This is a chronological timeline of major events in the campaign to get major secular and skeptical events to enact harassment policies, to protect convention-goers from needless harassment and encourage women who might otherwise avoid what they perceive as a gender-imbalanced chilly climate to join the community. It is presently a work-in-progress, and a living document. It could be edited at any time.
I’m beginning from an excellent blog comment by Pteryxx that tries to organize this timeline more contextually rather than purely chronologically, and pulls out blockquotes. I’m rearranging everything and summarizing the contents of the links. Please let me know if I’ve misinterpreted the contents or missed any notable events. This is meant to be a companion piece to the 101-level post In Media Res, where I opened the comments to general questions about this campaign. Please direct those questions there.
May 20th
Almost Diamonds
Zero Intolerance: Stephanie Zvan discusses Jen McCreight’s off-handed mention at CFI’s Women In Secularism event (video available June 6th), of the existence of an informal network of women speakers warning one another privately about male speakers who have been problematic with regard to sexual harassment in the past. She makes recommendations about what can be done, and explains why “name and shame” is a bad idea.Richard Dawkins Foundation
Women in Secularism Conference- Washington DC: A write-up of the conference that is notable mostly for the anti-feminist sentiment running through its comments, especially involving names who would make themselves more vocal later in this debate.
May 21st
Pharyngula
Women In Secularism conference: a summary, part 1: PZ Myers’ daughter Skatje mentions Jen’s remarks, and advocates bringing some information forward so the speakers involved can either deny, defend, or admit they’re wrong and apologise. Commenters point out that Stephanie’s previous Zero Intolerance post largely disagrees and it’s more problematic than PZ’s general name-and-shame tactics.Butterflies & Wheels
Here It Comes: Ophelia observes that we are already starting to see ridiculous levels of pushback in comments about the Women In Secularism conference, and prognosticates that it will only get worse.
May 22nd
Blag Hag
Dealing with Badly-Behaving Speakers: Jen explains why she brought the issue up, and her trepidation about naming names because she feels that without solid evidence, it’s not her place, and she’s likewise not prepared to weather the onslaught of rape and death threats from misogynist and anti-feminist trolls.Almost Diamonds
Making It Safer in the Meantime – Stephanie makes the case that any convention needs a harassment policy, not only for sexual harassment but for harassment on any other grounds. This policy is not expected to END harassment, but provide a prophylactic effect and a framework to arbiter complaints and support victims. She links to a very good sample policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, which has been successfully implemented at geeky conventions, and further suggests that conventions can use that as a template to get started. She also suggests that an appropriate after-convention reporting scheme would say something like “X number of harassment cases reported, all documented” as opposed to actually naming those names publicly.Greta Christina’s Blog
Men behaving badly at atheist conferences: Greta Christina does a link round-up on the harassment topic as relates the Women In Secularism conference. Notable for some “witch hunts” trolls suggesting that if we name names and create blacklists without evidence and trials, we’re destroying innocent men’s lives. (Note this was preemptively rebuffed in Stephanie’s original post on May 20th.)
In response to the “Making it Safer” post at Almost Diamonds:
- @kimbo_jones asks @jref whether they have a harassment policy. They say they had a harassment policy last year. She asks for where the current policy is posted — they do not reply. Covered June 4th at Almost Diamonds.
- @mowgli4 (Sarah Moglia) of the Secular Student Alliance commits to updating and posting a harassment policy prominently
- @mratheistpants (David Silverman) of American Atheists commits to a harassment policy before AACON 2013.
May 23
Almost Diamonds
Real Progress: Stephanie reports that five major conferences and two people who run conferences frequently have come out in support of, have adopted, and/or have improved on existing harassment policies in direct response to the conversation that Jen and Stephanie sparked. First (chronological) sighting of “witch hunts” trolling in the comments, possibly?Friendly Atheist
It’s Almost Time to Start Naming Names: While this post is supportive of the idea of harassment policies, it also calls for naming names, despite the aforementioned problems. Thread is notable for a “name being named”, e.g. a noteworthy secular speaker being accused of sexual harassment, but nobody has confirmed or denied or shamed the name.Blag Hag
“Oh Yeah? Well You’re UGLY!”: Some tenured skeptical community members with a hatred of feminism declare Stephanie, Jen, Ophelia and Rebecca Watson all too ugly to have to worry about being sexually harassed. THE GREAT RIFT BEGINS.
In response to the “Making it Safer” post at Almost Diamonds:
- @Chris_Calvey of Freethought Festival commits to a policy by FF2013.
- @jennifurret (Jen McCreight) tweets on behalf of Skepticon that they’ve committed to implementing an anti-harassment policy.
- @szvan (Stephanie Zvan) tweets on behalf of Minnesota Atheists that they will have a formal policy for their convention this summer.
May 24th
Butterflies & Wheels
Deep Rifts: Ophelia replies to some of the attacks (e.g. online harassment) mentioned in Blag Hag’s post from yesterday.
May 25th
post on Steve Zara’s wall: Russell Blackford, prominent Australian skeptic and blogger at Metamagician, says: “There’s also the small issue of some people wanting to introduce Talibanesque codes of conduct that go far beyond any legal requirements into the atheist/skeptic/secularist movements. I’m glad these people don’t have any actual political power.”Almost Diamonds
On Witches and the Hunting Thereof: Stephanie responds to the “witch-hunting” trolls explaining that harassment policies are the literal, definitional opposite of a witch-hunt.
May 26th
comment on Sophie Hirschfeld’s post: DJ Grothe says that TAM (The Amazing Meeting) registration for women is down from 40% last year, to 18% this year. He also preemptively starts the comment with “as a gay man I feel I’m sensitive to issues of sexism and homosexism”, and goes on to claim that no incidents of harassment were reported at TAM that he is aware of. He wonders why registration is down, and claims that some women have emailed the JREF list indicating that they aren’t going to TAM because of some “messaging” by people on the blogosphere describing harassment incidents, which he characterizes as misinformation and irresponsible. This is the first mention of the harassment policy debate in relation to TAM outside of Kimbo Jones asking TAM for their current policy.
May 27th
May 28th
Butterflies & Wheels
The Taliban Comes to Foggy Bottom: Ophelia discusses the existence of harassment, the characterization of anti-harassment policies as being like the Taliban, and some of the trolling distracting from the real issues.That Weird Atheist Girl
A First Step to Ending Harassment at Conferences: The Humanists of Florida Association’s new director recommends, and the HFA’s president EllenBeth Wachs enacts, a harassment policy for all their future conventions. It has yet to be voted in permanently by the board, but the policy will be in place until it comes to a vote.
May 29th
Lousy Canuck
On the “Talibanesque”-ness of harassment policies: I disassemble the origin of Blackford’s and others’ referring to the Geek Feminism Wiki’s sample policy as “Talibanesque” by enforcing “dress codes”, pointing out that the specific language in the sample policy forbids employees and vendors from using oversexualized displays. This is effectively a ban on the practice of “booth babes”, a convention issue that’s largely only problematic at geek conventions moreso than secular ones.Skepchick
Sex and the Keynote: Elyse recounts how, after speaking on a panel and running a “hug me I’m vaccinated” table at Skepticamp Ohio, she is approached by strangers who’d had some small amount of cordial interaction on Facebook the week prior, and handed a “business card” that has a nude photo of the two of them which offers sex if she’s interested. Elyse hails the convention’s handling of the event and the strong harassment policy they had in place.Butterflies & Wheels
It was a joke, huh huh huh: Ophelia reacts to Elyse’s encounter. Notable mostly for the expansive debate in comments of whether or not handing someone who is at work a card propositioning sex is harassment which becomes the genesis for the next post.Godless Bitches podcast
Episode 212: The Atheist Community of Austin commits to a harassment policyDangerous Talk
Why I Don’t Do Atheist Conventions: Staks Rosch characterizes all atheist conventions as meat markets where everyone’s either too sensitive or too insensitive, and regrets all the “drama” that goes on.Emily Has Books
Tensions Are High: Emily rebuts Staks’ post from earlier in the day, stating that issues of sexual harassment, which normally happen in private rather than public, need to be brought to light and not brushed aside as “drama”.
May 30th
Butterflies & Wheels
Do you at least agree with the principle?: A fantastic guest post by Daniel Fincke arguing that social conventions preclude offering sex to people with whom you’ve had no prior contact. These conventions also preclude the default assumption that everyone at a convention is there as a potential sexual plaything.XBlog
Perhaps it is time that DJ Grothe resign as the President of JREF: Greg Laden suggests that DJ step down after his latest failure to communicate effectively, noting that there has been a string of such incidents and that perhaps the problem is DJ himself.Ashley F. Miller
Harassment at TAM9: Ashley Miller links to a post from last year about some harassment she experienced at TAM despite DJ’s protestations that no harassment was ever reported. DJ Grothe says this is the first he’s heard of it, but Ashley replies that the event itself actually directly involved DJ’s personal intervention. She had discussed the event previously in 2010 and alluded to it in 2011.Token Skeptic
Why Would Women Choose Not To Return To An Atheist And/Or Skeptical Convention?: Kylie Sturgess picks up DJ Grothe’s earlier Facebook comment and asks whether people are actually avoiding the conference due to the “backchannel rumours and hearsay” as DJ characterizes it. She discusses the misogyny that happened on-stage at the Global Atheist Convention with Jim Jefferies in the comments with various commenters who bring it up. Commenters cite a wide variety of reasons to attend or not attend certain conferences, TAM in specific, including money, travel, other more interesting conventions. Notable as a turning point in the focus of the conversation toward TAM specifically.Almost Diamonds
Where are the women?: Stephanie links back to Token Skeptic, asking people to please explain to DJ why they’re not going to TAM if not for the “messaging” from the blogosphere. Stephanie points out in the comments that TAM did have a harassment policy last year, when someone says TAM doesn’t have a current policy on their site or anywhere associated with their current year. She also links back to a post where she previously took DJ to task for other blow-ups where he was the catalyst.More ^than Men
Harassment Policies: Sasha Pixlee begins curating a list of conventions that have harassment policies, linking to them directly, and noting new additions inline. Please send Sasha an email if there is a convention with a published harassment policy that needs to be included, especially if the policy was adopted in response to this campaign.Harassment Policies are a Good Thing: Sasha Pixlee extolls the virtues of harassment policies.
May 31st
Almost Diamonds
DJ Grothe Tackles the Problem of Harassment: Stephanie recounts DJ’s response to Kylie’s post at Token Skeptic, as he had cross-posted it at Almost Diamonds. She takes issue with DJ repeating his characterizing the discussion of harassment in the skeptical community as “misinformation” and “irresponsible messaging”, and particular issue with the characterization of these harassment issues as “locker room banter” and women later regretting their “sexual exploits” with someone they “later deemed ‘skeezy’”.Ashley F. Miller
TAM 9 Harassment New Information: Ashley discusses DJ’s mischaracterization of the various reports of harassment as “new information” and explains how DJ should have remembered some events that directly involved him.Pharyngula
DJ please fix this genuine problem: PZ points out that, in the complaint made by DJ on Facebook, he actually lists the problem as well as the cause, though he asks for the cause. That women are complaining about harassment isn’t CAUSING the low attendance, it’s a SYMPTOM of the cause: that harassment isn’t taken seriously.Skepchick
SkepchickCON Harassment Policy: Skepchick releases their initial harassment policy. Comments suggest changes.Atheist Experience
No, DJ Grothe should not resign from JREF: Martin Wagner weighs in on DJ Grothe’s dire problem with messaging, but disagrees with Greg Laden’s call for his resignation.
