Boagworld celebrated its 200th show yesterday. A live podcast was put on throughout the day to commemorate this event. Many members of the Web industry took part including the likes of Andy Clarke and Rachel Andrews, both respected professionals.
Unfortunately, activities in a live chat-room for the event have overshadowed the otherwise successful day. These events came in the form of sexist comments against some of the female guests on the show. The comments have sparked quite intense retaliation from those involved and the Web community at large.
I would like to state right now that the actions of some people in the chat-room were childish, unwarranted, and something I don’t condone in any way. However, this whole situation is very interesting, both with the commenters and with the overall response to the comments. There is much to learn from these events.
This issue has been discussed at length on Twitter and the general consensus is that these comments manifested simply because the chat-room was anonymous. Because there was no physical tie between comments and real people, it meant that anything could be said without fear of attribution. It was a free-for-all where the strongest feelings could be vented with ease, wether they are warranted or not.
An unfortunate aspect of crowds is that as soon as one feeling is made public, anyone else with those feelings feels better about joining in; becoming one of the mob. As this mob grows the feelings get stronger and stronger until they lose all focus and erupt into personal attacks. This is bad.
On the flip-side, most of these comments were undoubtably made by young and immature people who have a bad case of jealousy. Or at least you’d hope that is the case! The reason this didn’t happen to any of the male guests is that the majority of this industry, and in turn the chat-room, is male. I would bet money on 100% of the bad comments coming from males. But why the attack on females? Well, because when you’re jealous the best way to feel better is bring the other person down, at least in your own mind. The only way they could do that was by attacking the biggest difference; gender. I'm by no means an expert of psychology, but this is all pretty obvious stuff.
I'd like to stress again that I'm not condoning what happened, I simply believe a little understanding of the issue will prevent the community coming to knee-jerk conclusions. It seems to me that the response to the comments has turned into a defensive backlash about how woman deserve to be in the Web industry and how hard they’ve worked for it. Why has such a small number of anonymous comments required this much defending? Especially if the majority of the industry supports equal rights.
I can’t see equality being reached if there is a backlash every time a comment is made seemingly against said equality. If you highlight the difference then the difference will persist. It's a never-ending loop that must be broken somewhere along the line. Of course, this post is part of that loop, but I feel it's place is warranted by highlighting the need to break said loop.
In conclusion, none of this would’ve happened if users of the chat-room were required to register, attributing a real name and email in the process. A sense of responsibility results once a physical link is made between the user and his comments. The user must think carefully about the impact of their words before joining the crowd. I believe a majority, if not all, of the comments yesterday would not have happened if this simple requirement was in place.
Transmissions Received
Ryan DC
Well said Rob. Totally agree with your point on jealousy, as it does seem the most obvious reasoning. I think it is a somewhat over-reaction though, taking stupid immature comments personally (but if i was in the same situation i would probably react the same.) It’s definitely not an issue with our industry, and shouldn’t be seen as one. Those commenters were just immature children (potentially not even in the industry).
Overall though, it’s just a bit sad.
Ruth
Although I wasn’t apart of this, I can take a stab at what came about.
“how woman deserve to be in the Web industry and how hard they’ve worked for it”
If any woman ever has to defend her position in an industry, the provokers need to be dealt with. This isn’t the 1940’s anymore!
Thing is, on the other hand, some women do react instantly to what could have been a stupid, but harmless jab, as they have experienced it their whole life. I feel sorry for both parties - the female side, who are attacked due to gender jealousy, an the male side who are let down by a few who just aren’t mature enough.
I think you summed it up perfectly though. Not all males can be as perfect as you know can they Rob :p
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Zimzat
The problem with intolerance (in this case against women in the industry) is that unless it is smacked down, hard, then it is given room to grow. If there isn’t a strong outcry at vicious outbursts then some will view that as approval to what happened, and more will join in over time.
I agree that linking names might have stemmed the tide of most comments, but on the other hand I can think of quite a few people (and I wish I couldn’t) who would go right on saying whatever they felt like, linked or not.
Understanding how to prevent it and how to deal with it when it does happen are both good things to know.
Steve Woods
This has echoes of that TED talk a while back where the speaker was abused via Twitter from the audience while she was speaking, and that was unacceptable too.
There are immature people in all walks of life - that these women have drawn the attention of said folks should be testament to their success and my advice to them would be to just ignore it (which isn’t the same as condoning it), concentrate on being awesome and let the children laugh amongst themselves all the way to the dole queue.
Branden Silva
It’s easy to point out the differences between a male and female. To say they are the same would be a lie obviously, but pretty women in any industry tend to attract a larger male audience and have more success because of it. That isn’t to say that a less pretty female can’t be successful, but it just goes to show you of the male dominance and role physical beauty still has on society.
The same goes for the male ego and competition, etc. I personally get excited to meet females in our industry. Mostly because women offer a different perspective and color pallet, if you will, to the design ecosystem. But I could equally say this about anyone, but when you are a minority, you tend to stand out more. But to ignore our differences just means we are cheating one another. Instead, we should embrace the differences and take pride in the fact that we get to work together in an awesome community. I hope everyone doesn’t get to frustrated over the whole ordeal.