If you haven’t noticed, large industry conferences are the new feminist battlefield.
Via Heartiste and Pax Dickinson, a “developer evangelist” and “2013 TED attendee” named Adria Richardscomplained at a tech conference called PyCon about two men sitting a row behind her who were making jokes to themselves about “forking” and “dongles”. She snapped their picture, seemingly without telling them why she was taking the photo, and tweeted PyCon. One of the jokesters was fired from his job. He has three kids.
They started talking about “big” dongles. I could feel my face getting flustered.
Was this really happening?
How many times do I have to deal with this?
Can they not hear what Jesse is saying?
The stuff about the dongles wasn’t even logical and as a self professed nerd, that bothered me. Dongles are intended to be small and unobtrusive. They’re intended for network connectivity and to service as physical licence keys for software. I’d consulted in the past with an automotive shop that needed data recovery and technical support. I know what PCMCIA dongles look like.
The trigger for her, what made her act, was seeing the picture of a little girl on stage.
I saw a photo on main stage of a little girl who had been in the Young Coders workshop.
I realized I had to do something or she would never have the chance to learn and love programming because the ass clowns behind me would make it impossible for her to do so.
I calculated my next steps. I knew there wasn’t a lot of time and the closing session would be wrapping up.
I’m not a tech guy, but I wondered what about the etymology for the word “dongle”. None of this would have happened if pioneer tech gurus weren’t a bunch of huge pervs:
The term dates to at least January 1982, when it appears in MicroComputer Printout:
“The word “dongle” has been appearing in many articles with reference to security systems for computer software.”
The word is most likely a blend of dong and dangle, as it can resemble a penis that hangs off a computer.
A company called Rainbow Technologies, which manufactured dongles, claimed that the term was named for its alleged inventor, a certain Don Gall. This is not true and no such person existed, at least as far as I can tell; the story was simply a fabrication of the marketing department.
Anyway, Richards tweeted that she felt like Joan of Arc, minus the visions. I knew Joan of Arc, I worked with Joan of Arc, Ms. Richards you are…. wait. But, no, Richards is no hero. We don’t even know if Joan of Arc wanted to be Joan of Arc. Ideally, a hero is pulled reluctantly to their heroism, and there’s usually a threat of death or anguish. Not, as with Richards, a threat of a massive Twitter tickle session. Feminist agitators like Richards troll conferences with their outrage antennae fully extended. She states that she was primed because earlier in the day another male attendee made a joke which involved sexual innuendo.
One of Richards’ supporters is a man named Avdi Grimm who makes the claim that the inherent qualities held by men are a microaggression in their own right:
Here are some things that are true about me:
- I’m a white male. (This is empirically a fact)
- I’m charismatic, reasonably eloquent, and have a commanding speaking voice (these I infer from what others have said, and from the fact that I can often influence people by speaking to them)
…
The fact is, I can feel quite secure saying “Hey, not cool!” in most contexts, because I’m confident that because of all those beneficial attributes I listed above, when I say “not cool” the response will be respectful, even deferential.
But what if I didn’t have that expectation? What if I knew from observation of similar situations that the likely outcome of saying “hey, not cool” would be a pile-on of defensive reactions? Reactions ranging from “lighten up, we’re just kidding around” (translation: our intentions are pure, therefore your feelings are invalid), to “don’t get your panties in a bunch”, to outright mockery, even to threats? You don’t have to look very long to see this kind of pile-on in action every time a woman says the equivalent of “not cool!” in a tech forum.
“Check your privilege, bro,” that’s what he’s saying. Anyway, chances are greater that a guy confronting another guy will lead to a confrontation. Would those guys hit Richards right there in front of everyone? Doubt it.
Here are some people discussing dongles for a NetGear segment. How long until the word ‘dongle’ is changed because of its inherent sexism? Before or after the Washington Redskins drop ‘Red’ from their name?
Addendum: A commenter at Richards blog throws the PyCon Code of Conduct back at her by pointing out that the COC says that people who have been asked to cease engaging in harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Richards didn’t give the men that chance. 99% chance that if Richards asked them to stop they would have said “oh, sorry”.
This is current misogyny. Just like the fag love, it should be mocked but these people are taken seriously. “Let’s eavesdrop on peoples private conversations and then out them on twitter!” Women ruin everything.
Women complain about there not being enough women in tech and that men aren’t ‘inclusive’ enough. I wonder if hysterical overreactions like these will promote more ‘inclusiveness’ in the future. Or, more likely, the men won’t let any women near their groups since any obvious joke about the products they’re using will get them fired.
My guess is that, as more and more men are fired from (or quit) their corporate tech jobs due to the increasing hostility to men there due to PC culture, they’ll form smaller start-up companies that will sell their apps to the larger corporations. Or maybe just move to another country that values their skills, and where a woman can’t get them fired on a whim because her feelings were hurt (Asia perhaps?).
Something has changed in just the past year…now, an average Joe who offends an a higher-caste person with a megaphone won’t be ignored, but instead trotted out for a Two Minutes’ Hate to send the message that the Thought Police are everywhere, and don’t care how obscure or harmless you are, buster.
This sort of activity demonstrates the ultimately-totalitarian goals of Leftists using Feminism and Racialism. These ideologies are not compatible with a society that claims freedom of association or freedom of speech.
When it comes to Feminism, the one constant I see in its modern incarnations is that Feminism is largely being used as a tool by socially-adept and high-status women to attack socially-inept and low/moderate-status men.
For example, technology fields as you point out here. Guys who are developing technology are typically not high-status — They earn decent wages and live a comfortable life, but they aren’t living Wall-Street or rock-star existences. Many of them are what you’d consider “nerds” and they spend time on programming or engineering projects in their spare time rather than going out and doing more social activities like sports or clubs.
The other major example of this that I see is in the gaming mass media where games are typically lambasted for not having enough female main characters or for sexualization of female main characters. Again, these are hobbies that appeal to a moderate/lower-status male who is not socially adept.