June 1st
Skepchick
Why I Won’t Be at TAM This Year: Rebecca Watson withdraws from her obligations as a member of Skeptics Guide to the Universe to be on the SGU panel at TAM. She cites DJ’s comments regarding harassment, wherein he names her as one of the women causing the problem of low female registration, as making her directly feel unwelcome.Almost Diamonds
How Big is the Problem?: Stephanie covers the American Secular Census study released the day before, which confirms that there is a problem with harassment (though not much worse than background society), which is skewed toward women being more likely than men to be harassed.Butterflies & Wheels
Rebecca Explains: Ophelia’s coverage of Rebecca’s announcement that she won’t be attending TAM. Notable in that a somewhat clumsy analogy between people blaming the victims of harassment for the problem of low female turnout, and people blaming the Jews for reporting the mistreatment they received at the hands of their government in 1936. The idea was to say one shouldn’t blame the victim of harassment for any escalation in harassment. The meme morphed extremely quickly into “Ophelia says TAM is like Nazi Germany”, after Orac of Respectful Insolence (another speaker at TAM) attacks her for the analogy.Lousy Canuck
Rebecca Watson won’t be at TAM: I point to Rebecca’s post at Skepchick, some trolls appear to call her decision “unprofessional”.The DJ Grothe quote that sticks in my craw: I take DJ to task over the specific quote, which he has still not walked back at time of writing — “So much of that feels to me more like rumor and distasteful locker room banter, often pretty mean-spirited, especially when it is from just one or a few women recounting sexual exploits they’ve had with speakers who are eventually deemed as “skeezy,” and whom they feel should be not allowed to speak at such conferences going forward.”
Ashley F. Miller
11 Thoughts on TAMpocalypse 2012: Ashley attempts to correct some common misapprehensions about her position on DJ, TAM, and a number of peripheral concerns to the topic of harassment in general, and the harassment she encountered.Emily Has Books
Perseverance Policies: Emily discusses the range of options available to a person in absence of a harassment policy from personal experience with sexual harassment she received at TAM, and how it is imperative that women affected by harassment not only “vote with their dollars” but also demand proper harassment policies.Edinburgh Skeptics
Anti-Harassment Policy: The Edinburgh Skeptics implement a harassment policy for their meetings/conventions.
June 2nd
Lousy Canuck
The further hyper-skepticism stalling our conversation: I make an effort to refocus our conversation on the topic of harassment policies in general, pointing out various troll silencing tactics that boil down to hyperactive skepticism which will not accept any amount of evidence that there is even any harassment to be dealt with. I advocate steamrolling these trolls and moving on with the conversation without them. I also publish Pteryxx’s research on the problem of harassment under-reporting, and how it makes what evidence we do have about harassment somewhat underwhelming.
note on Rob Tarzwell’s profile: Rob discusses two more anecdotes about harassment at TAM with which he was directly involved, including one repeat offender attempting to use a camera on a telescoping monopod to take pictures up their dresses. This upskirt photographer has apparently been discussed by participants in previous years and kicked out of previous TAM events. The photographer is also evidently running for Congress. Said photographer was mentioned a day before at XBlog in comments, and defended his actions claiming to have had the monopod for the sole purpose of taking pictures of himself with famous people. This is notwithstanding the multiply substantiated claims of harassment.Ashley F. Miller
DJ Fact Correction: Ashley corrects a grievous misinterpretation on DJ Grothe’s part where he says that Ashley “didn’t think it was worth reporting” her original incident of harassment. She did, in fact, and thought DJ was directly involved in kicking her harasser out because of it. Turns out DJ threw the guy out for unrelated reasons.
June 3rd
Skepchick
comment on Why I Won’t Be at TAM This Year: DJ Grothe apologizes to Rebecca Watson for his misconstruing her intentions. He repeats a number of accusations of bullying, misrepresentation and dishonesty leveled at the other women he’s previously blamed for the low TAM female registration.Almost Diamonds
What a Strange Creature: Stephanie covers the apology and makes a few quick notes with regard to whom he did not apologize (e.g. Jen, Stephanie, Ashley Miller), and points out that he claims in the apology that Stephanie has not contacted conference organizers.Lousy Canuck
DJ Grothe apologizes to one woman: I blockquote the apology in full in a post and link to Stephanie’s reply at Skepchick, and discuss problems with the apology in the comments with various other commenters.Butterflies & Wheels
Degodwinization: Ophelia corrects the clumsy analogy about women reporting harassment being blamed for it, which has so far served as a distraction and a means to bully her. Orac apologizes for the parts he thinks he went off the rails, but trolls regardless press the advantage and the meme that Ophelia said “TAM is like Nazi Germany” takes hold.
June 4th
Lousy Canuck
The Grothebot 5000 Meme: Commenter Josh, Token SpokesGay uses MemeGenerator to skewer DJ Grothe. I post about it, and in doing so, describe DJ’s actions as “running around being a douchebag to those women who are identifying the problem and working to solve it”. In comments, I obliquely reference DJ’s preemptive reference to his being gay from the Facebook comment on the 26th. Trollish elements manufacture outrage from this and call me homophobic on Twitter while sending @-replies to dozens of well-placed skeptics. This goes on for several days. Russell Blackford calls for my being kicked out of FtB.Almost Diamonds
What did DJ Apologize For?: Stephanie itemizes the parts of DJ Grothe’s original offenses that he’s apologized for, and what he expressly reiterated or doubled down on. Characterizing his apology to Rebecca as an apology to all the women he’s dismissed is demonstrably wrong, and this post demonstrates.About that TAM harassment policy…: Stephanie refers to every time anyone has mentioned TAM’s harassment policy from 2011, and the fact that it has always been referred to in “past tense”. She also points to Kimbo Jones’ asking for clarification on the current year’s harassment policy, and the silence thereafter.
Skepchick
Surly Women Grants: 6 More Winners: Surly Amy announces six more winners in the initiative to send women to TAM via the various fundraisers that Skepchick has organized and participated in over the past year. It is important to note that Skepchick was founded almost expressly for the purpose of raising money to send women to TAM, and it has done so every year since inception. Amy makes clear the point that nobody has ever said that TAM is any more or less safe for women than any other convention or the background societal harassment you might encounter. (The question of “safe spaces” is a different one altogether.)
June 5th
Greta Christina’s Blog
Sexual Harassment, and What “Not Naming Names” Does And Does Not Mean: Greta discusses the Catch-22 of taking reports seriously and the troll meme that this is a “witch-hunt”. She directly confronts the trolls on this point.
June 6th
Lousy Canuck
An apology, a mea culpa, and my stated opinion of DJ Grothe: After Natalie Reed pointed out a legitimate grievance with the comment I had made that trolls used to call me a homophobe, I revised the comment to avoid accidentally incurring splash damage with the meme that gay men are misogynistic as a matter of course. The very first comment is about how I’m a misogynist. People are still upset that I called DJ a douchebag, but I stick to my guns because he still hasn’t apologized adequately for his offensive “locker room talk” and “regret” of “sexual exploits”.Ashley F. Miller
Aren’t you making it up? – Why women don’t report harassment: Ashley displays a very telling sort of troll where, despite multiple lines of corroborated evidence that the harassment she described previously really happened, asks very pointedly “are you sure you aren’t just making it all up?”Youtube
CFI’s Women in Secularism Conference | The Intersection of Non-theism and Feminism : The panel at WIS that started this conversation — video uploaded to Youtube. Sikivu Hutchinson, Jen McCreight, Ophelia Benson and Rebecca Watson.
June 7th
Ask an Atheist radio show
SEXISM! IT EXISTS AMONGST AND BETWEEN ATHEISTS!: AaA telegraphs that they’re going to do a show about “dogmatic feminists” in the community, the fight regarding sexism, and that they plan on making it pretty much about how both sides are equally bad.
June 8th
Lousy Canuck
You Must Always Be Nice: Why I’m not being nice to DJ Grothe: I summarize the manufactroversy around my calling DJ Grothe a douchebag, why it is not in fact out of character or hypocritical of me to use naughty words while simultaneously telling people not to use slurs, and why preventing splash damage while focusing attacks on only those people who have made offensive remarks is important.Almost Diamonds
Those oversensitive, lying women: Stephanie describes and tears apart two breeds of trolls — those who claim harassment victims and potential harassers face a problem of defining what “counts” as harassment, and that the harassers often just have different definitions; and that the bigger problem of harassment policies is the possibility of false accusations. The fact that the concern on the trolls’ part that they might not be believed mimicks the very real concern that women won’t be believed if they come forward with their assault cases is telling.
June 9th
June 10th
Almost Diamonds
Doing away with “drama”: Stephanie discusses the frequent dismissal of this harassment campaign as merely interpersonal ‘drama’ (read: conflict) between several individuals, rather than an actual legitimate conflict.Ask an Atheist radio
The Problem of Dogmatic Feminism: The AaA podcast put together a show talking about how people in the feminist sections of the secular movements who are trying to encourage harassment policies apparently “don’t tolerate dissent”. The evidence provided is that they have banned people who have mistreated them elsewhere. Stephanie Zvan asked to be part of the show via email since they were going to be talking about her (among other so-called “dogmatic” feminists), and was told what the call-in hours for “all listeners” are, as though she was just another listener and not the topic of conversation. She manages to call in as a guest, and corrects them on what they’re actually trying to say — that the feminists are stating things forcefully. Notably, the comments are filled with the usual misogynist suspects calling FtBers names. Yes, the same ones that were banned on Stephanie’s and Ophelia’s blogs, which Becky believes shows that the feminists are being dogmatic.
- @michaellorg Michael Lee of CONvergence explains that the current policy for the CON exists but is missing from the redesigned site
June 11th
Sexual Intelligence
Sexual Harassment or Unwanted Sexual Attention: [trigger warning for dismissiveness of sexual harassment] Dr. Marty Klein recounts Elyse’s encounter with the couple soliciting sex from strangers, gets a number of major facts wrong including conflating Elyse with both Rebecca Watson and Surly Amy. He edits it to read that it’s a “composite” story, but the original is reblogged to Psychology Today unaltered.
June 12th
XBlog
Ask An Atheist Takes On Dogmatic Feminism: Greg covers the Ask an Atheist podcast’s complete failure to engage on the actual issues, and their lack of evidence that anyone involved in this discussion has a central dogma.Skepchick
SkepchickCON Harassment Policy (New and Improved): Skepchick updates their harassment policy to improve coverage, taking into account feedback from commenters.
June 13th
Almost Diamonds
The Great Penis Debate: For the Ardent Atheist podcast, a number of men and two women who’ve come out against feminist activities in the skeptical movement in the past record a Google Hangout where for an hour and a half they get basically everything about this fight wrong. I can’t be more charitable than that. Noteworthy for Emery Emery (co-producer of The Aristocrats) saying [ROT13 for sex act trigger] Fgrcunavr Mina fubhyq fhpx uvf pbpx.CSICon
CSICon – Harassment Policy (PDF): More ^than Men reports that CSICon has adopted an official harassment policy and sent it to them to host as part of their project itemizing those policies
June 14th
Lousy Canuck
In Medias Res: How to find the plot if you’re just tuning in: Trying to combat a trend in commenters joining discussions late and getting things desperately wrong, I prepare a how-to guide (with specific advice to this discussion) on how to learn what came before this.Almost Diamonds
Those Meddling Kids: Stephanie links to the Facebook post on Rob Tarzwell’s wall and the subsequent discussion over the several days since he posted it. The number of reported-but-since-forgotten TAM harassment incidents is growing!Pharyngula
It’s Always the Coverup: PZ weighs in on the newest harassment incident reports, suggesting that DJ Grothe, JREF and TAM are actively engaging in covering these incidents up so they can say it’s a “safe space” by pointing to a zero on their record. PZ also points out that nobody’s saying harassment happens MORE often at TAM than at other conventions.Greta Christina’s Blog
Sexual harassment and the OpenSF Conference code of conduct: Greta discusses a polyamory convention — a community that is defined by sexual openness and a desire for its members to “hook up” with one another — that has adopted very strong anti-harassment policy that includes rules like “no touching without verbal permission”.
