Re: [Ghm-discuss] The posh talk does not complain with the policy

[Jim Blandy]

Satire *should* be offensive to its target, if it's to have any bite at all.

That said, I think explicitly stated anti-harassment policies are a very positive thing. The harrassment of women at tech conferences is a serious problem, and the FLOSS world is especially bad.

José, do you know any hacker women whom you respect, and who attend tech conferences and gatherings like the GHM?

If so, you should consider discussing this with them, and asking for their take on the matter.

The simple fact that women and men are usually easily distinguished visually means that the people around them can treat them so differently that a woman and a man can attend the same event and come away with completely different experiences of it. The consequence is that even something as basic as "common sense", since it is derived from one's everyday experience, can diverge between men and women.

The only way around this is to find a woman you respect and ask her about it.

On Aug 12, 2014 8:55 AM, "John Darrington" <address@hidden> wrote:

On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 03:40:41PM +0200, Ludovic Court??s wrote:

     I can sympathize with the rejection of institutionalized political
     correctness that (I think) Jos?????s message is about.  After all, the GHM
     audience is small and should be able to address problems through
     discussion, without resorting to a lawyer-jargon policy.

It is not so small.  If everyone who registered turns up we will have over 100 people.
I think this is a record for GHM.  There could be many reasons for such a great response.
One possible reason, is that people decided to come after they saw we had this "policy".

I didn't write the text, but I think it is targeted not at the core hackers, who like
somebody said, know that we don't suffer from the problem to which it alludes.  Instead,
it is for the benefit of people who have never before attended, in case such a problem is
endemic.   There have certainly been problems like it at some of the "open source" conferences.


     Yet, as Neal very well explained, the free software movement should be
     about inclusion.  When someone talks in public, they should seek to be
     welcoming to everyone in the audience.  Inserting ???explicit sexual
     language or imagery??? or ???comments related to gender, sexual orientation,
     disability??? etc. in a technical talk may amuse some, and exclude others.


I agree.  I didn't see that Jose said he intended to insert any of those things.


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