Fortunately, there is some pushback. The idea that a bunch of poor guys who sit around playing videogames or programming in their spare time embody “Male Privilege” is patently ludicrous. There’s also a pretty reasonable pushback from this segment of the populace since Feminism is entirely non-empirical and this is a more-logical-than-average population subgroup. At the same time, though, the lack of social savvy makes them more prone to bullying of the sort that Feminists and Feminist-media outlets are able of exerting.
I’m glad you allowed articles to be read in their entirety on RSS, Chuck! Now I can actually read while looking busy at work, instead of just clicking MARK ALL AS READ!
Just like with comic book conventions, 95% of the guys that attend these things are probably spineless nerds too afraid to stand up to this insanity.
When predators like lions come up on a pack of gazelle and water buffalo, they don’t go for the strong young ones who might outrun them. They start chasing the old and injured animals.
problem is, that strategy doesn’t work. if a man can get fired over dongle, what do you think will happen with ‘stop being a pussy’? many fewer people would defend something like that even on twitter. i’m afraid the rubicon has been crossed. it won’t stop until there is gender parity regardless of the quality of the inputs (the dongles, if you will). speech will be curtailed; jokes will go unsaid and later, unthought. what you’ll have are a few voices who are free – guys who have ‘fuck you’ money who can say whatever the hell they want.
I’ve heard lewder, more daring jokes during law school lectures. Could someone explain to me the sexism inherent in something network TV edgy like a “dongle” joke? Are we back in the eighties? Are women still alienated by sports metaphors? It’s hard to believe there are people out there who genuinely buy into human resources over-cautiousness but this milquetoast, petit bourgeois slave to propriety is living proof.
Comment moderation is irrelevant anyway. What little discussion occurring on that blog rapidly tapers off into sentimentalist assertions of the validity of her feelings.
GLPiggy, you can probably speak to this as well, but in my experience in the service industry, which is far more co-ed, I’ve seen this kind of banter be met with sincere giggles from the waitresses…all about congruence and in this case the bartender or waiter is “cooler” than the programmer and has better congruence.
Truth is the majority of women, perhaps the vast majority, are thick-skinned enough to either laugh at these jokes or just roll their eyes at them, but because of the outliers like Richards who will lose their shit over stuff like this (and maybe get them fired), all men will (eventually) have to bite their tongues around women if they want to keep their jobs.
Most women will probably dislike how cold and distant their male co-workers are going to become in the future, but they should take it up with women like Richards and their white-knight enablers whose HR policies will make them so.
If you get fired over technical slang, you: (1) dont apologize and (2) sue the hell out of your former employer for wrongful termination(they might just settle for a good amount) and sue the filthy cunt for tort of some kind. A solid lawyer will figure something out.
Always save hard copies of annual performance evaluations (which, duh, better be stellar).
This is a good example of everything that has gone wrong with our tech industries. Once Obama mandates Title IX on our engineering schools the whole thing will start to unravel as women push for more and more comfort rules while contributing less and less to our technical innovations.
Between this idiot and Sheryl Sandberg no profit-seeking organization can survive for long.
I had to write about this today as well. I mean Jesus god, how big is your victim complex that tweeting leaves you a bit shaken? And how exactly were these guys preventing little girls from learning to love programming by making jokes about dongles?
Having some experience in the matter, I can say that the best defense here is to deny everything. It then becomes her word against yours, and no company will fire anyone over that. In fact, I’ll bet that the company in question has put itself in a tight spot.
Companies like this make these types of decisions because they perceive it to be the path of least resistance/least headache. I’m not sure how, but there needs to be a movement to make it the path of greatest resistance – a group that publicly embarrasses a company like this for throwing an employee under the bus. I imagine most of this company’s customers are men like him, and they might want to know this when making buying decisions.
Either that or Anonymous can attack them, I guess.
“…what you’ll have are a few voices who are free – guys who have ‘fuck you’ money who can say whatever the hell they want.”
CR, until the bankers/gov take a haircut on their money to pay for the “debt” of others. Well, blatantly steal it, they’re already doing it backhandedly via ZIRP etc..
Retrenched, I read an article several years ago (wish I could find it again) written by a woman talking about women in the workplace complaining about how hard it was to get men to open up or be interested in a non work relationship aka romance. If I remember right, the upshot was, “its not like it used to be, men just talk about work related subjects now”.
The sad thing is, maybe that little girl LIKED dick jokes. Lots of women do. Now she’ll never be able to laugh at a good, wholesome dick joke at work again, thanks to schoolmarmish women like this one.
Stories like these are surreal to me; my three main working environments and peers as an adult have been mid-level music-biz professionals, newsroom reporters and public-ed teachers and administrators —— none of which are Delicate Lilies when it comes to salacious or controversial repartee…..what Richards did I find unimaginable happening in any of my work milieus.
Still, as ridiculous as this is, my casual claim would be that political correct orthodoxy reached its peak in the late 90s and 2000s, and that there’s been a ever-so-slight scaling back since then. I mean, at the very least, nowadays p.c. extremism and its examples are at least publicly discussed and the subject is a topic of detached criticism on at least some occasions; not so, ten-fifteen years ago.
my casual claim would be that political correct orthodoxy reached its peak in the late 90s and 2000s
In my observation it reached its apogee in the early 1990s. You couldn’t say “girl” in polite comany – the word “woman” took on a sound of fascist authority. Camille Paglia claimed to have received death threats and set her outgoing vm at the college phone to announce that her packages are opened by security staff. Bill n Monica went a long way toward discrediting that strain (from among strains) of PC.
One could say that Sandra Fluke is peak-feminist. She’s not. Her name carries cachet only because today’s late-20s girls don’t remember the PC early 90s. And because conservative society (such that it is) simply said fuck-it and gave up on the culture war.
Peak-feminst, that was Anita Hill.During the Clarence Thoamas hearings. Mornign rock station DJs spoke of her like she’s some Solzhenitsyn at Lubynka.
I agree, we’re past the apex of PC orthodoxy, although it’s far from powerless. It’s still throwing its weight around and in fact the rationales and justifications for considering anything racist/sexist/whateverphobic have become extremely sophisticated to the point where it’s often impossible *NOT* to be called one of them.