June 15th
Lousy Canuck
I create and begin curating this link farm timeline.Greta Christina’s Blog
Holy. Fucking. Shit.: Greta reacts to the further reports of harassment that DJ has subsequently forgotten as reported at Almost Diamonds yesterday.Butterflies & Wheels
Squicked again: Ophelia reacts to Dr. Marty Klein getting all the salient facts wrong with regards to the Skepchick Elyse “Sex and the Keynote” issue in June 11th’s Sexual Intelligence blog entry.
June 16th
Blag Hag
No I won’t be going to TAM: Jen explains why she will not be attending TAM. She notes that it is not because of how she fears being personally harassed or otherwise accosted, but rather a combination of factors that includes DJ Grothe’s dismissive attitude and blaming her directly as one of the reasons female attendance is down.Almost Diamonds
“The Great Penis Debate” Transcript, Part I
“The Great Penis Debate” Transcript, Part II
“The Great Penis Debate” Transcript, Part III
Kate Donovan’s transcription of the Ardent Atheist Google+ hangout Stephanie posted on June 13th.Butterflies & Wheels
This thing is different from the other: Ophelia discusses the Ask an Atheist podcast and Becky’s evident quote-mining and deceptive synopses of what was said by whom.
June 17th
Greta Christina’s Blog
Update/ Clarification/ Correction on “Holy. Fucking. Shit.”: Greta hosts clarifying comments by one of the people who pointed out the potential upskirt photographer to TAM and hotel security.Google+ Hangout
FtB and Rebecca Watson have a Google+ hangout (runtime: 1h10min) to discuss the harassment debacle and how it intersected with DJ Grothe’s irresponsible messaging and TAM. Video is posted at:
Pharyngula
XBlog (and followup comments)
Butterflies & Wheels (and followup comments)
Lousy CanuckAlmost Diamonds
Harming TAM: Stephanie Zvan responds to the parts of the “PenisGate Debate” that involved the participants repeatedly claiming we on the pro-harassment-policies side of the debate “just want to hurt TAM” by itemizing exactly how DJ Grothe has hurt TAM in his attempting to throw women bloggers and people reporting harassment under the bus.Xblog
Monopod Man and other matters. An update: Greg Laden discusses the “potential upskirt photographer” who had been reported repeatedly for harassment and kicked out of at least one TAM. A commenter explains that this person posted enthusiastically about voyeur photography on JREF’s forums, and could be responsible for upskirt photographs posted in another forum under the same name.
June 18th
Pharyngula
Victim Blaming 101: PZ eviscerates someone’s post where he declares by fiat that TAM is a safe space by virtue of there being hotel security to deal with harassment. This is, of course, missing the larger point of enacting strong harassment policies, because “telling hotel security” has been recommended in most of the posts on this topic since the beginning, and it’s still happening. Policies provide a prophylactic effect as well as provide a framework for the convention staff to not only support the victims but prevent the abusers from repeating their actions year after year.IdioPrag
Safe Space: WilloNyx has a great discussion up explaining the difference between “safe space” and “unsafe space” and “not a safe space”, which are distinct and easily mistaken in this conversation. DJ and his supporters are especially guilty of these errors, thinking “not a safe space” means you’re going to get harassed or molested as a matter of course, and that the messaging that the secular community is no better than the background levels of misogyny somehow condemns us as evil raping monsters.Xblog
Jeremy Stangroom: Greg covers Stangroom’s accusations on Twitter that Freethought Blogs is full of bullies, and that bullies sometimes end lives.
June 19th
JREF
JREF Welcomes New Communications Director: DJ Grothe posts a short interview with their newly-hired communications director Carrie Poppy, who fills the position abdicated by Sadie Crabtree in February 2012.Butterflies & Wheels
I’m Out: After receiving more than one email suggesting she would be shot and killed at TAM, Ophelia bowed out. The response from JREF amounts to “thanks for letting us know.” Notable also for a troll in comments [ROT13 for victim-blaming] gryyvat jbzra jub qba’g ercbeg be pna’g pbaivapr ynj rasbeprzrag gung gurve ercbegf ner frevbhf, gung gurl’er cnegyl erfcbafvoyr sbe nal shegure encrf pbzzvggrq ol gurve encvfgf.Lousy Canuck
Safe: I was writing a piece on the difference between “unsafe”, “safe space” and “not a safe space” when I heard about the threats Ophelia received. The piece took a turn toward outraged but ultimately tries to synthesize a lot of the language problems in these fights.Greta Christina’s Blog
“I have never once seen the victim go without being called a liar”: Guest Post by Amanda Marcotte: As the title says, Marcotte discusses how frequently they are doubted when a victim comes forward with a claim of harassment or sexual victimization.
June 20th
En Tequila Es Verdad
How not to handle harassment: While Dana Hunter has been link-farming the conversation previously, this is the first time she’s drawn conclusions as to exactly how DJ has mishandled the entire debacle. Thorough documentation of what went wrong where.Almost Diamonds
Why #ididnotreport: [trigger warning] Stephanie and many commenters share their stories of molestation and rape, and why they didn’t report them or how they reported but were not taken seriously. One gets the impression that the reasons for the underreporting problem are completely valid, not just misperceptions on the parts of the victims.Dubito Ergo Sum
Pascal’s Reporter: Tom Foss describes the decision matrix that led to the troll on Ophelia’s I’m Out thread and their victim-blaming, and explains what’s broken and missing and what assumptions are invalid in that matrix.
June 21st
Greta Christina’s Blog
Why I Have Hope: Greta explains why, despite how bad it all might seem, she feels the fight to import social justice values into the secular and skeptical movements is winnable.Schroedinger’s Threat: Greta laments the threats that forced Ophelia from speaking at TAM, and discusses how a threat need not be “credible” to be threatening, as every threat is a mystery as to its actual credibility until it’s carried out.
Lousy Canuck
The FtB Conversation about TAM: transcript, pt. 2: Second half of the transcript for the Google+ Hangout conversation we had on Sunday.IdioPrag
Are harassment policies “sex negative”?: WilloNyx challenges the myth that a harassment policy would eliminate all consensual sexual activity at any convention where it’s implemented.Feminism – The Other F Word
All is Not Well in Viagraland: Misogyny, Sexism and Sexual Harassment in the Atheist Community: Jacqueline S. Homan compiles a list of pointed questions which she’s posed to JREF regarding the ongoing harassment in the community, and the evident lack of will to do something about it.
June 24
June 25
Richard Carrier’s blog
On Sexual Harassment: Richard Carrier outlines what points people should agree to before discussing harassment policies, and if you’re not agreeing to those points, you’re being unreasonable. He weaves an excellent case for harassment policies, and as someone who attends a good number of atheist conferences, his insights are valuable.
June 26th
American Atheists
American Atheists hosts a conference call announcing their new harassment policy, which I’ve posted here on my blog. PZ posts it too. Stephanie Zvan was on the call and adds a good deal of context, focusing on the sex positivity and harassment intolerance. Dana Hunter also got to be on the call and adds her thoughts. My own thoughts are that this is easily the strongest and best harassment policy proffered in this discussion, combining many of the strengths of the OpenSF and GeekFeminism policies, as well as policies from the ACLU and a few other sources. HUGE WIN.
–
As of June 21, I’ve mostly stopped adding daily blog posts, as this timeline is getting unwieldy and therefore less useful than I’d originally envisioned. As fascinating as watching the various troll tactics morphing in realtime might be, the campaign was largely won, given the large number of conferences that have taken it seriously and implemented strong policies. I’ll pretty much from here on out only be adding major movements, like new conventions building policies or DJ Grothe cluing in on what he did wrong and correcting his mistakes.
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Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 1:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Note: the May 21st Pharyngula post was actually by PZ’s daughter Skatje, not PZ himself.
Thanks for expanding on this! I admit that was more work than I could put into a comment in one day.
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 2:19 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Corrected, thanks Pteryxx. And I never meant to pressgang you into doing any of the work to begin with, so your efforts are greatly appreciated.
I suspect I’ll have to do this in waves. I’m bedward at the moment. Hopefully much more in the morning.
kagerato
June 15, 2012 at 3:34 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Keep up the great work, Pteryxx and Jason. Someone has to organize all this chaos.
Stacy
June 15, 2012 at 4:51 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What kagerato said. Thanks, Jason and Pteryxx.
Jason, I suggest you add DJ’s Facebook comment about fewer women registrants at TAM, as quoted on Kylie Sturgess’s blog (May 30th).
maureen.brian
June 15, 2012 at 6:48 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
May I recommend that you include PZ’s post of 31 May, “DJ, please fix this genuine problem”. Sound in itself but also the comments inclue quite a good look at the operation of privilege in real life and also why, “But the women must report it!” is not the entire answer to this problem.
samoanbiscuit
June 15, 2012 at 7:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi, I have a question. If I offend for seeming to JAQ or something, I’ll understand, but I’ve been reading these links for the past two days (I’m a pharyngula lurker who’s recently decided to read other blogs where the comments threads don’t race into the hundreds of comments before breakfast).
My question is: The people (women) who have experienced such behaviour from these “big names” in the skeptic community, why don’t they find some “wikileakish” way of releasing the names (times, dates, maybe evidence would be awesome)? This reluctance to out these people as abusive due to concerns about the skeptic movement sound oddly like the justifications for covering up for paedophile priests. Surely that can’t do as much damage as has already been done by this divide?
samoanbiscuit
June 15, 2012 at 8:01 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also, I apologize (RuPaulogize?) if this is the wrong post to leave questions on, if directed I’ll happily take my comments and ask them on some more appropriate post.
maureen.brian
June 15, 2012 at 9:32 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
samoanbiscuit,
If only it were that simple! Were you tuned in to all this when Rebecca Watson described an incident without identifying the person?
If yes you will recall that four words spoken quietly in a video that no-one on the planet was obliged to watch led to a campaign of vilification, threats of rape and threats to kill her.
Now we see, in the present round, that the world is not short of men who will – without any attempt to check the facts or follow the story – leap to the defence of someone who has seriously put his foot in his mouth and caused great offence to his own colleagues by doing it. Why do they defend him? Because he is prominent, because he has some power, because they like his smile but above all because he is male. And, as they assume everyone agrees, bitchez ain’t shit.
Now imagine you are a woman no-one ever heard of who wants to complain of harassment and/or assault by someone of equal prominence. What do you think would really happen to her? I mean it’s her against the whole fucking power structure of the planet and no guarantee that even the cop who takes her statement thinks that sexual assault is any big deal.
C’m on!
carlie
June 15, 2012 at 9:58 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
samoanbiscuit – it’s a lot larger of an issue than just a few “bad apples” who can be named and shamed into changing their behavior. It started off with a comment to that effect, but it’s about the larger atmosphere of what is tolerated and encouraged as behavior at conventions and in the “movement” in general. Having a name list, even one that is ironclad anonymous for submission, is like swatting individual hornets one by one when the 3-foot diameter hive is sitting right there over in the corner. It wastes a lot of energy without getting much of a result.
Emrysmyrddin
June 15, 2012 at 9:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Samoanbiscuit – hi. If you take a look at the timeline above, and the Pharungula link recommended in comment #5, you’ll find discussion of the problems caused by even anonymous ‘naming and shaming’, and how it can make the victims’ experiences worse when the backlash starts. When a mild request for guys to desist results in the epic online shitstorm that it did, is it any wonder that people are reluctant to come forward?
