top | item 16496848

(no title)

MollyR | 8 years ago

I don't like how they buried what I consider the lede.

"For the authors of this article, each negative story is overshadowed by dozens of positive experiences, where someone went out of their way to offer support, provide opportunities, and encourage us."

I think this matters to encouraging both women and men. Yes, jerks exist. Sometimes its good people having bad days, some people are monsters hiding under a veneer (ex Hollywood's Weinstein).

We need to stop dehumanizing each other, and understand all humans have the full expanse of positive and negative emotions.

Most people in technology are not bros, sjws, ceos, and whatever.

They are just people trying to get by.

discuss

order

huebnerob|8 years ago

Does it matter to a woman whether their harasser is a "real" bad guy or they're just accidentally doing a good job at playing one? The idea that us 'good' men can have a bad day, misstep, or misinterpret things is definitely true, but the following idea that it some how disqualifies the action as harassment is very much not. If you don't want to be put in a bucket with Harvey Weinstein, then you need to realize that everyone has the capability to be the villain sometimes, and if you've found yourself toeing that line, you need to strongly consider what brought you there and you need to make amends in the right way.

ethbro|8 years ago

I believe parent comment's point was that there's a difference between "Every man in comparch (or insert field here) is Harvey Weinstein" and "x% of men in comparch are y% of Harvey Weinstein" realities.

With substantially different suggestions on how to make things better for each. (Respectively, 'murder all the men' and 'be aware of and active against misogyny and sexism around you')

azinman2|8 years ago

I really do not consider that the lede. It’s not even 95% of what the story is about.

It was literally a collection of very negative experiences that women in tech faced because of their gender by men. It’s many examples of things men would never experience. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had many positive experiences — the consistent negatives are prevalent across most women in tech (and probably non-tech), not just isolated examples of a few.

Most of these jerks probably don’t even understand what they’re doing or the impact they’re having. It’s important to raise awareness to prevent as much of this as possible, and I applaud the author for sticking her neck out and being willing to put her name on it.

adamsea|8 years ago

They say the same thing in the second sentence:

"We are sharing these experiences in part because of encouragement by male colleagues who found them shocking. We are all still here because the rewards and great colleagues out weigh the bad experiences. However, we want to raise community awareness and instigate change."

And, the support of their male colleagues exercising what should be common human decency is not the lede of this article.

hateduser2|8 years ago

[deleted]

ixtli|8 years ago

I agree with everything you said but it still leaves me with nowhere to go in terms of combating the pervasive culture that results in sexist violence. Sure, everyone has struggles in their lives but certain groups have added difficulties that cant be fought without solidarity.

meric|8 years ago

How does putting the lede at the top leave you nowhere to go...?

mpweiher|8 years ago

> combating the pervasive culture

How about: it's not the pervasive culture!?

typomatic|8 years ago

[deleted]

hyperdunc|8 years ago

Why are you willing to question MollyR's motive, but not the motives of the story writers?