(The latter is of course part of the reason why the power has diminished cumulatively, since people basically have woken up to a reality in which expressing any opinion or performing any action can have them branded a hatemonger.)
In defense of Ms. Richards,
I too am a woman who prefers to study and work in a sexless environment. I can appreciate gallows humor and immature humor, but I feel silenced and unwelcome with sex humor in the work place. Guess I”m a prude . Mostly sex humor isn’t funny anyway; it’s just vulgar dumb transgression of boundaries. I maintain a deadpan face when exposed to it. No response. Female workers try this degeneracy too: it’s not just men.
I’ve gone screechy in the workplace, a few times with political opinions, so I’m a sinner too.
That said, Ms. Richards overreacted to immature babble. The perpetrator’s company really overreacted by firing him. One of Ms. Richards blog commentors suggested she contact the company to get his job back. That’d be justice.
Just looked at a series of pictures of her. That’s a vicious Jewish/Black hybrid, sharpening its claws in The Bay Area on every political scratching post it can find. Vagina dentata in extremis.
@hammerhead,
Did you read her post? Some post-hoc rationalization there, but I surmise she just wanted to make a big statement, to voice out for once rather than remaining silence. I don’t think she thought beyond that moment as to the consequences.
Yes, I did. She wanted them to be punished for making inappropriate comments. Maybe not fired, but she wanted something done to them.
Can you not see the simple irony about complaining about feeling silenced by a person who is actually attempting to silence someone?
There is no way those two guys were actually trying to silence anyone. They were just making dumb jokes to amuse themselves during a boring speech. They weren’t trying to silence anybody. She was.
@hammerhead,
agree and agree.
these two probably meant no harm, and were just tired and silly. Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.
jz,
This woman basically admits on Twitter, that she targeted this man because he is a white, straight and male. It’s bigotry, and she deserve to be called out on it. Michael Richards got plenty of criticism when he went on his rant against black people, and apologized profusely, why is this any different?
@Lara,
haven’t read her Twitters. Logically, however, ALL the conferees were white men, she targeted those two for their lewd comments, but shame on her if she’s actually driven by race hate. I presume Michael Richards was the author of the Philly essay: I haven’t followed the particulars of that story enough to comment.
PA is exactly right about Anita Hill being peak feminist. A date invitation and some jokes about black porno nearly submarined a SC nominee. Within a couple years, we would elect and then see feminists defend one of the worst womanizers in the history of politics. Feminism revealed its status as a tentacle of the socialist octopus (female division) in the ’90s. It has been sliding down ever since. The Fluke style vote drive is more about ‘gimmedat’ handouts than actual philosophy. The problem is that in an age of declining living standards and systemic crisis, single women are more concerned about handouts than actual principles.
“Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.”
@PA, Reym:
Upon a bit more thought, I agree with PA: p.c. orthodoxy, in terms of it being a rising and omnipresent cultural obsession, peaked in the early-to-mid 90s, and now that I think about it, measured rebukes and satire of it began as early as the mid-to-late 90s….
Perhaps nowadays you could say that, while it’s zeitgeist profile has waned, p.c.’s force has become somewhat institutionalized, thus allowing it to be simultaneously criticized, even ridiculed, but nonetheless still quite powerful?
That is a good summation Nickrit and SOBL. Feminism is completely discredited as a philosophy but fully established as a gibsmedat. As such, on one hand its assumed that feminism is here to stay. On the other hand, its hard edges are softened somewhat.
bitch feminist enabler: “Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.”
#shitthatneverhappened
ps “vicious”. lol. do you need a fainting couch to hie to? perhaps you’d like a taste of real viciousness for perspective?
@jz
If you think his world is cocooned, then what do you make of the woman who got the guy fired? If she has a hissy fit about guys making dongle jokes, then I’m guessing she hasn’t exactly spent her time up until now working at a limestone quarry or hanging drywall.
If she really has experienced such “harsh sex talk” before, then why is this the first time she felt the need to do anything about it? You’d think she’d consider harmless “dongle” jokes a welcome respite from the vicious sexual harassment she encounters at her regular job.
“you live in a cocooned SWPL world. get out a little.”
Translation – the subgroup of men who actually do say crude things to demean women in the workplace are effectively untouchable due to their place in the victim heirarchy. So, let’s take it out on some innocent techie white guys and call it even.
jz,
You are probably a classy lady and I don’t blame you for not wanting to dirty talk with the guys. However, you can always just walk away. They will start to get the idea that you aren’t into it, and be more respectful around you.
agree with HammerHead and Crank.
I am not familiar with tech workplaces, but suspect Ms. Richards had a short fuse that day, or she was looking to pick a fight. She overreacted.
bitch feminist enabler: “you’ve revealed yourself as a SWPL shut in.”
news to me.
let me explain something to you schoolmarm cunt before you pass out from the vapors. to describe a mild sex joke or sexual banter that offends your matronly neo-puritan nth wave feminist sensibility as “vicious” is to bastardize the word so completely that all perspective is lost. you want vicious? how about a group of “youths” descending on you and cracking your face, until you need a metal plate inserted? how about an underling framing you for infidelity in hopes of your ouster and replacement? how about pushing a retard down a flight of stairs and then laughing as he tumbles spastically the whole way?
get the picture?
now if you can’t handle some men getting “verbally aggressive” aka acting like normal men with a working pair, perhaps you don’t belong in the world of men. you might want to consider a move to something more to your liking, like babysitting nursery school tots or fluffing pillows for hotel guests.
ps it would be remiss of me to fail to remind you that women have their own version of “hostile environment” male sex jokes. it’s called backstabbing bitchery. maybe if you got out a little more, you’d realize that women are quite skilled in their own way in the cruel arts of subterfuge, social ostracism and passive-aggressive personal destruction. but of course you don’t hear men whining like cranky little babies about women’s special talents for “viciousness” because… well, men are just the stronger sex in every way. I mean, how else to interpret what we all see with our lying eyes in the real world?
@CH,
Let’s spot the irony: you calls me the c*** word to convince me that nasty vicious men don’t use harsh sex talk to silence women. It’s your go-to tool to shut me up.
You want to quibble over the definition of vicious. Useful word: it worked: you got my message.