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 9:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
PZ’s post of May 31:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/31/dj-please-fix-this-genuine-problem/
Referencing Ophelia’s May 30 response to DJ’s naming women bloggers:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/shooting-the-messenger/
—
samoanbiscuit: Short version, the accusations won’t be believed, and the women making them WILL be systemically attacked. They may try to remain anonymous but sustained effort could out some of them; and even describing their experiences too accurately could lead the named harassers to identify them.
To see just how bad this can be WITH witnesses and support, see Ashley Miller’s post addressing exactly this:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/06/arent-you-making-it-up-why-women-dont-report-harassment/
—
And with the caveat that it’s Jason’s blog and I’m not him, 101-level questions should probably go in the In Media Res thread (“How can I find out what’s going on when I’m new to this?”)
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/14/in-medias-res-how-to-find-the-plot-if-youre-just-tuning-in
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 10:04 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Great answers all, but per Pteryxx’s recommendation, we should be redirecting questions like this off the harassment timeline and onto the In Medias Res post. To that end, I threw my two cents in on his question here.
Just blockquote it, answer it there, and point the link there from here. Thanks all!
(In the middle of a work crisis, can’t add to the timeline right now. Soon hopefully!)
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 10:13 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ashley’s post “Why Women Don’t Report Harassment” was June 6.
Stephanie’s response, June 8:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/08/those-oversensitive-lying-women/
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 10:15 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So we don’t re-tread ground already covered, here’s a list of all the links I haven’t yet put into the main post that need consideration and linking.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/12/ask-an-atheist-takes-on-dogmatic-feminism/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/01/rebecca-watson-wont-be-at-tam/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/06/an-apology-a-mea-culpa-and-my-stated-opinion-of-dj-grothe/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/08/you-must-always-be-nice-why-im-not-being-nice-to-dj-grothe/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/05/31/d-j-grothe-tackles-the-problem-of-harassment/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/04/about-that-tam-harassment-policy/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/04/what-did-d-j-apologize-for/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/10/doing-away-with-drama/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/31/dj-please-fix-this-genuine-problem/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/05/31/tam9-harassment-new-information/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/02/dj-fact-correction/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/06/arent-you-making-it-up-why-women-dont-report-harassment/
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 10:17 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Note I need to scrape Greta’s and Ophelia’s contributions for major events as well.
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 10:17 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Greta Christina just responded to the latest reports of harassment from TAM (and wow is she pissed). Prior to this she had only two posts during the harassment discussion, which she linked therein:
June 5: On why naming names is not an appropriate response
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/05/sexual-harassment-not-naming-names/
June 14: A sample anti-harassment policy from a polyamory convention, demonstrating that policies and consensual sex go together wonderfully:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/14/sexual-harassment-and-the-opensf-conference-code-of-conduct/
—
Those posts mentioned and summarized in:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/15/holy-fucking-shit/
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 10:22 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ophelia’s will be a bit tougher because she posts so darn many little posts. Dana Hunter’s roundup mainly includes the *most recent* posts responding to the Drama backlash incidents.
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 10:38 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Greta Christina had one more early post, but it was just a summary and round-up of the other posts initiating the discussion. For completeness’s sake:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/05/22/men-behaving-badly-at-atheist-conferences/
samoanbiscuit
June 15, 2012 at 12:38 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you everyone for your incredibly informative posts. Certain repliers did not seem to understand that by “wikileakish” I meant that the names would be provided anonymously, but then Jason said what should have been obvious to me: anonymous, secret accusations have the potential to be abused and result in even worse damage. Thanks again, and I shall ask any further questions on the In Media Res post comment thread.
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 1:40 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am noticing a trend in many posts involving “safe spaces” being poorly defined or intentionally misdefined by trolls or other anti-policy advocates. I need to get around to writing a post on it. But WHEN.
CatherineD_tcp
June 15, 2012 at 2:01 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks for the summary of the back and forth Jason, very helpful!
Stephanie Zvan
June 15, 2012 at 2:16 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Catherine also had a post up at RDF. Ophelia linked to it. I think the comments are instructive.
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/645961-women-in-secularism-conference-washington-dc/
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 3:07 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Safe space” does not have a Feminism 101 that I could find, but the wiki definition is pretty close. It’s just not limited to schools or workplaces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space
In feminism, it means specifically a space where women can feel safe speaking, and also an environment supportive of survivors of sexual or domestic violence. (Unfortunately, there’s a lot of overlap between women and survivors.)
…I also recommend the Google image search for “safe space”. *snif*
michaeld
June 15, 2012 at 3:18 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ok at the risk of duplicating pteryxx work (to be fair you did tell me the next 25 links where mine ;p)…
Here’s an effort to collect ophelia’s many posts on the subject of sexual Harassment (SH) and policies and the controversies. Covering May 20-june 9th. I’ll let you pick what is most relevant or major nothing wrong with her style but ophelia likes to make lots of small posts.
Haha getting terrible eyestrain so its only the 21 posts I that time period so I guess I owe you 4 more links pteryxx ;p
May 21
brief one talking about the beginning of the pushback from the comments at WiS
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/here-it-comes/
May 22
Talking about stephs posts on SH policies
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/under-the-rug/
May23rd
Talking about solution to SHarrassment.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/what-then-is-to-be-done/
May 24th
Responding to abby smith responding to stephs original articles
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/deep-rifts/
May27th
Prevalence of sexual harassment on london streets
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/life-on-the-streets/
on the ignore SH and it will go away
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/the-ignore-and-it-will-go-away-myth/
May28
Post against the talibanesque comment
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other/
Post on the prevalence of sexual harassment
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/the-taliban-comes-to-foggy-bottom/
May 29
minor one on why women don’t speak up
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/not-ready-for-the-flood/
This post about how the claim of being talibanesque was wrong
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/the-myriad-other-ways-the-comparison-to-the-taliban-doesnt-fit/
there was a post about elyse being given that swingers card
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/it-was-a-joke-huh-huh-huh/
May30th
Not Ophelia but Daniel Fincke made a guest post in reply to the post about Elyse incident.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/do-you-at-least-agree-with-the-principle/
Then DJ spoke up and there was http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/shooting-the-messenger/
in response to dj’s initial commentsabout rebecca and steph
May 31st
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/05/irresponsible-messaging/
There was a little follow up about dj’s claims about the emails that started his comments.
June 1st
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/rebecca-explains/
A post on Rebecca’s explanation for why she won’t be at tam. This is also where the TAM nazis analogy was made
Then a second (minor?) post later in the day
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/wait-that-was-last-year/
Then there was another post responding to a post by some UK skeptics mentioning a census of secular american women as to why they feel alienated.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/words-actions-or-attitudes/
June 2nd
On hyper skepticism
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/skepticism-gone-wild/
June 3rd
Ophelia apologises/revokes the nazis analogy
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/degodwinization/
june 4th
A post on the difficulties of naming names
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/reporting-harassment-and-naming-names/
June 5th
Benson’s reply take on dj’s apology on skepchick
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/report-all-the-things/
michaeld
June 15, 2012 at 3:19 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ok its in moderation but I put together 21 links from benson on the various issues and controversies from May 20-june 9th should you want it and/or for completeness.
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 4:59 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
dang, thank you michaeld! I only got partway through with so much other stuff going on. I’m so grinning right now, awesome work!
michaeld
June 15, 2012 at 5:04 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You’re welcome ^.^ I thought I’d try to give you a break, even thought I was sure that you’d post a duplicate list the moment I hit submit ;p
kagerato
June 15, 2012 at 5:32 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s only tangentially related to the harassment policies campaign, but maybe there should be a mention of the fact that Grothe had established a history of poor responses months before the most recent multiple car wreck on the skepticism freeway.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/01/03/dammit-dj/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/01/09/two-questions-for-dj-grothe/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/01/10/d-j-grothe-replies-and-i-reply-back/
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 5:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kagerato: I actually did mention “Dammit DJ”.
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 6:10 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I saw smhll’s comment on In Media Res about the “safe space” quote that DJ cited. Rebecca linked to the full article in “Why I Won’t Be at TAM This Year”:
The article is a summary of Elevatorgate and the realization that “atheism has a sexism problem”. Quote in fuller context (it’s the close of the article):
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 6:13 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah Pteryxx — his offense on that was mostly in cutting off the quote where he did. Oh, and using that as a club to say “it’s your fault Rebecca”.
Pteryxx
June 15, 2012 at 6:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also note: the comments of Stephanie’s Drama post contain the discussion of misogyny in the SGU forums:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/10/doing-away-with-drama
—
…And in real time, the floodgates have definitely opened.
Greta’s follow-up to Those Meddling Kids:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/15/holy-fucking-shit
More instances of reported harassment from TAM, collected from the ongoing Facebook thread:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/more-people-speak-up/
Matthew Morse
June 15, 2012 at 7:38 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Can I join this party? I want to start collecting and posting links to other FTB posts, but I don’t want to duplicate efforts if someone else has that covered.
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 7:41 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
By all means — whatever links you think are notable, add in. I’m kinda pressed for time at the moment with the SSA blogathon starting soon and I haven’t any idea what all the links are that I’ll need to add to my posts as I’ve been completely swamped between work and the harassment fight. It might be a while before I get all the links already offered into the original post, considering I’m also summarizing them.
Also, umm, you’re not the Matt Morse I know from university are you? If so, wow.
Z
June 15, 2012 at 7:57 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You’ve missed the “sex card” incident:
http://skepchick.org/2012/05/sex-and-the-keynote/
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 8:01 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, that’s definitely going in. As you can tell, there are huge gaps, and that story happening right in the middle of it is a perfect example of harassment in our communities and how a harassment policy at a convention helped. Thanks for dropping the link though! I don’t think that was on my list, though I have a few that mention the event.
michaeld
June 15, 2012 at 8:17 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“It might be a while before I get all the links already offered into the original post, considering I’m also summarizing them.”
Haha yeah I know I kind of swamped you there…. sorry.
Jason Thibeault
June 15, 2012 at 8:19 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No apologies necessary! In fact, thank you for the assistance. The links are in the comments, they’re accessible for the time being. :)
Z
June 15, 2012 at 8:31 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If you add more extensive commentary, you can also point out the difference between “not [safe space]” and “[not safe] space”. Apparently this was (is?) a source of misunderstanding, especially between Grothe and Watson.
michaeld
June 15, 2012 at 8:47 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ok cause I’m feeling a little guilty dropping all of ophelia’s posts lets see if I can pick some of the bigger meatier ones. Although there are a lot many are fairly brief comments from her with large quotes from others (which is fine just maybe not for your list). So here are the more noteworthy ones I think…
May 27 ignore and it will go away myth
about the idea that if you ignore the problem it will fix itself
May 28 Taliban come to foggy bottom
Has a lot of links about the prevalence of sexual harrassment in the US
May 30 Shooting the messenger
a response to DJs initial comments
June 1 Rebecca explains
Is at least major in that it created the muddled TAM /nazis thing that keeps coming up. If so should include the follow up degodwinizing article.
June 4th Reporting harassment and naming names
A piece about the problems of such.
I’m not sure that I’d include her post on it http://www.thetwentyfirstfloor.com/?p=3984
This post about how skeptics should deal with sexual harassment has some good stats from the American secular census about womens’ negative experiences and feelings on the subject.
Hopefully this helps save you a little time Jason.
Matthew Morse
June 16, 2012 at 1:24 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry, I think I’m a different Matt Morse. I graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 1995. If you know me from there, you’ll have to remind me of when and how.
Anyway, I’ve collected all the posts on FTB about harassment at conferences. I’ve left out the posts that have been previously mentioned in this thread. In some cases, the comments are more important than the posts themselves. In addition, there are many posts which are only tangentially related to the subject, but may have been inspired by the discussion of harassment at conferences. I have left those off this list, but have been compiling them separately. In some cases the comments on the tangential posts may deal directly with the subject.
