There is no hostility against women in general, there's hostility against her though.
There is a great deal of hostility in general. I've run tech events, and participated in them for 15 years, in four countries.
A great deal of hostility.
Notifying the admins in private, or asking the jokers to be quiet would've been responding to the status quo.
It's still responding. Her methods got her fired. But she responded to a big problem. I won't lecture anybody on how they should personally respond to a widespread problem.
Is there a very serious problem here? I'm not sure and I certainly don't think tech events nowadays are particularly hostile? There's an imbalance of genders but that's to do with culture, education etc and will take time to swing around.
There is a very serious problem here. They are exceedingly hostile and nothing is changing. All this apparently overwhelming feminist activity is a drop in the ocean of misogyny and hostility I've seen over two decades in four countries at at least 50 tech and games events.
...
Every time a woman speaks up in tech or games about sexism, they are threatened with rape and abused, diminished and bashed by idiots. Some will argue that's normal and part of the internet culture we have. Some have argued that in this thread. I don't accept it is normal but I accept it is common. That's not the hostility I have a problem with.
The hostility I have a problem with is the everyday diminishing hostility of men who observe, witness or hear about sexism and put the onus on the woman to respond in a correct way. It is that hostility which makes games and tech the cultural backwater it is, and it is getting worse. We are becoming more like the comics industry, and the car industry, and less like an art or entertainment industry. I'm old and I've seen a lot and I'm telling everybody under 25 here that there is a serious slide going on, and sexism is a big part of the rotten core of it. We're always instructing women on the proper way to interpret the insults of other men towards them.
I don't want to hear what Adria should have done. It's all just an image. It doesn't matter. I don't care about her or the men behind her. I care about the communities and events I take part in. And they're poorer. They're poorer every day.
John Koetsier at VB said this:
What does this mean for women in the future who try to take a stand (whether right or not)? What do you do now if you are a woman in technology and you feel harassed or abused and want to shine a light on it, but now see this prominent woman totally abandoned by her company?
Ill tell you what you do, unless youre a saint or a hero. You shut up. You put your head down. You grin and bear it, because its a mans world. And you leave, eventually, for a better place.
And were all poorer as a result.
Read more at
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/22/adria-richards-im-staying-safe/#elOgGvFbbpqFkfBy.99
So many here blame Adria for the dude's firing. Not his company. That actually fired him.
I've been running events and giving my heart and soul to tech and games cultures since I was a teenager. I've tried to add to my communities where I can. I've never felt more alienated than I have these last few weeks - and it's all people's reactions to Anita S's video release and now this. Part of it is on NeoGAF and dumb comment sections, but some of it is in places where writing is supposed to be more considered. Some of it is my friends. I've been told to relax, that I'm a politically correct thug, that I shouldn't care about women in tech because 'its just education and not a culture problem'.
Right now I don't feel like pouring my heart and soul and wallet into communities and cultures that exclude half of humanity. I don't want to make places that are hostile. I want to make places that fight the hostility outside. But with so many men willing to put bad faith in women at the moment, I don't feel like that's possible for me anymore.