So, you know nothing of vicious men in the workplace, (“shitthatneverhappened”) but now want to invoke your street cred . Mr. Shut-In has read the newspaper accounts of face-smashing thugs who push retards for a laugh. No biggie. I’ve dealt with these souls face-to-face. I know how they smell, talk, and spit. Interestingly, I can’t ever remember any thugs calling me the c*** word .
Women can be vicious too? really? they create hostility? I never commented otherwise, but thanks for the reminder.
As a side note, has anyone besides me noticed that all this coincides with this huge upswing in reality shows on the Discovery Channel about hardcore blue-collar guys, like Ice Road Truckers and Duck Dynasty and that one about the different logging families? When they interview those guys, they have to bleep out the word “fuck” every three seconds or so. I can imagine that the atmosphere at Discovery Channel headquarters is completely the opposite.
Do you think it’s just that, as men feel ever more constrained about what they can actually say at work, environments like the ones in these shows get to be their fantasy? Or is it just that tough-as-nails guys like that are just genuinely likable, and all the speech code bullshit is just sort of a scam?
bitch feminist enabler: “Let’s spot the irony: you calls me the c*** word to convince me that nasty vicious men don’t use harsh sex talk to silence women. It’s your go-to tool to shut me up.”
clearly it’s not working. time to amp up the “viciousness”.
“You want to quibble over the definition of vicious. Useful word: it worked: you got my message.”
no. I got your hyperbole.
“So, you know nothing of vicious men in the workplace,”
oh but i do. how do you think i got this way?
“(“shitthatneverhappened”) but now want to invoke your street cred”
for purposes of ridiculing your venality. cause and effect, sweet baby toots. maybe the logic is too much of a strain for your womanly head ham?
“Mr. Shut-In has read the newspaper accounts of face-smashing thugs who push retards for a laugh.”
no. i’ve seen it live and in technicolor.
“No biggie. I’ve dealt with these souls face-to-face. I know how they smell, talk, and spit.”
do you know how they hit?
“Interestingly, I can’t ever remember any thugs calling me the c*** word .”
such a slippery eel you are. as if the various subcultures of this great land don’t have their own special soul-shivving terms of endearment.
“Women can be vicious too? really? they create hostility? I never commented otherwise, but thanks for the reminder.”
the point, since it seems to have escaped you, is that you never hear of these rapidly viral stories of men bitching and moaning about woman’s hostility. only women can’t stand the heat.
“and CH, you too are overreacting. Calm yourself.”
Tabb,
Truthfully, there are plenty of black women who would not have made an issue out of this. They would have ignored two nerdy white guys making lame sex jokes.
I was about to say something about PC, but was distracted by the rhetorical oddity of this troll, the “sexless” “prude” jz who prefers to work in a sterile environment but is so lavish with her face-jabbing charges of “SWPL!” “SWPL!” (yes, that is very au courant for an Aspie!) against, ahem, CH. Baby, I don’t think you get a “next time” . . . .
–About PC. Yes, I had my dog-earred “Sex, Art, and American Culture” for an intellectual concealed-carry in those days, but where are we now? Then it was Campus Speech Codes, today it’s “Hate Crimes” legislation. PC is institutionalized, and certainly that makes it more dangerous. Feminism, with all its attendant grievance-mongering causes,may have stained itself with hypocrisy, but what beachheads has it abandoned?
It was her word against his. He should have never admitted to saying it. He should have said someone else made the comment and she was mistaken.
NEVER admit to an accusation, ever. Had he not ‘fessed up, his employer couldn’t have justified a firing. Since feminists fight unfairly, you need to fight back unfairly.
Also, cops will trick people into admitted to crimes they didn’t commit but lying. NEVER EVER admit to anything.
Had he called in a lawyer immediately, none of this would have gone down.
nikcrit,
Only because this woman tweeted comments about white, male privilege did I think she may have a racial axe to grind. It just seems odd that a woman would be intently listening to the conversation of two nerdy guys.
You seem like a semi-reasonable person, so help me understand this comment:
“I feel silenced and unwelcome with sex humor in the work place”
How precisely does sex humor make one feel “silenced” or “unwelcome”? If someone told me to “shut up”, I might feel “silenced”. If someone told me to “fuck off”, I would feel “unwelcome”. But I cannot imagine how any sort of joke would ever have this effect unless it was explicitly mocking someone or some group. (I assume that wasn’t the case with the “sex humor” you describe, otherwise you would have said so, presumably. And it certainly wasn’t the case with the dongle jokes.)
If someone tells a joke I don’t care for (whatever the reason), I simply disregard it, unless it’s personally insulting. Doesn’t it speak to some defect of character that you “feel silenced” when someone says something you find unpleasant?
If anyone is tempted to read Adria Richards’ blog, fair warning that it’s at a stomach-turning level of self-righteousness. Obviously Adria Richards is a racist who wanted to hurt these two white guys. You may wonder why I mentioned her name twice, it’s because I want this page to be the 1st Google hit when any prospective employer checks her out.
Either what Richards did is illegal, in which case she should be prosecuted, or it’s not. If not, she did not fire the two men, their employers did. Presumably the employers did nothing illegal either. If they did, they should be prosecuted. As far as I know, if you’re employed at will in the US, your employer can fire you for any reason or no reason (as long as they’re not doing it because you fall into a protected class). People are fired every day for no good reason, and no one gives a flying fuck, as far as I can tell. If anybody in this story deserves disapproval, it’s the employers.
This is current misogyny. Just like the fag love, it should be mocked but these people are taken seriously. “Let’s eavesdrop on peoples private conversations and then out them on twitter!” Women ruin everything.
One wonders how she survived junior high school….
Women complain about there not being enough women in tech and that men aren’t ‘inclusive’ enough. I wonder if hysterical overreactions like these will promote more ‘inclusiveness’ in the future. Or, more likely, the men won’t let any women near their groups since any obvious joke about the products they’re using will get them fired.
My guess is that, as more and more men are fired from (or quit) their corporate tech jobs due to the increasing hostility to men there due to PC culture, they’ll form smaller start-up companies that will sell their apps to the larger corporations. Or maybe just move to another country that values their skills, and where a woman can’t get them fired on a whim because her feelings were hurt (Asia perhaps?).