There’s also the problem of when to start. The current timeline starts with Jen’s comments at WiS, but you can argue that the starting point should be Rebecca’s “Guys, don’t do that,” or even earlier.
Finally, the sheer volume of posts cries out for an executive summary. Perhaps a listing of the 5 or 10 most important posts from the timeline, so someone who wants to get up to speed can read a manageable number of posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYKlEggiNY The CFI posted the video of the Women in Secularism panel discussion to YouTube on 6/6
5/19
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/05/19/liveblogging-the-women-in-secularism-conference-ii/ Ashley liveblogged the panel discussion at WiS
5/22
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/22/wiscfi-summarized/ PZ links to summaries of Women in Secularism
http://freethoughtblogs.com/wwjtd/2012/05/22/flirting-sex-and-lines/ JT on flirting at conferences
http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2012/05/22/atheist-men-behaving-badly-and-the-bystander-issue-2/ Mano discusses the role of bystanders in preventing harassment
5/23
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/05/23/how-to-handle-bad-male-behavior/ Ed on speaking up about harassment
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/05/23/which-do-you-think-is-the-bigger-problem/ Greta on harassment at conferences vs. hooking up at conferences
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/05/23/making-casual-bigotry-cost-with-minimal-splash-damage/ Jason talks about the problem of going public with accusations
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/05/23/the-conversation/ Dana summarizes the discussion up to that point
5/24
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/24/there-is-no-blacklist/ PZ talks about personal preferences for attending conferences
http://freethoughtblogs.com/camelswithhammers/2012/05/24/the-women-in-secularism-conference/ Daniel links to Ashley Miller’s coverage of WiS and the initial discussion of conference harassment at FTB
5/27
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/05/27/flirting-is-easy/ Stephanie follows up on JT’s flirting post
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/05/27/mass-hysteria/ Martin Wagner is reacts to the conflict about harassment
5/29
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/29/simple-guidelines/ PZ responds to Elyse’s harassment story from Skepchick with guidelines to avoid overstepping boundaries
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/05/29/the-thing-about-work/ Stephanie responds to Elyse’s harassment story, and conferences as workspaces
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/05/29/it-happens-every-time-like-clockwork/ Kazim responds to Elyse’s harassment story
http://freethoughtblogs.com/hallq/2012/05/29/skeevy-conference-presenters-and-anti-harassment-policies/ Chris talks about harassment policies going too far
5/30
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/05/30/why-would-anyone-think-this-is-appropriate/ Ed repeats Elyse’s harassment story from Skepchick
5/31
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/05/31/conferences-are-workplaces-for-many-that-does-not-mean-they-are-not-fun/ Greg discusses the ways in which conferences are workplaces, and should have similar HR rules
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/05/31/conventions-are-workplaces-for-some-people-how-to-move-this-conversation-forward/ Jason discusses conferences as workplaces
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/05/31/this-is-why-im-so-damned-proud-to-blog-here/ Dana talks about the efforts FTB have made on harassment policies
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/05/31/no-dj-grothe-should-not-resign-from-jref/ Martin thinks DJ resigning would be going too far
http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/05/31/flirting-fucking-and-tossing-the-pigskin/ Ian discusses flirting
6/1
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/01/rebecca-watson-at-tam/ Greg links to Rebecca’s statement on TAM
http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/06/01/i-want-to-be-howard-wolowitz-when-if-i-grow-up/ heicart gives her perspective
http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/06/01/the-pros-of-cons/ Ian speaks about the value of conventions
http://freethoughtblogs.com/hallq/2012/06/01/i-support-dj-grothe/ Chris stands up for DJ
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/01/11-thoughts-on-tampocalypse-2012/ Ashley responds to Rebecca Watson’s statement on TAM
6/3
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/03/godless-bitches-do-harassment/ Stephanie links to the discussion about harassment on the Godless Bitches podcast
6/5
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/05/dj-grothe-vs-tony-stark/ Greg compares DJ Grothe to Tony Stark, with pictures
6/6
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/06/black-and-white/ Stephanie gets angry about focus on “douchebag” rather than attempted rape
6/7
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/07/why-i-wont-be-going-to-tam-this-year/ PZ’s statement on TAM. Points out that fewer women could be attending TAM because they are going to other conferences, not because of harassment issues
http://freethoughtblogs.com/camelswithhammers/2012/06/07/watch-the-women-in-secularism-panel-with-ophelia-sikivu-jen-and-rebecca/ Video of the WiS panel that started this discussion
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/07/the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/ Greg posts the video of the panel
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/07/how-long-do-we-put-up-with-this/ Stephanie links to video of Susan Jacoby’s talk from WiS, and discusses context of Rebecca Watson tweet
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/ Ophelia posts the Intersection of Non-theism and Feminism panel
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/06/video-the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/ Jen posts the video of the panel
6/10
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/10/on-drama-vs-conflict-regarding-harassment-policies/ Jason follows up on an Almost Diamonds post about the word “drama”
6/11
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/11/the-problem-of-dogmatic-feminism/ Stephanie discusses “The Problem of Dogmatic Feminism” episode of Ask an Atheist
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/both-sides/ Ophelia discusses “The Problem of Dogmatic Feminism” episode of Ask an Atheist
6/12
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/12/a-con-with-an-anti-harassment-policy/ PZ talks about the CONvergence harassment policy
6/13
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/dont-give-it-to-them-give-it-to-us/ Ophelia responds to a guy complaining on Twitter about the Surly Women Grants
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/13/a-little-perspective-on-the-troll-cry-of-witch-hunts/ Jason promotes a comment from Jacqueline Homan into a guest post, comparing the witch hunt accusation to the War on Women
6/14
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/mike-gillis/ Ophelia responds to Mike Gillis of Ask an Atheist about the posting of her email
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/why-is-she-going-there/ Ophelia responds to the “Great Penis Debate” video and discusses her ambivalence about attending TAM
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/bad-analogies-are-bad/ Ophelia responds to Becky Friedman’s post at Ask an Atheist
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/not-the-right-atheist-to-ask/ Ophelia states that she did not, and would not, give permission for her email to Becky Friedman to be posted at Ask an Atheist
6/15
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/squicked-again/ Ophelia responds to Dr. Marty Klein about Elyse
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/i-did-not-compare-tam-to-nazi-germany/ Ophelia pushes back against the claim that she compared TAM to Nazi Germany, as restated on the “Great Penis Debate” video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/06/15/not-worth-the-price-of-admission/ Dana responds to the “Great Penis Debate”
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/15/the-point-of-the-tam-harassment-posts/ Ashley points out that women are not attending TAM because of DJ’s comments
Cyranothe2nd
June 16, 2012 at 2:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, thanks for this and to Matthew Morse for all that work! This is going to be really useful in answering the mansplainers who want to ask, “Why aren’t you feminists being ~constructive~????”
Jason Thibeault
June 16, 2012 at 4:04 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Chipping away at my existing stuff now. In case anyone’s subscribed to this, or wondering why they’re suddenly getting pingbacks and they come looking at this post.
Matthew Morse
June 16, 2012 at 7:42 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here is my collection of links to discussion of sexual harassment at conventions and the attendance of women from sites other than FTB. Unlike my FTB links, this list is necessarily going to be incomplete. I have not done much independent searching for posts, more relying on links to other sources from the links I already had. I also have not gone through comments, so if there are links in comments on any of the posts, I have probably missed them.
These links include some direct links to YouTube videos and podcasts, but I have not attempted to search for videos or podcasts in general. I have also ignored Facebook, Twitter, and online forums, on the assumption that effectively searching them would be too much effort.
As a result, there are certain parts of the conversation I may be missing. In particular, I found no links making accusations of black lists or comparisons to the Taliban, but there are some posts which respond to those accusations. I’m not clear if I missed the original posts, if these accusations were made in some medium I wasn’t following, or if they were in comments on posts I have already listed.
In addition, there were two blogs which had posts that mostly expressed their hatred of other participants in this discussion. I have added some posts from them that included what might be considered actual content, but have skipped most of their posts in this list. Reading through them was bad enough. I couldn’t deal with actually linking them all in.
As before, I have excluding links which appeared in the main post or previous comments of this thread.
5/18
http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2011/11/26/periodic-table-of-swearing/comment-page-49/#li-comment-42662 This is the first reference to WiS on the “Periodic Table of Swearing” thread at ERV. Included for completeness. I have not read through the thread to see what anyone there is saying about the discussion
5/22
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/05/22/beating-the-dead-horse-of-sexism-in-secularism/ Lauren responds to Stephanie Zvan’s Zero Intolerance post, making the point that this is a societal issue, not an issue specifically with secularism
http://www.templeofthefuture.net/dialogue/what-about-the-gays James Croft asks how homosexuality fits in to the harassment issue
5/23
http://scentednectar.blogspot.com/2012/05/utter-malicious-nonsense.html Scented Nectar accuses of Stephanie, Jen, etc. of a witch hunt (Note: there are a few other posts here on this subject, but they are hateful and do not contribute value to the discussion, so I have not included links)
http://doubtingthomases.net/2012/05/23/the-trouble-with-women/ Zach states that he is aware of men who have a reputation for harassment and they should not be invited as speakers to conferences, and that secular events he organizes in the future will have harassment policies
5/24
http://www.geoffreyfalk.com/wp_blog/?p=18504 “ERV” Geoff accuses Jen, Rebecca, Stephanie, etc. of making it up (Note: Geoff has many posts on this subject, most reprinting comments from elsewhere with little additional comments. Everything he posts is ugly and contributes little value to the discussion, so I have not included links to most individual posts.)
