[Noisebridge-discuss] I got groped at noisebridge at hackmeet

Susan Werner heinousbutch at gmail.com
Sun Oct 21 02:19:07 UTC 2012


I went to hackmeet today, tried to join in a few conversations, and got told 
to fuck off because I don't already know people. As I was crying and talking 
to someone on the Internet about how these kinds of events are intentionally 
hostile to people who don't already have significant social connections, some 
guy walks by me, and rubs his hand on my right breast, and calmly walks on as 
if nothing happened. 

I got groped while I was crying at noisebridge, during an event with lots of
people at it, and nobody did anything. Nobody spoke a word to me. Nobody 
offered any kind of help whatsoever, and lots of people walked by me, as I was 
there for about half an hour after that happened.  

I'm done with noisebridge, done with its community which enables sexual 
assault, done with events which are intentionally hostile to newcomers, done 
with all the bullshit about it being an "anarchist space" where nothing can be 
said about entitled jerks who make the space hostile for others. 

Until someone works on the whole "hostility to newcomers" bit of hacker
culture, harassment will be endemic. As long as newcomers are seen as people to
be excluded and hazed, no amount of non-harassment policies or codes of conduct 
will do anything substantial. 

Kicking out the people who grope isn't enough and won't cause systemic change. 
Change the culture which encourages treating newcomers and outsiders like shit,
and ignores anything anyone does to newcomers, don't just kick out people who 
further this sort of culture.  

Have fun with your hackerspaces and your shitty-ass subculture based on 
exclusion and abuse. I don't even need to talk to people like y'all and I'm not
going to spend a moment of extra time with a bunch of people who can't even 
look at me after I get groped in front of fifteen people. 

I have a key to noisebridge. If anyone wants it, let me know. 

-- 
Susan




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