The vicious witch moderates comments. How brave. How inclusive.
Something has changed in just the past year…now, an average Joe who offends an a higher-caste person with a megaphone won’t be ignored, but instead trotted out for a Two Minutes’ Hate to send the message that the Thought Police are everywhere, and don’t care how obscure or harmless you are, buster.
See below for a couple more recent examples of this:
http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2012/09/26/kroger-apologizes-to-food-stamp-customer/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57524782/tv-anchor-responds-to-bullys-weight-critique-on-air/
This sort of activity demonstrates the ultimately-totalitarian goals of Leftists using Feminism and Racialism. These ideologies are not compatible with a society that claims freedom of association or freedom of speech.
When it comes to Feminism, the one constant I see in its modern incarnations is that Feminism is largely being used as a tool by socially-adept and high-status women to attack socially-inept and low/moderate-status men.
For example, technology fields as you point out here. Guys who are developing technology are typically not high-status — They earn decent wages and live a comfortable life, but they aren’t living Wall-Street or rock-star existences. Many of them are what you’d consider “nerds” and they spend time on programming or engineering projects in their spare time rather than going out and doing more social activities like sports or clubs.
The other major example of this that I see is in the gaming mass media where games are typically lambasted for not having enough female main characters or for sexualization of female main characters. Again, these are hobbies that appeal to a moderate/lower-status male who is not socially adept.
Fortunately, there is some pushback. The idea that a bunch of poor guys who sit around playing videogames or programming in their spare time embody “Male Privilege” is patently ludicrous. There’s also a pretty reasonable pushback from this segment of the populace since Feminism is entirely non-empirical and this is a more-logical-than-average population subgroup. At the same time, though, the lack of social savvy makes them more prone to bullying of the sort that Feminists and Feminist-media outlets are able of exerting.
We can all stop this nonsense if we ignore the Mz. Biz women and reply to men like Avdi with four simple words: “Stop being a pussy.”
I’m glad you allowed articles to be read in their entirety on RSS, Chuck! Now I can actually read while looking busy at work, instead of just clicking MARK ALL AS READ!
Just like with comic book conventions, 95% of the guys that attend these things are probably spineless nerds too afraid to stand up to this insanity.
When predators like lions come up on a pack of gazelle and water buffalo, they don’t go for the strong young ones who might outrun them. They start chasing the old and injured animals.
Same principle here.
phillyastro:
problem is, that strategy doesn’t work. if a man can get fired over dongle, what do you think will happen with ‘stop being a pussy’? many fewer people would defend something like that even on twitter. i’m afraid the rubicon has been crossed. it won’t stop until there is gender parity regardless of the quality of the inputs (the dongles, if you will). speech will be curtailed; jokes will go unsaid and later, unthought. what you’ll have are a few voices who are free – guys who have ‘fuck you’ money who can say whatever the hell they want.
I’ve heard lewder, more daring jokes during law school lectures. Could someone explain to me the sexism inherent in something network TV edgy like a “dongle” joke? Are we back in the eighties? Are women still alienated by sports metaphors? It’s hard to believe there are people out there who genuinely buy into human resources over-cautiousness but this milquetoast, petit bourgeois slave to propriety is living proof.
Comment moderation is irrelevant anyway. What little discussion occurring on that blog rapidly tapers off into sentimentalist assertions of the validity of her feelings.
GLPiggy, you can probably speak to this as well, but in my experience in the service industry, which is far more co-ed, I’ve seen this kind of banter be met with sincere giggles from the waitresses…all about congruence and in this case the bartender or waiter is “cooler” than the programmer and has better congruence.
Also, which was the company that fired the man? I was also sorry to read that he did the “white man grovel” when he was fingered. It never helps.
This looks like a case of someone crying discrimination because they were incompetent and seeking to hide it at a white male’s expense.
@ Fiddlesticks
Truth is the majority of women, perhaps the vast majority, are thick-skinned enough to either laugh at these jokes or just roll their eyes at them, but because of the outliers like Richards who will lose their shit over stuff like this (and maybe get them fired), all men will (eventually) have to bite their tongues around women if they want to keep their jobs.
Most women will probably dislike how cold and distant their male co-workers are going to become in the future, but they should take it up with women like Richards and their white-knight enablers whose HR policies will make them so.
If you get fired over technical slang, you: (1) dont apologize and (2) sue the hell out of your former employer for wrongful termination(they might just settle for a good amount) and sue the filthy cunt for tort of some kind. A solid lawyer will figure something out.
Always save hard copies of annual performance evaluations (which, duh, better be stellar).
This is a good example of everything that has gone wrong with our tech industries. Once Obama mandates Title IX on our engineering schools the whole thing will start to unravel as women push for more and more comfort rules while contributing less and less to our technical innovations.
Between this idiot and Sheryl Sandberg no profit-seeking organization can survive for long.
Check out this woman’s picture. There may have been a racial component to this, also.
I had to write about this today as well. I mean Jesus god, how big is your victim complex that tweeting leaves you a bit shaken? And how exactly were these guys preventing little girls from learning to love programming by making jokes about dongles?
Having some experience in the matter, I can say that the best defense here is to deny everything. It then becomes her word against yours, and no company will fire anyone over that. In fact, I’ll bet that the company in question has put itself in a tight spot.
Micro aggression wrong. Actual aggression by this twit. Ok. It’d be great if some nerd hacked her and released her private information.
What an over-entitled, nasty woman.
A man casually referred to what happen to this fired man as a “lynching”. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well.
Companies like this make these types of decisions because they perceive it to be the path of least resistance/least headache. I’m not sure how, but there needs to be a movement to make it the path of greatest resistance – a group that publicly embarrasses a company like this for throwing an employee under the bus. I imagine most of this company’s customers are men like him, and they might want to know this when making buying decisions.
Either that or Anonymous can attack them, I guess.
She has done a good job of giving prospective employers a heads-up on her militancy.
Hire a woman, hire a lawsuit.