5/27
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/05/27/creating-a-safe-convention-for-attendees/ Lauren discusses steps conventions could take to become safe spaces
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=13 “Sexism At Skeptics Conferences-Part One. The Problem.” Skeptical Abyss states that conferences are a custom-made environment for sexual harassment to occur, and he will offer his solution in the next post
5/28
http://thatweirdatheistgirl.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/a-first-step-to-ending-harassment-at-conferences/ A statement about the harassment policy at the upcoming Humanists of Florida Association conference
5/29
http://skepchick.org/2012/05/sex-and-the-keynote/ Elyse on being inappropriately propositioned when at Skepticamp Ohio as a speaker
http://www.dangeroustalk.net/?p=2951 “Why I Don’t Do Atheist Conventions” Staks doesn’t go to conventions because there’s too much “drama”
http://godlessbitches.podbean.com/2012/05/29/episode-212/ Podcast discussion of sexual harassment
http://emilyhasbooks.com/tensions-are-high/ Emily responds to Staks’ post on Dangerous Talk, saying that social awkwardness is not a problem but sexual harassment is
5/30
http://skepchick.org/2012/05/sex-and-the-newbie/ Heina on the problem of speakers viewing con attendees sexually
http://godlessbitches.podbean.com/2012/05/30/episode-213/ Second podcast on sexism and harassment
5/31
http://events.skepchick.org/2012/05/31/skepchickcon-harassment-policy/ Initial SkepchickCON harassment policy (since revised)
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-defense-of-dj-grothe.html John Loftus supports DJ Grothe
6/1
http://www.geoffreyfalk.com/wp_blog/?p=18633 “Feminism Poisons Everything”
http://bigthink.com/daylight-atheism/the-ten-commandments-of-flirting-or-how-to-not-be-creepy-at-atheist-conventions Adam discusses flirting at conventions
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/06/01/resetting-the-inappropriate-sexual-proposal-counter/ Cartoon responding to Elyse’s Skepchick post
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=17 “What to do about sexism and sexual-harassment at skeptics events (Part Two). Name names.” Skeptical Abyss opposes harassment policies, and states that the solution is for targets to name their harassers
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=19 “On The Vapidity And Narcissism Of Rebecca Watson, And In Praise Of DJ Grothe” Skeptical Abyss dismisses Rebecca’s statements about not returning to TAM
http://emilyhasbooks.com/perseverance-policies/ Emily argues for the necessity of harassment policies
6/4
http://skepchick.org/2012/06/surly-tam-women-grants-six-more-winners/ Amy explains why skepchick is continuing to send women attendees to TAM
6/6
http://www.newdissidentradio.com/archives/ardent/2012/june/ardent-060612.mp3 “Episode 69: DJ Grothe on Sexism and Nygard’s Penis” Ardent Atheist podcast interview with DJ Grothe about sexism
6/7
http://skepchick.org/2012/06/talks-from-women-in-secularism-and-euro-atheists/ Rebecca posts the WiS panel, and Susan Jacoby’s WiS video, and multiple videos from Euro Atheists
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/06/07/the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/ Hemant posts the WiS panel
http://askanatheist.tv/2012/06/07/sexism-it-exists-amongst-and-between-atheists/ Ask An Atheist summarizes blog posts on harassment in anticipation of their 6/10 podcast
6/8
http://archive.kpft.org/mp3/kpft_120608_150007pg.mp3 Partisan Gridlock radio broadcast with Rebecca Watson and Emily Dietle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7yJQz2USig YouTube video of Partisan Gridlock interview
6/9
http://emilyhasbooks.com/sexual-harassment-an-interview/ Emily links to the Partisan Gridlock video on YouTube and responds to some comments
6/10
http://askanatheist.tv/2012/06/10/the-problem-of-dogmatic-feminism/ Ask an Atheist podcast about sexism and harassment, with call-in from Stephanie Zvan
http://emilyhasbooks.com/a-dose-of-conscience/ Martin Pribble is surprised to hear that harassment is a problem at atheist/skeptical conventions
6/11
http://sexualintelligence.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/sexual-harassment-or-unwanted-sexual-attention/ A retelling of Elyse’s story from Skepchick, without names, that dismisses the incident as minor unwanted attention
6/12
http://events.skepchick.org/2012/06/12/skepchickcon-harassment-policy-new-and-improved/ revisions to the SkepchickCON harassment policy
http://askanatheist.tv/2012/06/12/dogmatic-feminism-discussion-podcast-part-1/ First part of Ask an Atheist followup to “dogmatic feminism” podcast
6/13
http://askanatheist.tv/2012/06/13/a-response-to-ophelia-benson/ Becky Friedman responds to Ophelia Benson’s request for citations of “dogmatic” feminism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xpy661iGE4 “The Great PenisGate Debate with Emery Emery and Wendell” Ardent Atheist video in which Wendell argues against Emery’s support of DJ Grothe and TAM
6/14
http://askanatheist.tv/2012/06/14/dogmatic-feminism-pt-2-and-some-other-things/ followup podcast from Ask an Atheist, including discussion of publishing Ophelia’s email and ERV
6/16
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=31 “One Alleged TAM Harasser Responds” Interview with person who claims to be the person accused of upskirt photos. The supposed accused person denies this, and states that hotel security spoke about the camera, but not TAM staff
One last point: Ashley F. Miller moved from her WordPress blog to FTB this past week. As a result, all of her posts have two addresses, one at WordPress and one at FTB. I don’t know if comments are preserved or synchronized at both locations, so while all of her posts have been previously listed with her FTB address, I’m including the WordPress addresses here for completeness.
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/liveblogging-the-women-in-secularism-conference-ii/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/women-in-secularism-the-good-the-bad-the-awesome/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/harassment-at-tam9/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/tam9-harassment-new-information/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/11-thoughts-on-tampocalypse-2012/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/dj-fact-correction/
http://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/arent-you-making-it-up-why-women-dont-report-harassment/
Matthew Morse
June 16, 2012 at 7:44 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just posted another big link dump, which has disappeared. If it’s been eaten by the blog, let me know and I can try again.
Pteryxx
June 16, 2012 at 9:17 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Note – I suggest including content warnings for the ERV thread, Scented Nectar’s blog, and the Ask an Atheist threads, because of hateful insults in the discussion. If there’s a way to put these links behind a fold so nobody clicks on them by accident, that might be helpful too.
The sexualintelligence post misrepresenting Elyse’s report is also up at Psychology Today:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sexual-intelligence/201206/sexual-harassment-or-unwanted-sexual-attention
and both of those should probably have content warnings too.
Ophelia Benson
June 16, 2012 at 9:27 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow! This is impressive – and useful.
Sorry about all the little posts. I have a short attention sp
Matthew Morse
June 16, 2012 at 10:57 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought the content warning on the ERV thread went without saying, but it should have one. If it’s not clear, the Geoffrey Falk posts and probably the Skeptical Abyss posts (didn’t read them in detail) should also have warnings. I have to admit that I didn’t read the comments on the Ask An Atheist posts, but from the posts themselves it was clear that the comments had gotten ugly.
Meanwhile, my link collections are already out of date, with new posts like the Almost Diamonds transcripts of the Great PenisGate Debate video up. (Again, I haven’t even read them, but It sounds like content warnings are appropriate.)
At some point in putting this collection together, I stopped trying to read everything. Seems much healthier.
Jason Thibeault
June 16, 2012 at 11:41 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m afraid that as a matter of course, while I’m noting certain shifts in troll tactics, unless there’s a specific reason to point people to things like Falk’s or ERV’s triggerfests, I’m not going to do so. They can be in the comments though.
Matthew Morse
June 17, 2012 at 12:17 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, I ended up collecting all the links I could find, and you probably want to focus on the important links.
I hope my descriptions help a little in determining the importance of various posts.
Blake Stacey
June 17, 2012 at 10:48 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Matthew Morse wrote,
The timeline points to one example of “Talibanesque” on Facebook (which is not a medium I follow). Others may also exist there.
(Because when I think “Taliban”, I think “viewing women as equals instead of objects!” …yeah, that “Talibanesque” insult doesn’t make sense to me, either.)
Matthew Morse
June 18, 2012 at 1:35 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was expecting to have to do updated posts with additional links, but I wasn’t expecting to have to do them this soon. Anyway, I’m starting with some older links from More Than Men which I had previously overlooked, and following those with links from this weekend.
5/28
http://www.morethanmen.org/2012/05/28/making-casual-bigotry-cost-with-minimal-splash-damage/ Repost of Jason’s post on Lousy Canuck
5/30
http://www.morethanmen.org/2012/05/30/harassment-policies-are-a-good-thing/ Sasha supports harassment policies
6/1
http://www.morethanmen.org/2012/06/01/we-need-to-talk-harassment-and-hookups/ Sasha asks whether having harassment policies creates a chilling effect on consensual sex at events, and whether this should be a concern of event organizers
6/13
http://www.morethanmen.org/2012/06/13/help-us-find-harassment-policies/ More than Men requests help in finding harassment policies for various secular/skeptic/science events. This is a followup on their earlier post listing events that have policies
6/15
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/15/ssa-blogathon-ssa-adopts-a-harassment-policy-for-conferences-4-of-9/ Jason posts on the new SSA harassment policy
6/16
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/16/the-great-penis-debate-transcript-part-i/ Part 1 of Kate Donovan’s transcript of the Great PenisGate Debate video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/16/the-great-penis-debate-transcript-part-ii/ Part 2 of Kate Donovan’s transcript of the Great PenisGate Debate video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/16/the-great-penis-debate-transcript-part-iii/ Part 3 of Kate Donovan’s transcript of the Great PenisGate Debate video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/06/no-i-wont-be-going-to-tam/ Jen explains her reasons for not going to TAM this year
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/naming-the-problem/ Ophelia states that she is being bullied
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/this-thing-is-different-from-the-other/ Ophelia responds to Ask an Atheist’s use of the phrase “dogmatic feminism”
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/16/dogma/ Greg posts definitions of “dogma” and related words, including “dogmatic feminism”
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/thoughts-on-the-skeptical-movement-sexism-and-misogyny/ mattusmaximus discusses how online discussion of harassment tends to bring out the worst in some people
6/17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi_OsT7frPg Video of discussion with FTBloggers and Rebecca Watson about TAM
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/17/harming-tam/ Stephanie refutes the claim that she has been harming TAM with this discussion and looks at the harm DJ Grothe has done
http://freethoughtblogs.com/ashleymiller/2012/06/17/feminism-privilege-and-learning-about-humility/ Guest post by Patrick Mitchell on learning about feminism
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/17/a-conversation-about-tam/ PZ posts the FTB and RW video, with a transcript of his introduction
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/some-ftb-peeps-talking-about-tam/ Ophelia links to the FTB and RW video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/06/not-a-plan-but-a-background/ Ophelia responds to Greg’s comments about this being a cultural issue with the leadership of JREF
http://freethoughtblogs.com/camelswithhammers/2012/06/17/i-participated-in-a-video-conversation-on-the-tam-controversy/ Daniel posts the FTB and RW video, with followup comments
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/17/update-clarification-correction-on-holy-fucking-shit/ Greta follows up on the upskirt photo at TAM9 post, with comments by Lee, one of the people reporting the harassment
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/17/ftb-and-rebecca-watson-want-tam-to-succeed/ Jason posts the FTB and RW video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/17/a-conversation-with-some-bloggers/ Greg posts the FTB and RW video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/17/followup-comments/ Greg posts followup comments on the FTB and RW video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/06/17/monopod-man-and-other-matters-an-update/ Greg posts an update about the upskirt photos report
rickschauer
June 18, 2012 at 6:39 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, Just, Wow!
I was totally and absolutely clueless this had gotten so extensive. I will be reading this for a while to attempt to get up to speed.
Thanks, ALL, for being so “on it” to help the dolts and gits like me…it is very helpful that all the information is laid out like this.
Jason, Big, Huge, Fat Kudos, Brother!
Brianne
June 19, 2012 at 7:31 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am blown away by the level of awesome here – both in the timeline and the collaboration in the comments. Thank you to Jason and to everyone who has contributed to this project.
Rieux
June 20, 2012 at 5:49 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A couple friendly suggestions for revisions:
In several of the entries regarding blog posts, it might help to make more clear the border between your descriptions of (1) the statements made in the post itself and (2) the statements made in the ensuing comment thread. For example, the comments on Stephanie’s May 23 post may or may not contain the chronologically-first invocation of “witch hunts,” but Stephanie’s post itself certainly doesn’t. Would it make any sense to add an “In comments,” signal in the middle of each entry paragraph in which you’re discussing the content of both post and comments?
As another minor quibble, it seems to me that the synopsis of Elyse’s May 29 “Sex and the Keynote” post should mention the event at which the incident in question took place (Skepticamp Ohio), especially since (a) Elyse mentions it herself and (b) this is the opposite of a “name and shame” context, at least WRT conference itself.
Honestly hope this is helpful….
Rieux
June 20, 2012 at 6:00 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Re Ophelia’s June 1 post: rather than “the Jews for reporting the mistreatment they’re getting,” “German Jews for reporting the mistreatment they had suffered”? (And perhaps “…at the hands of their government”?) I think that more clearly conveys what she was saying; Ophelia was explicitly referencing Germany, not “the.”
I can stop this if it seems too anal.
Jason Thibeault
June 20, 2012 at 10:20 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No, it’s fine. The synopses aren’t exactly the point of the timeline, but they do need to be at least relatively accurate. Thanks Rieux. I need to do some more work on this, got lots of catch-up to do yet.
