I was reading this article... And sort of disappointed with people.
I will point out that I did not stand behind Adria Richards in her situation and not because it is her race nor her gender.
People are playing their cards and all of them playing the wrong ones for the wrong reasons.
I harp this because I had to go through Sexual Harassment Training a few times and hell, just plain Harassment Training for some of the jobs I worked at. Not because I was harassing, but because it was one of those mandatory requirements and I had one false accusation levied at me at one point.
The thing that people can't get out of their heads is that harassment is all about the guys making suggestive comments or pushing themselves on women like what we all see on TV or in movies about the 50s-80s and how we are trying to make ourselves seem like we are now 'better than that'.
I grew up in the 70s on up til now and seen some of the older shows about how life was back then. Do I believe women should 'know their place'? No. I am also an Asian. You know what's funny, majority of the Asian countries are very 'patriarchal' in nature as well, but the ideals are changing from time to time.
So before I get people thinking "Oh, you are just another misogynistic bastard trying to make himself sound like he isn't." I used to think back when I was a kid, Japanese and Germans were bad... I grew up watching war movies featuring it. The irony is... I also liked japanese toys and my heritage is Japanese American. As I got older, I started to look at the different views and it transcends racial bounds.
Now I will admit, I am not into certain races in a relationship means, and no, I am not one of those bigots who don't believe in interracial relationships, and I don't dig men being a guy, does not make me a homophobic. It means what floats my boat is what floats my boat, but I won't expect people to all conform to what floats my boat nor disparage people for their life choices.
When I disagree with Adria, I disagree with how she handled the Sexual Harassment she felt. Again, I had no problems in the fact she wanted it dealt with and tried to report it. There is no debate that the intention was good.
What is wrong is how she dealt with it. I, by no means, feel it was necessary to publically shame two men for what disturbed her. I felt she should have told them to politely stop, or barring that, contacted the Pycon mangement of the incident with proper evidence for THEM to determine the issue and let THEM deal with it.
When you look at how it was presented... Not enough information was there. In fact, from here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57575905/techie-adria-richards-fired-after-tweeting-about-mens-comments/
She said she was spurred in part by a photo of a young girl on the stage at the time, and the thought that the men seated behind her would make it impossible for the girl to learn programming.
The men were not identified by name.
Richards said she also had confronted a man earlier after he told her what she thought was a sexist joke at the conference.
"There is something about crushing a little kid's dream that gets me really angry," Richards wrote. "Women in technology need consistent messaging from birth through retirement they are welcome, competent and valued in the industry."The last paragraph is what keys me into a problem with the situation here. Given the vague statement here about the comments... With little context, I wonder about how exactly one goes from the jokes to the accusation of crushing a little kid's dream from a picture. How exactly is someone's jokes go right to 'destroying a child's dream'? While the men were not identified by name, people are identified in more than one way and the damage has been done.
Let this be a lesson, again not directed to women, and not a misogynistic message either. As much as the tech industry has to be more sensitive about the comments and words said to women... Any issue that is 'sensitive' should be dealt with in a 'sensitive' way as well. No matter how self righteous you feel it needed to be addressed... Sometimes the crusade or vindication is not always worth the costs it incurs when carried out the wrong way.
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