“…what you’ll have are a few voices who are free – guys who have ‘fuck you’ money who can say whatever the hell they want.”
CR, until the bankers/gov take a haircut on their money to pay for the “debt” of others. Well, blatantly steal it, they’re already doing it backhandedly via ZIRP etc..
Retrenched, I read an article several years ago (wish I could find it again) written by a woman talking about women in the workplace complaining about how hard it was to get men to open up or be interested in a non work relationship aka romance. If I remember right, the upshot was, “its not like it used to be, men just talk about work related subjects now”.
The sad thing is, maybe that little girl LIKED dick jokes. Lots of women do. Now she’ll never be able to laugh at a good, wholesome dick joke at work again, thanks to schoolmarmish women like this one.
Stories like these are surreal to me; my three main working environments and peers as an adult have been mid-level music-biz professionals, newsroom reporters and public-ed teachers and administrators —— none of which are Delicate Lilies when it comes to salacious or controversial repartee…..what Richards did I find unimaginable happening in any of my work milieus.
Still, as ridiculous as this is, my casual claim would be that political correct orthodoxy reached its peak in the late 90s and 2000s, and that there’s been a ever-so-slight scaling back since then. I mean, at the very least, nowadays p.c. extremism and its examples are at least publicly discussed and the subject is a topic of detached criticism on at least some occasions; not so, ten-fifteen years ago.
my casual claim would be that political correct orthodoxy reached its peak in the late 90s and 2000s
In my observation it reached its apogee in the early 1990s. You couldn’t say “girl” in polite comany – the word “woman” took on a sound of fascist authority. Camille Paglia claimed to have received death threats and set her outgoing vm at the college phone to announce that her packages are opened by security staff. Bill n Monica went a long way toward discrediting that strain (from among strains) of PC.
One could say that Sandra Fluke is peak-feminist. She’s not. Her name carries cachet only because today’s late-20s girls don’t remember the PC early 90s. And because conservative society (such that it is) simply said fuck-it and gave up on the culture war.
Peak-feminst, that was Anita Hill.During the Clarence Thoamas hearings. Mornign rock station DJs spoke of her like she’s some Solzhenitsyn at Lubynka.
The point of the knife that killed that strain of feminism: Paula Jones. Or rather, the feminists’ sacrifice of Paula Jones.
@Nikcrit:
I agree, we’re past the apex of PC orthodoxy, although it’s far from powerless. It’s still throwing its weight around and in fact the rationales and justifications for considering anything racist/sexist/whateverphobic have become extremely sophisticated to the point where it’s often impossible *NOT* to be called one of them.
(The latter is of course part of the reason why the power has diminished cumulatively, since people basically have woken up to a reality in which expressing any opinion or performing any action can have them branded a hatemonger.)
Proper response: “Shove off, skirt.”
In defense of Ms. Richards,
I too am a woman who prefers to study and work in a sexless environment. I can appreciate gallows humor and immature humor, but I feel silenced and unwelcome with sex humor in the work place. Guess I”m a prude . Mostly sex humor isn’t funny anyway; it’s just vulgar dumb transgression of boundaries. I maintain a deadpan face when exposed to it. No response. Female workers try this degeneracy too: it’s not just men.
I’ve gone screechy in the workplace, a few times with political opinions, so I’m a sinner too.
That said, Ms. Richards overreacted to immature babble. The perpetrator’s company really overreacted by firing him. One of Ms. Richards blog commentors suggested she contact the company to get his job back. That’d be justice.
Jz: You aren’t a prude. Prudes can be cute. You’re a harridan. They never are.
In defense of Ms. Richards
There is no defense.
@futuradellnazione,
that’s all you got? I was hoping for a clever response.
Jz:
I’m sure that’s not all you hope for. Good luck, sugar.
“I feel silenced and unwelcome with sex humor in the work place.”
I wonder if those two guys felt silenced when she tried to silence them, or felt unwelcome when she tried to get them fired.
Having a hard time getting to her site. DdOS attack? God I hope so.
@hammerhead,
I read her post; she wasn’t trying to get them fired. The perps’ employer made that decision.
What a heartless, self-centered, humorless bitch.
@jz
OK, then what was she trying to do? Make them feel welcome?
Obviously it was the “perps’” employer who made that decision. Who else could have? The question is, what did she think was going to happen?
Just looked at a series of pictures of her. That’s a vicious Jewish/Black hybrid, sharpening its claws in The Bay Area on every political scratching post it can find. Vagina dentata in extremis.
@hammerhead,
Did you read her post? Some post-hoc rationalization there, but I surmise she just wanted to make a big statement, to voice out for once rather than remaining silence. I don’t think she thought beyond that moment as to the consequences.
@jz
Yes, I did. She wanted them to be punished for making inappropriate comments. Maybe not fired, but she wanted something done to them.
Can you not see the simple irony about complaining about feeling silenced by a person who is actually attempting to silence someone?
There is no way those two guys were actually trying to silence anyone. They were just making dumb jokes to amuse themselves during a boring speech. They weren’t trying to silence anybody. She was.
@hammerhead,
agree and agree.
these two probably meant no harm, and were just tired and silly. Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.
Dongle-joke-guy: “She gave me no warning, she smiled while she snapped the pic and sealed my fate.”
Sounds like she was really traumatized by the whole ordeal, huh… poor thing. Can’t blame her for wanting to make an example of these guys…
Incidentally, if men applied this same standard to women and it was enforced the same way… how many women would still have jobs?
jz,
This woman basically admits on Twitter, that she targeted this man because he is a white, straight and male. It’s bigotry, and she deserve to be called out on it. Michael Richards got plenty of criticism when he went on his rant against black people, and apologized profusely, why is this any different?
Don Imus also apologized many times. This woman needs to swallow her pride and admit she was wrong.
@Lara,
haven’t read her Twitters. Logically, however, ALL the conferees were white men, she targeted those two for their lewd comments, but shame on her if she’s actually driven by race hate. I presume Michael Richards was the author of the Philly essay: I haven’t followed the particulars of that story enough to comment.