Pteryxx
June 21, 2012 at 10:16 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
‘Nother background note, thanks to Dana Hunter over at En Tequila Es Verdad. This was earlier in the Facebook thread where DJ did his drop-in-women-attendance blaming; because in context, the discussion was about potentially running a panel on sexual harassment.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/06/20/how-not-to-handle-harassment/
Jason Thibeault
June 21, 2012 at 10:57 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m a few days behind, as you can well see. Most of yesterday’s blogging time allotment was spent almost exclusively on that Safe piece, and on fighting with Sarah Mayhew (over unrelated issues to the post, of course!) over at Ophelia’s in the thread about her email death threats.
Pteryxx
June 21, 2012 at 11:16 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
np, there are now a dozen or so ACTIVE threads at any one time and it’s all I can do to find them, much less read all of them. Much of the current discussion reiterates earlier points and elevates observations.
Most important for now, IMHO:
Guest post by Amanda Marcotte (trigger warning for graphic rape description):
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/19/without-being-called-a-liar
—
Stephanie Zvan’s personal account of not reporting:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/20/why-ididnotreport/
—
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/21/why-i-have-hope/
michaeld
June 21, 2012 at 11:20 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
June 16th you have Jen’s post why she won’t go to TAM twice ;p
Jason Thibeault
June 21, 2012 at 11:30 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh, thanks michaeld. Notice the summaries were unique, too? Comes from curating large lists of links and not noticing duplicates.
(This is a lot of bloody work. :) )
Tom Foss
June 21, 2012 at 11:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dubito Ergo Sum is my blog. Not sure that my post counts as a “major event” though :).
Jason Thibeault
June 21, 2012 at 11:36 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tom: thanks! I’m not only looking for “major” events now, since everyone’s tossing every bloody link in the galaxy at me, but also looking for unique perspectives and messaging that directly counters the most prevalent kinds of trolls.
It does lead me to believe I need to build that “executive summary” too. Pare all of this down to the straight-up MAJOR stuff with less reaction-to-reactions and vicissitudes of the battle. But that would depend on what focus I take — the executive summary of the harassment battle would be a different one than an executive summary of the DJ/TAM debacle that DJ made so utterly entangled.
Pteryxx
June 22, 2012 at 1:51 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, after the first ten days or so (by the time DJ’s foot-in-mouth hit) the harassment policy discussion was pretty much completed, right? A few posts have detailed exactly how the process should work, such as the “Organizational Perspective” post; but that’s about it.
Everything since then has been DJ/TAM and, well, harassment of the women who spoke up to solve the problem initially.
Pteryxx
June 22, 2012 at 10:08 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh, another consciousness raised… Hank Fox weighs in about realizing that sexual harassment really is worth fighting.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/bluecollaratheist/2012/06/22/the-funny-thing-about-sexual-harassment-and-then-the-unfunny-thing/
Skepgineer
June 23, 2012 at 11:59 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This timeline is great. It takes hours per day to keep up with all the major atheist blogs so no one who isn’t a professional blogger can be expected to keep up with it all, yet it’s so common in comment threads for people to bite the newbies.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BITE). Especially on Pharyngula. They tend to pile on with abuse to whomever is does not suddenly and miraculously change their mind to the majority view after one dismissive reply. There are more huge dicks among Pharyngula regulars than a pornstar convention (but I <3 PZ).
Skepgineer
June 24, 2012 at 3:32 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Isn’t “chronological timeline” redundant?
Becky
June 26, 2012 at 2:51 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your work to collate all the discussion. It’s very helpful. Since you seem dedicated to the synopses being relatively accurate (comment 64), could I ask for a few corrections?
-Ask an Atheist releases as a podcast, but we are a local commercial radio program.
-In your summary of June 7, you suggest that my piece uses the words “both sides are equally bad” by putting that in quotes and stating that we pretty much plan to show that. I didn’t write that. It’s misleading to seemingly quote someone.
-You write in your June 10 summary that “Stephanie Zvan surprises [Ask an Atheist] as a call-in guest and corrects them on what they’re actually trying to say”. As even Stephanie has noted, she emailed us beforehand about when she could call in, and we replied. Stephanie’s call was not a surprise–we regularly seek questions and encourage callers with questions during every live show.
It’s clear that you don’t look upon my posts or editorials favorably, and that’s ok. I’d just like to be represented accurately. Again, I’m appreciative of your work in collecting the info and maintaining it as more things develop.
Jason Thibeault
June 26, 2012 at 11:36 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I didn’t suggest your piece uses those words, I’ve mentioned the “both sides are equally bad” argument elsewhere. Those quotes are scarequotes because it’s obvious that on the one side, you have people working to fix a problem with harassment, and on the other side, you have people screaming Taliban and dogmatic, making strange bedfellows with those calling women cunts and bitches and liars. (These people with their differing tactics are on two different sides of the equation, but they’re both against the people in the middle, those trying to get harassment policies in place.)
But I’ve removed the quotes nonetheless.
I have corrected the “surprise” aspect of the second post with your clarification, that she asked to be part of the show as she was one of the people you were going to be talking about, and was told what the call-in hours were for all listeners as though she was just someone on the outside of the conversation as opposed to one of the people you were going to be talking about. To be perfectly clear, I find that to be a reprehensible tactic, and that’s where most of my opprobrium for your show comes from. You can dissent, you can even call us dogmatic, but if you’re going to talk about someone, and you’re going to call them dogmatic, and they say “say it to my face”, your answer should absolutely not be “get in line and hope you make it through the screener”.
Pteryxx
June 26, 2012 at 1:38 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Time for awesome Huge News to go on the timeline! *happydance*
June 26:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/26/huge-news-from-american-atheists-re-harassment/
Also this is excellent background knowledge:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/24/sexual-harassment-definitions-and-legalities/
Thanks so much!
Jason Thibeault
June 26, 2012 at 1:42 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hah, thanks Pteryxx. Both go on the timeline as soon as I get a sec. (Hard enough stealing a few moments right now to post that thing, and post comments!)
I need to meter out what goes on from the last few days’ whargarbl though. For instance, I don’t know that any of the Thunderf00t ridiculousness or Chris Hallquist’s latest attack on me merits a mention.
Pteryxx
June 26, 2012 at 2:28 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
With all due respect for you getting trashed, Jason, none of Thunderfoot’s or Hallquist’s stuff is new material for the harassment discussion. It’s the same old arguments. DJ is far more important as a conference organizer.
Pteryxx
June 26, 2012 at 2:30 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
whoops – and I suggest Richard Carrier’s excellent summary of the issues too, which happens to also be a reply to Thunderfoot. That covers it sufficiently, IMHO.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/carrier/archives/1567
Pteryxx
June 26, 2012 at 3:13 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh – again with all due respect, Dana Hunter’s and Stephanie Zvan’s posts on the new AA policy are up, and both of them are better posts than yours and PZ’s, giving bullet points of the conference call (Dana) and background of this policy’s development, training and communication (Stephanie).
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/06/26/a-huge-step-forward/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/26/american-atheists-want-people-to-have-sex-at-their-conferences/
Jason Thibeault
June 26, 2012 at 5:02 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pteryxx — all due respect, but don’t mollycoddle my ego. They’re generally awesomer than me, and I’ve come to terms with that. :)
I’ll add them in shortly now that I have a few seconds. Then I hope to add some actual analysis to the comments on my post, to make it actually worth reading (rather than merely “first to post it”).
NateHevens
June 26, 2012 at 8:55 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I would like a suggestion… I’m attempting to start a branch of the SSA at Florida Atlantic University. I would like to include an anti-harassment policy in our constitution. I don’t think a policy worded for conferences would work in a general constitution, so any suggestions on how I should go about wording one that is comprehensive for our constitution?
It’s not an issue about need, BTW. Just about all the people who’ve shown interest so far have also intimated, either directly or indirectly, that they are feminists or support feminist causes. It’s an issue of wanting to be safe rather than sorry; heading off any future problems with a policy already in place.
Stephanie Zvan
June 26, 2012 at 10:00 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nate, Sarah Moglia at SSA put together the new policy for SSACon. She might have some thoughts on what would be appropriate for a group with less centralized activities. Also, the Minnesota Atheists are working on a policy to cover all of their events, if you can wait a month or two for that to be finalized.
Another consideration: How difficult do you expect it to be to update the constitution? If it’s something that takes some time, you might want to consider putting a statement of principle in the constitution itself–something that says the group is committed to being open and welcoming to all and thus promises to maintain and enforce an anti-harassment policy–and treating the policy as a working document that can more easily be updated for your needs.
NateHevens
June 26, 2012 at 10:18 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks for your reply, Stephanie. Changing the Constitution is exceedingly easy right now as the group isn’t official yet, so the Constitution itself is obviously not yet an official document.
I expected numerous roadblocks to setting up (mainly pushback from religious types), but the only one roadblock so far happened after the original… erm… person who handles this stuff… up and quit and, in the process, lost all the paperwork for over ten potential groups. They are searching for the paperwork over the summer semester, but there’s a chance we’ll all have to start over again… which would kinda suck.
I’ll contact Sarah for her thoughts. The Constitution already has the standard anti-discrimination clause, but I’d like to be much more specific.
Aerik
June 28, 2012 at 5:11 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Starting in december 2011 I started compiling a bookmark folder of “atheist/skeptic misogyny roundup” — it’s over 150 posts now. _That I know of_. And that was before this timeline of yours. Great.
If only I went back in time to all the crap thrown at rebecca watson in July and harvested more bookmarks. Could I top 300 bookmarks? Most of them from freethoughtblogs? I think so.
Jason Thibeault
June 28, 2012 at 5:36 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aerik: I’ve seen a good number of your links back to my blog specifically over on Reddit, and I appreciate it, since I never post my own stuff there myself. Thanks for that.
This particular timeline isn’t anywhere near complete, either. Just look at all the posts in the comments here that aren’t up on the timeline. Most of them are from Freethought Blogs because we’ve built a stable of atheists here that all happen to be primed on social justice, and while we get the occasional person here and there that thinks privilege and social justice aren’t worth examining, as I said in Mission Creep, there’s a lot of good reasons we should be — because every social justice movement overlaps every other to an extent, and skepticism and atheism are both social justice movements.
Pteryxx
July 9, 2012 at 12:23 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heya, a few folks have asked if there’s a comparable timeline/link roundup for Elevatorgate. Now there is one – Suirauqa put together a massive referenced summary:
http://ohthehumanityofitall.blogspot.com/2012/07/deep-rifts-or-humanity-of-it-all-part-1.html
Pteryxx
July 15, 2012 at 10:15 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, how did Stephanie Zvan’s “An Organizational Perspective” post get missed. This one contains discussion of a organizations’s responsibilities, and how a harassment complaint can be handled on the ground.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/06/18/an-organizational-perspective/
sam spade
July 17, 2012 at 10:14 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Grothe said…”"and a conservative (who attended) who didn’t feel welcome because of what he saw as an undue emphasis by speakers and attendees on progressive and leftist ideals. “”
Boy, that’s for sure. JREF is infested by so many lefties, it’s hard for a copnservative atheist to feel welcome at all. Just the JREF message boards prove this as the lefties can’t engage in critical thinking debate and reduce themselves to ad hominem attacks. It’s sad.
Pteryxx
July 31, 2012 at 1:30 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
More good news of organizations adopting policies! Via Stephanie Zvan:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/07/30/more-policies-in-place/
Minnesota Atheists have completed a policy:
http://mnatheists.org/news-and-media/news/8-local-news/764-board-adopts-a-new-anti-harassment-policy
and even better, Atheist Alliance International now has a meta-policy.
http://www.atheistalliance.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=507&Itemid=30
Liz Henry
August 2, 2012 at 2:57 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, this is a really great timeline! I really admire the level of documenting and linking you did here and how consistent the documentation is over time.
I wonder if you might want to keep a copy of it on the Geek Feminism Wiki?
