against them by opening their mouths.

This explanation operates on the assumption that all of these people lack the capacity to ask why, or ask for an elaboration or clearer explanation. It assumes that every member here that avoids these conversations Must! At all times! Assert! Their! Knowledge! on the issue and speak out as if they’re experts.

There really is no discomfort in asking someone to elaborate on a complicated subject, except a self-imposed reputation you think you might need to uphold.

My experience from seeing HN threads discuss this topic shows anything but a fear that people have to discuss it; I'm sure the fearful ones are the ones not speaking out either way, which makes the size of that group really hard to determine, but the ones that do speak up seem anything but fearful.

There are two ways of learning: investigate resources for yourself, and asking "why". Maybe it's time for HN to try either of the two more often?

I am asking "why" and I am a member here. I said that quite clearly. I really don't see where you are getting your first paragraph. I don't really understand this reply at all.

Back to working on my blog post.

Later.

Well, and I gave you my explanation of why as an answer, which you then dismissed and provided your own explanation instead. Since you were the one wondering why, I’m now left to wonder what made you ask the question in the first place.

Everyone's busy spreading hate and misogyny.

I see no reason to assume such a thing. Many of the members here are clearly more socially enlightened than average and seem to have a vested interest in fighting social inequalities and injustices.

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