Yet another article I have to 'contest' with...

This is from Forbes, that I was reading up on my latest rant fest...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deannazandt/2013/03/22/why-asking-what-adria-richards-could-have-done-differently-is-the-wrong-question/

Of course, being a guy, I will be assumed the misogynist, but to be honest, the question of:

Asking what Adria Richards could have done differently?

is a fair question.

Now one of the commentors misunderstood what the Author was trying to get at...  But I also question the belief this is the case as well.

The commentor believed that Adria asked to be 'raped', or in this sense, trolled.  The thing is, the most common defense tactic for Rapists is to attack the accuser, to suggest that the victim was 'dressed' like she wanted consentual sex and as is now falsely accusing rape to impugn the credibility of the accused.  Sadly enough, this has been the most common defense tactic in law to get the accused rapists from being prosecuted or busted when there is a lack of forensic evidence to prove the deed was, in fact, criminal.

Now again, in many of my posts... I don't condone death threats, or raping a person or even racial slurs because I don't like the person.  I know many people I find destestable and would wish they get a more than suitable punishment in return for their actions, but I also keep it to myself because people here are prone to foolishly believe I may do something of that nature.

But getting to the point of again stating the above...

Asking what Adria Richards could have done differently...

To be honest, this is not a Rape Attack question.  This is a fair question not with regards to preventing or hiding from a sexual harassment situation, but to not escalate an investigation of sexual harassment.  What I think is failed to be seen here is that what Adria did, given the type of environment we know the internet to be, this isn't the simple "Were you wearing a mini-skirt?  Were you being provacative?"  Those questions are always put up because the defense wants people to put doubt in front of the judge and jury about the situation, due to a lack of hard proof of what had happen, because in most rape cases, it boils down to 'he said, she said' with no unbiased, objective evidence and can be twisted into a distorted picture based on views or beliefs.

The question of what Adria Richards could have done with the situation is again a valid question.  Of course we should not hesitate to report sexual harassment...  But be honest, given the nature of our society, especially the internet, it is very easy to make things escalate to a wildstorm frenzy.

Even giving Adria Richards the benefit of the doubt of not knowing the repercussions of how she handled the situation...  Again, the question is still valid once again on how do we handle a situation that we find offensive and how we report it, be it a man or a woman, because again, an accusation of this sort has to be treated within reason or else a misunderstanding or mistake will poison the reputation of a person.

Lastly, sexual harassment is a serious accusation.  I almost liken it to pointing a finger and accusing someone of being called a murderer or a criminal.  It is marking some random person as being seedy and undesired.  But when it comes down to it, one of the principals of Justice is to presume a person innocent until proven guilty.  Justice has to be balanced by the facts as much as possible, at least, the ideal of proper and true justice.  What has happened here is not justice.

What happened here is a person decided to grandstand on their perception of justice, ignoring one of the principals of how sexual harassment should be handled in a situation.  One of the principals of dealing with sexual harassment was to report it to the organizers.  Let them deal with the situation, but do not pubicize it.

There is a reason for not publicizing it, and it isn't just because of the foolish belief that they are trying to cover it up or 'ignore' it.  It is to protect the REPORTER as well as the REPORTEE of possible retaliation.  Don't forget, human kind is also WELL known for our vindictiveness.  Some of us who feel we have been wronged and not properly compensated for being wronged, will expect payback.  The sad thing of it all, the crusaders of any cause will ignore this fact, hence my reprimanding them in believing what Adria did was 'right'.  Doing the wrong things for the right reasons is rarely the 'right' thing.