Emily G
August 9, 2012 at 12:24 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, this is a fantastic resource. Bookmarked. Thanks so much for compiling it all. I’m new to the scene, and I appreciate the perspective.
Just so you know how helpful this was: I read every word here and many (but not yet all) of the links.
My favorite so far is Jen’s post at Blag Hag (“Dealing with badly behaving speakers”). Powerful stuff. As a privileged-in-many-ways person, I loved the “shut up and listen” advice coming from Pharyngula, Dubito Ergo Sum, and others.
Thank you again. I’ll be following this issue now.
SSA Blogathon – SSA adopts a harassment policy for conferences! (4 of 9) | Lousy Canuck
June 15, 2012 at 11:30 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] excellent news to those among you who’ve been following the ongoing secular harassment policy campaign (though if you haven’t that’s okay too): the Secular Student Alliance has officially [...]
FtB and Rebecca Watson want TAM to succeed | Lousy Canuck
June 17, 2012 at 7:40 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] The harassment policy campaign timeline In Medias Res: how to find the plot if you’re just tuning in [...]
A Conversation With Some Bloggers | The X Blog
June 17, 2012 at 7:49 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] will find this link handy to have on the side. Please Snork This Blog Post!Share Posted in Uncategorized « [...]
The Roundup On Our Video With Eight Freethought Bloggers And Rebecca Watson Discussing TAM, DJ Grothe And Sexual Harassment At Secular Conventions. | Al Stefanelli
June 18, 2012 at 11:10 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] you should look to Jason Thibeault’s blog, “Lousy Canuck.” Here’s a link to the specific blog, and it has names, dates and excerpts from other blogs here at FtB which address this issue. [...]
The FtB Conversation about TAM: Transcript Pt. 1 | Lousy Canuck
June 18, 2012 at 5:22 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] In Medias Res: how to find the plot if you’re just tuning in The harassment policy campaign timeline [...]
Accusations of harassment at various skeptical, freethought, and atheist conferences stirs controversy within the atheist community | God Discussion
June 20, 2012 at 12:53 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] atheist community allegedly have problems with sexual harassment and individuals requested that a harassment policy be made for each conference. When women speak out about the alleged harassment, disputes [...]
Pascal’s Reporter « Dubito Ergo Sum
June 20, 2012 at 6:37 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] been following the recent harassment discussion pretty closely, and I feel like I’ve been learning a lot. While the last year or so have [...]
Why I Have Hope: Atheism, Sexism and Blowing Up The Internet | Greta Christina's Blog
June 21, 2012 at 4:38 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] like the ones we’ve been having in the last couple of weeks can be very disheartening. I’ve seen more than one person say that they’re giving up on [...]
All is Not Well in Viagraland: Misogyny, Sexism and Sexual Harassment in the Atheist Community « Feminism — The Other "F" Word
June 21, 2012 at 4:40 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] glad that Jason Thibeault, who blogs under the name Lousy Canuck on Freethought, constructed the sexual harassment timeline of the events, which seems to keep building as more and more outrageous faux pas are committed — by the very [...]
The FtB Conversation about TAM: Transcript pt. 2 | Lousy Canuck
June 21, 2012 at 5:05 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] In Medias Res: how to find the plot if you’re just tuning in The harassment policy campaign timeline [...]
Misery is Not About Truth | Research to be Done
June 21, 2012 at 8:02 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] the problems we face are insurmountable. In a more local way, me and this friend have been watching the controversy over sexual harassment at atheism conferences play out and getting increasingly depressed over how many people just don’t seem to [...]
Fashion Friday: Age and Sex | Greta Christina's Blog
June 22, 2012 at 4:50 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] they are, that really isn’t what I’m looking for here. Especially in the context of recent events. (And whatever you do, unless you’re already a pretty good friend of mine, DO NOT tell me [...]
Sharing the love « The Lady Garden
June 23, 2012 at 1:22 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] should have harassment policies and how they ought to be enforced. There’s a timeline here: Harassment policies campaign – timeline of major events. It’s… complicated. But not so complicated that there is ever good reason for [...]
The Last Word on Abbie Smith and Russell Blackford and the Right to Grab Ass at Conferences and All That | The X Blog
June 24, 2012 at 4:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] recently, we have seen that it is a perfectly legitimate and even praiseworthy enterprise to openly discuss the fact that many women have felt uncomfortable at many different atheist, skeptics,…, and we have seen as part of that discussion a reasoned call for more clearly stated and more [...]
Surely We Have Some Real Threat Assessment Experts in This Community | En Tequila Es Verdad
June 25, 2012 at 5:16 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] to a fever pitch just before she received those emails. I can tell you that in the context of what’s been going on in this community, if I had received those communications from a person unknown to me, and this came on top of doubts [...]
Educate me on sexual harassment. Case 1. | Cristina Rad
June 25, 2012 at 10:33 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] have time to get into, so for a detailed timeline of everything that happened you can click HERE [...]
Addressing some things Thunderf00t definitely actually said « The Hypothetical Bus Stop
June 25, 2012 at 11:13 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] harassment problem that’s been burning up the Interwebs lately here. Jason Thibeault gives a timeline of the major events. Ashley Miller explains what the point of all this is. Teal Deer version: a few months ago, a few [...]
So Much Wrong, Part 1: thunderf00t and Sexual Harassment | Greta Christina's Blog
June 25, 2012 at 9:16 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] has covered many different arenas, from conferences to local groups to internet communities. This latest conversation is only one part of it. To say, “Well, who cares about conferences anyway” is like [...]
This Is How It’s Done: American Atheists Announces Code of Conduct for Conferences | Greta Christina's Blog
June 26, 2012 at 4:04 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] Two days after the discussion of sexual harassment at atheist/ skeptical conferences began, American Atheists president David [...]
The X Blog is On Vacation | The X Blog
June 28, 2012 at 11:44 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] Sexual Harassment at Conferences as my contribution to that effort is minor compared to that of my colleagues. I’ve turned off comments here and this is the last you will hear from me at FTB.com until [...]
Lost in the Shuffle « Dubito Ergo Sum
June 30, 2012 at 11:53 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] all the sexist derailment on the harassment policy topic thanks to folks like Thunderf00t, I think there’s a detail being lost in the shuffle. A [...]
Stalkers vs. Stasi | The Atheist Conspiracy
July 1, 2012 at 8:34 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] So, I finally have a working computer of my own after six months without one, and I get it at the same time that the skeptical-atheist blogosphere is having another of these scuffles over feminism where a couple of women raise some complaints only to have a wall of (mostly) men stand up and scream about the Feminazi Galiban is trying to stop them having a little fun. I won’t waste time summarizing it for those who don’t know what went on; Jason Thibeault has done a wonderful job of it already. [...]
Witch Hunts, Sex Scandals, and the Atheist Community | Galileo Unchained
July 2, 2012 at 6:42 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] over The Amazing Meeting. I don’t pretend to understand the issue, but an Elevatorgate-like discussion has blown up about an incident of sexual harassment at a previous TAM, how it was handled, and then [...]
Sisterhood of the Oppressed – A Critique « atheistlogic
July 2, 2012 at 6:55 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] if you’re new to this discussion, Jason Thibeault over at Lousy Canuck has a decent timeline of what’s been going on in this conversation in case you need a little bit of [...]
Witch Hunts, Sex Scandals, and the Atheist Community | Cross Examined
July 2, 2012 at 7:03 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] over The Amazing Meeting. I don’t pretend to understand the issue, but an Elevatorgate-like discussion has blown up about an incident of sexual harassment at a previous TAM, how it was handled, and then [...]
Lousy Canuck
July 12, 2012 at 11:14 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] the proceedings of the event now known as “elevatorgate” make a sort of prequel to the harassment policies campaign in how major forces in the skeptical and atheist movements decided to align for and against female [...]
Digital archaeology of Elevatorgate – a timeline | Lousy Canuck
July 12, 2012 at 11:14 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] the proceedings of the event now known as “elevatorgate” make a sort of prequel to the harassment policies campaign in how major forces in the skeptical and atheist movements decided to align for and against female [...]
Derangierte Einsichten - TAM und JREF können mich mal
July 13, 2012 at 5:29 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] entsteht die zweite Welle, die sich bei lousy canuck nachlesen lässt. Wichtig im Augenblick ist nur, dass mehrere skeptische / atheistische Konferenzen [...]
TAM’s harassment policy was secret. Why? | Lousy Canuck
July 18, 2012 at 12:25 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] of the biggest victories I was really, truly hoping for in the harassment policies campaign came to pass. But rather than crowing about it like I did with the American Atheists and CFI [...]
Politics Is Warfare, or How I Learned The Meaning Of False Balance | The Atheist Conspiracy
July 22, 2012 at 8:46 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] specifically the continuing fallout from the event known as Elevatorgate manifested in the form of the debacle involving harassment policies and TAM. Specifically, it involves a part I hadn’t linked in my original TAM post, involving [...]
Wiki help: anti-harassment policies | Geek Feminism Blog
July 28, 2012 at 8:25 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] have had extensive online discussion of adopting anti-harassment policies now, most recently was the campaign to get skeptical and secular events to adopt policies. We’d like to gather the links together on one page, the Conference anti-harassment reading [...]
Quitting: a reason for optimism | The Crommunist Manifesto
August 13, 2012 at 6:26 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] problem is that while a handful of bloggers were engaged in a pitched battle, the major orgs simply went ahead and adopted the policies. It was a tidy victory representing a step forward that was almost entirely lost in the fight over [...]
The campaign against Amy Davis Roth | Lousy Canuck
August 16, 2012 at 7:09 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that while folks are being terrible to Amy for no apparent or rational reason, everyone taking them to task for it would absolutely defend their freedom to say or do those things. Otherwise, there are no actions to take them to task over! Really, pointing out their bad behaviour is a far cry from telling them they’re not allowed to behave badly. And most of the community agrees — the fight for harassment policies at atheist and skeptic conventions is already won. [...]
Atheism, therefore Feminism | Cognitive Revolution
August 19, 2012 at 3:13 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] isn’t acceptable behavior and what does and doesn’t count as sexual harassment led to discussions about sexual harassment policies at conferences . In June 2012, Rebecca explained why she wouldn’t be attending a [...]
To Blog Or Not To Blog | mtlskeptic
August 19, 2012 at 4:45 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] to make time to blog. The other reason is that I’ve been watching the internet blow up about sexual harassment policies at conferences and I was concerned that the only thing I would be able to write about it would be an endless stream [...]
Sextravagana! Not Letting Religion Rule Secular Sexual Ethics «
September 20, 2012 at 7:58 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] and simple harassment policy where everyone would see it right on the back. After the months and months of willfully ignorant shitstorm surrounding the simple request that atheist cons take sexual…, it was refreshing and delightful to see the issue handled easily with no fuss. Contrast that with [...]
Atheism +: a chance to widen the scope of american atheism | ravingscientist
September 30, 2012 at 12:13 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] [...]
sThe 2012 Lousy Year In Review » Lousy Canuck
January 1, 2013 at 11:55 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] doing unintentional splash damage while excoriating Grothe’s douchebaggery. I started the timeline of major events to set some incorrect ideas about the timing of it all to rest. I also wrote this primer on why [...]
The Troll History of the Secular Movement » Lousy Canuck
January 7, 2013 at 8:27 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] misreads of timing or misreads of intent or misreads of targeting of arguments, I put together my widely-referenced timeline to stomp some of those memes flat. This seems to me like evidence that one side of the divide is [...]
Privilege, Dialogue, Harassment, and the Anti-Availability Heuristic » Lousy Canuck
May 16, 2013 at 6:13 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] might legitimately have with our movement. You might fight back against “fascism” like harassment policies, and try to prove them unnecessary by repeatedly harassing people who advocate for them. Or you [...]