About Kathy
Last night I read Kathy Sierra’s blog about the threats and comments that she has been receiving and I have to tell you that it infuriated me. My immediate thought was, “And people wonder why we have so few women in the industry and even less who are willing to be a part of the blogsphere”. It is incidents like these that make it so difficult to choose IT and Development as a career. These guys may live behind anonymous names while on the internet but I can almost bet that they have at least some behavior that comes out in their day to day work life that causes women around them grief. Now I have made some assumptions here.. I am assuming these are men but I could be wrong.. I doubt it but I could be. Regardless, this sort of thing should not be tolerated. I would like to know how many men receive threats like these? I am speaking of threats against your life or comments as humiliating as the ones left on her blog?
I hate to make it a “women” issue but until some men come forward and say that these sort of things happen to them as well then I have no other choice than to believe these things were said because she is a woman. I was having a discussion with someone I respect a great deal about this last night and his response was that when you put yourself in such a celebrity position you have to expect this sort of thing. He also stated that you should simply ignore it because by not ignoring it we are giving them the attention they are looking for. I completely disagree. By ignoring the situation we indicate to the people who do this sort of thing that it is okay to behave this way. That is not the message that I want to send nor is it the message that I think our community should send. As for the celebrity comment, even celebrities take death threats seriously. My friends response to that was that celebrities only concern themselves with substantiated threats. So what then makes a substantiated threat on the internet? Does someone have to finally show up at your door with a gun to make it legit?
Our industry is one of the few industries that I know of where your career can be made or broken by your blogging behaviors. Blogging is one of the ways in which we share our ideas and thoughts… its part of what we do. I have always had a problem with it being okay to treat someone with disrespect regardless of the forum. Rudeness should not be tolerated but I have heard time and time again from people in this community comments such as “Oh it is just part of it” or “It is just our way”. It should not be tolerated no matter what the physical makeup of the individual being treated rudely is.
I know very few men who would look a women in the eye and call her a “cunt”. They know the level of insult that word carries and most don’t want to be the deliverer of it. Why should it be any less insulting when some coward does it over the internet? I also know very few men who would stand around and let that be said to women in their presence. I doubt my friend would hear that and say “Just ignore him .. he’s an asshole and if you let it bother you then you are just giving in to his need for attention”. If he did then he isn’t a very good friend.
I am hoping that one day women won’t have to worry about these sorts of things because I actually do love my job and I want more women to see that our industry IS a place where they can exist in peace and actually be successful through hard work.
One last thing that my friend said to me that really got me: “The only reason this is a big deal is because she is a woman… if it were a man no one would give a fuck.” If that is really how men (my friend is male) feel in our community then we have a lot further to go than I thought. I want to believe that people value each other a little more than that. I value PEOPLE more than that. I do and will “give a fuck” no matter who the person is.
I hope that this does not stop Kathy or others from continuing to post. It is like any other threat, if we let it push us down then it will never go away. Her situation may make it such that she feels she must stop posting or speaking and that is her decision but I hope that we are able to fight this sort of thing and stand up to this type of behavior. MLK once said “When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.” I am starting to really get that statement.
This is also posted to Devchix