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This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

ariannasimpson.com

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Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#301

Post by droidist2 »

ossreality wrote: post #44
rfnslyr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how far removed real problems are from our society. "The intimidation, the mental abuse aspect of it is enough." versus Collecting wood in a forest 40km away so you can stoke a fire and your family can eat. Tell the guy to get his hands off you, grab a seat, introduce yourself. Everyone needs an emotional baby sitter and therapist nowadays.

As I'm reading, all I can think "Are you even remotely serious? We now can't have a discussion about gender without rfnslyr derailing the conversation, this time because he wants to harken back to early pioneer days?" Your trollish derailment of gender threads on HN is rather telling. Or do you have any point related to how this woman was groped without her consent, repeatedly?

Right, this is like responding "first world problems" to anything and everything. Great, so basically anything except food and shelter is meaningless. What would you like to discuss now?

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#302

Post by hosh »

hosh wrote: post #230
hosh wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I know there are lots of forks of Bitcoin. I'm talking about forking the whole economy though, which requires being able to at least trade for basic survival needs. From an existential point of view, there is no such thing as fairness and yet, people still create whatever notions of fairness. Fairness tends to be deeply rooted into emotional makeup of a person. Many conflicts come about because the parties invo…

@throwawaycoder I see. You're underlying assumption is that there will ever be only one single "economy" of which there are multiple markets. I'm not sure that is wrong either (though I am not sure that is right). Thanks for bringing that up.

@throwawaycoder huh, not sure why your comments get downvoted.

The forking I mean is not necessarily the technical part of it, but rather the interactions of people. On the other hand, I also just talked with someone I know who has been in the payment space for a long time -- he says he prefers to keep things simple, so not necessarily a "forking" that happens.

Eh well, something to think about for me. I think the "forking" concept is useful for me when we start talking about markets for which there is oppression. I'm not particularly interested in things like drug or gun trade. I'm much more interested in things like, being able to 3D print a tractor so people can farm land and grow food even if vested interests try to suppress that tractor.

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#303

Post by quenlinlom »

jpwright wrote: post #157
2gg2rg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many more posts like this are needed to convince you that the whole community of tech meetups is hostile towards women? A whole lot more, because I don't see this shit at the tech meetups I go to.

Looks like you have some reading to do. Here's a good place to start: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents

Hahahahaha! Really?

>Slashdot "OMG Ponies" April Fool's Day joke

REALLY?!

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#304

Post by fallinghawks »

gatehouse wrote: post #46
blairbeckwith wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

disclaimer: I'm on her side. I've never really understood the potential-physical-confrontation argument. It must be a very, very small minority of men who's first reaction to being embarrassed and shamed by a woman is to physically assault her in public?

I've seen a one guy sucker punch another over a woman, dropped him straight to the floor. All three were total strangers to each other, also everyone was probably drunk though. I agree that it is unlikely, but it isn't beyond the realm of possibility... also to assess the violence situation you have to factor in the crowd. If you're going to potentially start shit it matters if you happen to be surrounded by his frie…

And unfortunately, the organizer himself was completely retarded about the idea that a woman would be involved in Bitcoin.

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#305

Post by danellis »

dogecoinbase wrote: post #149
rfnslyr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how far removed real problems are from our society. "The intimidation, the mental abuse aspect of it is enough." versus Collecting wood in a forest 40km away so you can stoke a fire and your family can eat. Tell the guy to get his hands off you, grab a seat, introduce yourself. Everyone needs an emotional baby sitter and therapist nowadays.

This from the guy who lived in his mom's basement learning to code[1] and whose "goal in life" is to get rich in an acquihire[2]. I have some pretty legitimate doubts that you know the slightest thing about either primitive lifestyles and their hardships, or modern lifestyles and their hardships. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7112803 2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7052008

Yeah, but he was right about one bit: "Tell the guy to get his hands off you, grab a seat, introduce yourself."