Lara: Don’t hold your breath. It’s hard to be wrong and self-righteous at once…
PA is exactly right about Anita Hill being peak feminist. A date invitation and some jokes about black porno nearly submarined a SC nominee. Within a couple years, we would elect and then see feminists defend one of the worst womanizers in the history of politics. Feminism revealed its status as a tentacle of the socialist octopus (female division) in the ’90s. It has been sliding down ever since. The Fluke style vote drive is more about ‘gimmedat’ handouts than actual philosophy. The problem is that in an age of declining living standards and systemic crisis, single women are more concerned about handouts than actual principles.
“Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.”
Uh huh.
@PA, Reym:
Upon a bit more thought, I agree with PA: p.c. orthodoxy, in terms of it being a rising and omnipresent cultural obsession, peaked in the early-to-mid 90s, and now that I think about it, measured rebukes and satire of it began as early as the mid-to-late 90s….
Perhaps nowadays you could say that, while it’s zeitgeist profile has waned, p.c.’s force has become somewhat institutionalized, thus allowing it to be simultaneously criticized, even ridiculed, but nonetheless still quite powerful?
That is a good summation Nickrit and SOBL. Feminism is completely discredited as a philosophy but fully established as a gibsmedat. As such, on one hand its assumed that feminism is here to stay. On the other hand, its hard edges are softened somewhat.
“in terms of it being a rising and omnipresent cultural obsession, [PC] peaked in the early-to-mid 90s,”
I don’t remember men getting promptly fired for telling the equivalent of a dongle joke back in the 90s.
bitch feminist enabler: “Ms. Richards likely has encountered the more vicious type of men in the workplace who use harsh sex talk as a form of stating to women, “shut up”, or “get out of here”. I’ve encountered those types.”
#shitthatneverhappened
ps “vicious”. lol. do you need a fainting couch to hie to? perhaps you’d like a taste of real viciousness for perspective?
@CH,
you live in a cocooned SWPL world. get out a little.
bitch feminist enabler: “you live in a cocooned SWPL world. get out a little.”
you have no idea.
@jz
If you think his world is cocooned, then what do you make of the woman who got the guy fired? If she has a hissy fit about guys making dongle jokes, then I’m guessing she hasn’t exactly spent her time up until now working at a limestone quarry or hanging drywall.
If she really has experienced such “harsh sex talk” before, then why is this the first time she felt the need to do anything about it? You’d think she’d consider harmless “dongle” jokes a welcome respite from the vicious sexual harassment she encounters at her regular job.
“you live in a cocooned SWPL world. get out a little.”
Translation – the subgroup of men who actually do say crude things to demean women in the workplace are effectively untouchable due to their place in the victim heirarchy. So, let’s take it out on some innocent techie white guys and call it even.
@CH,
you’ve revealed yourself as a SWPL shut in.
J(iz)z is the one who needs to get out. Of here. Back to fantasyland, Pitbush.
jz,
You are probably a classy lady and I don’t blame you for not wanting to dirty talk with the guys. However, you can always just walk away. They will start to get the idea that you aren’t into it, and be more respectful around you.
agree with HammerHead and Crank.
I am not familiar with tech workplaces, but suspect Ms. Richards had a short fuse that day, or she was looking to pick a fight. She overreacted.
@Lara, those days have long passed for me, but I liked your advice. I’m responsible for the ambiance now, so it’s hospitable.
If she was looking for a fight and got an innocent father of three fired from his job. You are a vile apologist for trash.
This also looks like a big publicity stunt. She was a nobody a few days ago, now she’s the talk of the Manosphere.
Tyrone: her cuntery got a person fired. Great stunt.
She probably lacks any type of empathy or compassion for white men.
bitch feminist enabler: “you’ve revealed yourself as a SWPL shut in.”
news to me.
let me explain something to you schoolmarm cunt before you pass out from the vapors. to describe a mild sex joke or sexual banter that offends your matronly neo-puritan nth wave feminist sensibility as “vicious” is to bastardize the word so completely that all perspective is lost. you want vicious? how about a group of “youths” descending on you and cracking your face, until you need a metal plate inserted? how about an underling framing you for infidelity in hopes of your ouster and replacement? how about pushing a retard down a flight of stairs and then laughing as he tumbles spastically the whole way?
get the picture?
now if you can’t handle some men getting “verbally aggressive” aka acting like normal men with a working pair, perhaps you don’t belong in the world of men. you might want to consider a move to something more to your liking, like babysitting nursery school tots or fluffing pillows for hotel guests.
ps it would be remiss of me to fail to remind you that women have their own version of “hostile environment” male sex jokes. it’s called backstabbing bitchery. maybe if you got out a little more, you’d realize that women are quite skilled in their own way in the cruel arts of subterfuge, social ostracism and passive-aggressive personal destruction. but of course you don’t hear men whining like cranky little babies about women’s special talents for “viciousness” because… well, men are just the stronger sex in every way. I mean, how else to interpret what we all see with our lying eyes in the real world?
the mood is much too somber here, we need some good, clean humor…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxkx82_harlem-shake-nude-version_sexy#.UUpq3hlkXss
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“Check out this woman’s picture. There may have been a racial component to this, also.”
Whiny, hypersensitive, vengeful pussies come in all colors, Lara. Try again.
@CH,
Let’s spot the irony: you calls me the c*** word to convince me that nasty vicious men don’t use harsh sex talk to silence women. It’s your go-to tool to shut me up.
You want to quibble over the definition of vicious. Useful word: it worked: you got my message.
So, you know nothing of vicious men in the workplace, (“shitthatneverhappened”) but now want to invoke your street cred . Mr. Shut-In has read the newspaper accounts of face-smashing thugs who push retards for a laugh. No biggie. I’ve dealt with these souls face-to-face. I know how they smell, talk, and spit. Interestingly, I can’t ever remember any thugs calling me the c*** word .
Women can be vicious too? really? they create hostility? I never commented otherwise, but thanks for the reminder.
and CH, you too are overreacting. Calm yourself.
Tabb,
Why would she be vengeful?
“Why would she be vengeful?”
If part black, she’s gonna stick it to whitey. Then there are plenty of personal reasons.
