Trigger warnings used to target Violet Blue
2013-02-27 16:20:25.178926+00 by
Dan Lyke
4 comments
Violet Blue: What happened with my Security BSides talk.
I found out a few hours later that I had been targeted by a feminist organization, The Ada Initiative. I learned that the woman who smiled at me while talking to the BSides SF organizer was Valerie Aurora, from the Ada Initiative.
I also learned that what happened with my talk wasn’t a case where someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as a survivor of sexual trauma or abuse, which is how it was presented to me. Instead, it was an organization that had planned to get my talk removed. I wonder, if I had offered to omit the section about GHB from my talk, which they did not know about, would the talk have been permitted by these people and the threat of problems for the organization lifted?
[ related topics:
Drugs Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Bay Area Law
]
comments in descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2013-03-28 13:53:42.549506+00 by:
Dan Lyke
ITWire concludes that The Ada Initiative reps are misrepresenting their side of the situation.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-02-28 22:37:19.140963+00 by:
Dan Lyke
I'm listening to the Hackers as a High Risk Population presentation Violet Blue made to 29C3, I'm not sure yet what it has to do with technical issues, but I can see all sorts of tie-ins to security and social engineering and what-have-you.
I just popped up two paragraphs to note that right now she's talking about lessons from sex ed and harm reduction in terms of user expectation management. So, yeah, there's some tie-ins.
But to the "imminent danger of rape at technical conferences", there's certainly been some reports of harassment and groping, and a hell of a lot of men being boors. I'm a fan of the efforts to raise the general tenor of how we treat women at technical conferences, because many of them do feel, if not physically threatened, left out.
And I've seen myself do this in the other way: In trying to not single out women, I could very well be ignoring women who have valid interesting contributions to make.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-02-28 20:03:32.06188+00 by:
petronius
The assumption seems to be that women are in imminent danger of rape at technical conferences, even more than in other interactions. Is there any evidence of this? I also wonder why they need a sex lecture of any type at a technical conference.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-02-27 21:54:59.156247+00 by:
Dan Lyke
The Ada Initiative responds.
I like that we're having discussions about sexual harassment and assault at technical conferences. I am not convinced that this is one. I find the "political correctness", and I use that term deliberately, knowing that it is charged and that it's been mis-used and over-used since its inception, in this particular instance pretty disturbing.