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#306

Post by danellis »

patrickmay wrote: post #73
slewis wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not on the author to say something. There were a handful of other people there who could have spoken up. Please, everyone, if you witness this type of rude behavior, speak up. We are all, male, female, undecided, both etc. responsible for improving treatment of non-males in tech. Take an active role.

Exactly right. I may have a T-shirt made for the next technical meet up I attend: "I have daughters. I lift weights. I'm watching how you treat women." Okay, so it could use some wordsmithing, but if a few of us were to make it clear that this is an issue and we are willing to do something about it, the gropers might think twice.

How would they see it under your armor?

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#308

Post by tommorris »

genericuser wrote: post #91
kevingadd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone with such a messed up perception of personal boundaries and acceptable behavior that they would FEEL UP SOMEONE IN PUBLIC is not necessarily going to stop just because you tell them. They might get more aggressive.

They 'might' do just about anything if you tell them to stop. (including stop) The point is if you don't try, they have already shown what they plan to do. And in a group of people with two people you know some of the risk is mitigated. Now I think she handled a bad situation quite politely, and she has no obligation to put effort into making that particular situation better. However I believe that in making the blog…

This whole HN thread has been a huge volley of victim blaming. It's quite disappointing but not at all surprising.

Last year, I was on a train back to visit my parents place—a little village in quiet commuter-land suburbia. It was late. I had drunk a small amount before getting on the train but wasn't drunk.

A tall drunk man started shouting at me about how he wanted me to suck his dick. I obviously didn't do a good enough impression of a disgusted homophobe by shouting "eww, no". He twigged that I was actually gay and started shouting abuse at me.

He was there with a friend who was leering and laughing along. There were no third parties in the nearby vicinity. So, what did I do? I let the abuse continue and didn't put up a fight. I was surprised this was happening - these were grown men, this was a train line going mostly out to quiet middle-class suburbia. There were two of them and one of me—they were bigger and stronger while I have the body of a lifelong sedentary computer programmer; if there were a physical altercation, I'd come out worse for it. I don't want to end up in the emergency room.

Should I have stood up to them and told them to stop? To give as good as I get? Yes. It might stop them next time. I certainly want to make the situation better. But in the moment when you are being picked on and attacked, the calculation you make isn't the same calculation you'd make after the event. The flipside is I have seen other examples of homophobic abuse of others and been ready and prepared to step in (hasn't been needed).

There's a sort of frozen moment of panic when you are abused. I've had friends who have had very bad sexist abuse who have said the same thing. I have one friend who is trans and a sexual abuse survivior who goes through far more abuse and manage to stand up to it and live their life. I have great admiration for them, but I don't think it is anyone's job to go around policing the reactions of victims when faced with discrimination and abuse.

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#309

Post by tommorris »

stefan_kendall wrote: post #96
aetherson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The guys she's writing about need to not: * Hug people they've never met. * Put their hands on people's legs seconds after meeting them. * Put everything a particular woman says into the frame of "Women don't do X." * Assume that women who attend tech meetups are exclusively there as the girlfriends of the men present.

Immediately becoming physical is a valid showing of sexual interest. If she wasn't interested, she should have stopped it immediately. I've had it go both ways and end in sex, although never in a professional setting.

Immediately grabbing the keys for your car out of your pocket and going for a drive is a valid showing of interest in borrowing your car.

It's your responsibility to tell me that I'm not allowed to joyride your car.

Re: This is What it's Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup

#310

Post by boon »

DorintheFlora wrote: post #227

My concern with posts like this is that a) men currently hold most of the power b) attacking their behavior in a confrontational manner tends to close doors, not open them and c) I do not see it offering a real solution. I am female. I think about such things a lot and have, in the past, written about my own negative experiences. But my concern is that this does not give us a path forward.

Not that I have a problem with your premise, I'm just curious what criteria you used to determine a)?
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