As a side note, has anyone besides me noticed that all this coincides with this huge upswing in reality shows on the Discovery Channel about hardcore blue-collar guys, like Ice Road Truckers and Duck Dynasty and that one about the different logging families? When they interview those guys, they have to bleep out the word “fuck” every three seconds or so. I can imagine that the atmosphere at Discovery Channel headquarters is completely the opposite.
Do you think it’s just that, as men feel ever more constrained about what they can actually say at work, environments like the ones in these shows get to be their fantasy? Or is it just that tough-as-nails guys like that are just genuinely likable, and all the speech code bullshit is just sort of a scam?
bitch feminist enabler: “Let’s spot the irony: you calls me the c*** word to convince me that nasty vicious men don’t use harsh sex talk to silence women. It’s your go-to tool to shut me up.”
clearly it’s not working. time to amp up the “viciousness”.
“You want to quibble over the definition of vicious. Useful word: it worked: you got my message.”
no. I got your hyperbole.
“So, you know nothing of vicious men in the workplace,”
oh but i do. how do you think i got this way?
“(“shitthatneverhappened”) but now want to invoke your street cred”
for purposes of ridiculing your venality. cause and effect, sweet baby toots. maybe the logic is too much of a strain for your womanly head ham?
“Mr. Shut-In has read the newspaper accounts of face-smashing thugs who push retards for a laugh.”
no. i’ve seen it live and in technicolor.
“No biggie. I’ve dealt with these souls face-to-face. I know how they smell, talk, and spit.”
do you know how they hit?
“Interestingly, I can’t ever remember any thugs calling me the c*** word .”
such a slippery eel you are. as if the various subcultures of this great land don’t have their own special soul-shivving terms of endearment.
“Women can be vicious too? really? they create hostility? I never commented otherwise, but thanks for the reminder.”
the point, since it seems to have escaped you, is that you never hear of these rapidly viral stories of men bitching and moaning about woman’s hostility. only women can’t stand the heat.
“and CH, you too are overreacting. Calm yourself.”
what fun would that be?
Tabb,
Truthfully, there are plenty of black women who would not have made an issue out of this. They would have ignored two nerdy white guys making lame sex jokes.
@CH,
you’re no fun when you’re calm. Until next time.
Tabb, et. al (or at least many of yous),
“Hints followed by guesses, followed by proud convictions…..”
I was about to say something about PC, but was distracted by the rhetorical oddity of this troll, the “sexless” “prude” jz who prefers to work in a sterile environment but is so lavish with her face-jabbing charges of “SWPL!” “SWPL!” (yes, that is very au courant for an Aspie!) against, ahem, CH. Baby, I don’t think you get a “next time” . . . .
–About PC. Yes, I had my dog-earred “Sex, Art, and American Culture” for an intellectual concealed-carry in those days, but where are we now? Then it was Campus Speech Codes, today it’s “Hate Crimes” legislation. PC is institutionalized, and certainly that makes it more dangerous. Feminism, with all its attendant grievance-mongering causes,may have stained itself with hypocrisy, but what beachheads has it abandoned?
No hints or guesses. You can read her twitter. She’s down for the Race War.
She also makes public dick jokes on twitter while at this same conference.
It was her word against his. He should have never admitted to saying it. He should have said someone else made the comment and she was mistaken.
NEVER admit to an accusation, ever. Had he not ‘fessed up, his employer couldn’t have justified a firing. Since feminists fight unfairly, you need to fight back unfairly.
Also, cops will trick people into admitted to crimes they didn’t commit but lying. NEVER EVER admit to anything.
Had he called in a lawyer immediately, none of this would have gone down.
she felt like Joan of Arc, minus the visions
is that yours ?
We don’t even know if Joan of Arc wanted to be Joan of Arc.
Is this statement rhetorical – Who wants to be burned on a stake ?
Kiddingz laughz hahaz
nikcrit,
Only because this woman tweeted comments about white, male privilege did I think she may have a racial axe to grind. It just seems odd that a woman would be intently listening to the conversation of two nerdy guys.
always late to the party
thanks Lara for not letting me close this thread
and CH yup you too
If only the offenders had been hot black nerd thugs, she could have dropped it like it’s hot…
SendGrid just fired her. OMGDTFBBQ!
http://mashable.com/2013/03/21/sendgrid-fires-adria-richards/
@jz
You seem like a semi-reasonable person, so help me understand this comment:
“I feel silenced and unwelcome with sex humor in the work place”
How precisely does sex humor make one feel “silenced” or “unwelcome”? If someone told me to “shut up”, I might feel “silenced”. If someone told me to “fuck off”, I would feel “unwelcome”. But I cannot imagine how any sort of joke would ever have this effect unless it was explicitly mocking someone or some group. (I assume that wasn’t the case with the “sex humor” you describe, otherwise you would have said so, presumably. And it certainly wasn’t the case with the dongle jokes.)
If someone tells a joke I don’t care for (whatever the reason), I simply disregard it, unless it’s personally insulting. Doesn’t it speak to some defect of character that you “feel silenced” when someone says something you find unpleasant?
If anyone is tempted to read Adria Richards’ blog, fair warning that it’s at a stomach-turning level of self-righteousness. Obviously Adria Richards is a racist who wanted to hurt these two white guys. You may wonder why I mentioned her name twice, it’s because I want this page to be the 1st Google hit when any prospective employer checks her out.
@td,
, I’ll acknowledge a semi-character defect.
“you seem semi-reasonable”
for a semi-insult,
Either what Richards did is illegal, in which case she should be prosecuted, or it’s not. If not, she did not fire the two men, their employers did. Presumably the employers did nothing illegal either. If they did, they should be prosecuted. As far as I know, if you’re employed at will in the US, your employer can fire you for any reason or no reason (as long as they’re not doing it because you fall into a protected class). People are fired every day for no good reason, and no one gives a flying fuck, as far as I can tell. If anybody in this story deserves disapproval, it’s the employers.
She’s a passive aggressive, vindictive bully. She compares herself to Joan of Arc. Ha.
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Reblogged this on elevatorgate and commented:
If you haven’t noticed, large industry conferences are the new feminist battlefield.
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