Monday, April 28, 2008

While I Climb Out from Under a Mountain Of E-Mail...

... that those I that argued the Open Source Boob Project I blogged about previously was a tempest in a teacup and that no way would it spread further than PenguinCon...

... there are guys planning on attending Dragon*Con that are, in their male-privileged, socially clueless, way talking about how they will implement the project.

Not IF.

But HOW.

Thankfully, there is also something AWESOME coming out of all this:

The Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project (and Gentleman's Auxiliary)

and

The LJ community

From the original OSMBEU post:

"I would like to start the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program. Here's my pledge: if I see somebody groping you in public, and you're not moaning Yes! Yes! Yes!, I will break through your Somebody Else's Problem invisibility field and come over and ask if you're okay. If your situation looks dangerous enough I can't help on my own, I will call over friends or, if it's a situation in which I think the cops would be on your side, I will call the cops. If you're being harassed by a guy, you can say so to me, even if you don't know me. I pledge I will distract him so you can get away, or I will tell him that he needs to leave, or whatever I can do to the best of my ability. I pledge that yes, actually, because you are a woman I will give you the benefit of the doubt. If you tell me that a guy just did something shitty to you I will not refuse to look at any evidence and tell you that I know him and he's a great guy and you must have been imagining things. I have great loyalty to my male friends but I will not allow that to blind me to the fact that none of us are saints and even my best friends can screw up and may need to be called on it. I pledge that I will walk you to your car if you don't feel safe walking alone at night, and then you can drive me to mine.

Yes, even at Wiscon. I pledge that even if I don't know you, if there is a creepy guy following you around, you can say so, and I will not say to you go hide in your room; I will say to him go find another party, or if necessary, go home. I will come with you if you need to talk to the con organizers. I will not make you feel like your right to control over your own body is not a big deal.

And I will do this whether or not I like you, or even know you. It's not about liking you. It's about the fact that we need to back each other up, and I will need you to do this for me some day."

I, myself, will be interviewing organizers of this at A-Kon and passing out a few flyers and buttons, too.

1 comment:

Stacia said...

Hi Shawn -- don't I know you from alt.religion.kibology? I saw you on the comments of John Scalzi's blog and thought I'd drop by. I like the blog!

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