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Comment by cheez | Hacker News Reader

Your inability to take a joke is dangerous for the public image of whichever company you're evangelizing for.

And this after you make "sock down your pants" jokes on Twitter. The irony is delicious.

I hope the OP sues you for reproducing his likeness without his permission. PyCon is, after all, a private gathering.

I would almost contend there are grounds for a defamation/libel (something... not a lawyer) suit here as well considering her comments have severely hurt his reputation and caused him to lose his job.

Cheez and bherms: neither of you guys understand the legal system very well, do you?

Well, this is "Hacker News" and not "Groklaw". There needs to be some recourse to the public accusation. If I was him, I would have just "noped" my way out of it.

Nope, I never said it.

Nope, she misheard me.

Nope.

Fuck you, pay me.

To be fair, not many people do, and lawsuits have been filed and won for much less.

She works for Sendgrid.

Ah, I hope they realize what a liability they have on their hands. For example, imagine if a developer ACCIDENTALLY looked at her while walking by.

Can you say sexual harassment lawsuit?

LOL. This woman is bad news.

All I'll say is this, and really it's what it boils down to. Regardless of if you think she was in the right or the wrong, she is a developer evangelist. That means she goes around and tries to get companies to pick up her product. After all this, I wouldn't get near her with a 40 foot pole. God forbid I slip and say something that get's misconstrued and I or my company gets dragged through the mud. With that being said, I feel like she's lost the ability to do her job. If she's an evangelist and the people she's supposed to be evangelizing don't want to be around her, where does that leave her or Sendgrid?

I don't want to live in a world where her actions are right so I will stick with them being wrong, childish and immature.

She clearly broke the PyCon rules with her public shaming as well. I hope they don't invite her back.

Can you say sexual harassment lawsuit? LOL. This woman is bad news.

This is exactly the type of attitude that perpetuates the idea that a woman should not say or do anything if uncomfortable.

see: https://twitter.com/jackdanger/status/314604363614134272

Definitely not. She's clearly in the abuser position and her reaction was disproportionate and inconsiderate, to the like of baseless sexual harassment lawsuits we've all heard about.

I'd even go an extra step and say IMHO what she did was misplaced sexism as she misinterpreted and misrepresented the situation and would probably not have done anything if women were making the same dongle joke.

I don't think she shouldn't have said anything. But taking it to the Internet without talking to the guys was her choice.

If someone is making you uncomfortable, you say something. You don't go nuclear just because someone else, somewhere else called you a whore.

This woman is bad news, and she's making all women look bad.

Option 1 - Hire a guy Option 2 - Hire a woman, and out of nowhere she'll cause me trouble with some random harassment charge.

Harassment is a SERIOUS offense. If everything becomes harassment then it stops being serious and it becomes a reason to not hire women.

How many men have caused a stir on a conference over sexism? EVERY single woman so far behaved correctly, in every single conference?

Or is it the fact that when women misbehave men laugh it off (cause it's cool, right? She made a pass at me, right? right?) and women get on a stupid crusade over ANYTHING and EVERYTHING???

Not anymore!

She NEVER had to take a joke. The joke wasn't directed at her and she wasn't part of the group talking.

She OVERHEARD them talking. Completely different matter.

I, for one, am offended when people eavesdrop me.

Was about to reply with the exact sentiment. She should mind her own business.

They were sitting in the middle of a packed conference hall. It was not a private conversation.

In case you still don't understand why she did what she did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBVuAGFcGKY

I find this idea that, just because you are in a public place, you cannot act privately, rather hilarious. Granted, it would be stupid to say something secret you wouldn't want broadcast to the world, in the middle of a crowd, while someone is speaking...but is it really unreasonable to expect to be left alone when all you want to do, is to turn your head to your coworker, and say some sort of wisecrack?

I have been to many conferences, and have, many times, told something to someone that I thought might have been funny. While I don't think I have ever said something that I would think was harmful I nonetheless have said things that I would be embarrassed of they went "public", because I simply would not have wanted to be the focus of the attention.

I have read Adrian's blogpost, and she doesn't give enough detail for me to know just what it was about the comments that was offensive. Whether they were or not, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that the two developers were expecting their conversation to be quasi-private.

They were sitting several feet away, behind her, in chairs facing toward her. How could she not hear what they were saying?

You've never wished the people behind you in a movie theater would hush up?

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