I saw a link to this over at Geeky Mom's blog, and even though it is quite horrible, I feel like it *should* be publicized, precisely because it is so horrible.
Kathy Sierra, who blogs at Creating Passionate Users (which I occasionally read), has written some kick-ass books, and is a usability goddess, recently cancelled her appearance and workshop at the ETech conference. Why? Because of death threats she received, on her blog and on various other blogs.
That's right. Death threats.
She blogs about the incidents in this post. (Warning: content not suitable for children or the faint of heart.) Disturbing doesn't even begin to describe the whole thing.
I have a ton of respect for Kathy Sierra. It breaks my heart that she, or any other woman in tech (high-profile or otherwise), should ever have to go through this. This whole incident shows *exactly* how f***ed up our whole tech culture is. And why we need to start being serious about changing it. Right. Now. Because this is totally, TOTALLY, wrong and unacceptable.
Kathy, I hope you come out of this OK, and I hope that you continue to blog and continue to be the fabulous techie that you are.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Jane--that's terrible. Especially because I can't imagine what in the tech world could make people act like that. I mean, it's not politics, or women's theory, or whatever. Not that I can understand it there either, but I guess it's a little more known to happen in that arena.
But that said, I don't know anything about this, so if you know, can you explain a little more about why people are opposed to Kathy Sierra? What did she do that made people hate her so much?
ianqui, I honestly have no idea what triggered this. Kathy is not a controversial figure as far as I know. That's what makes this series of events so weird and so disturbing.
I honestly have no idea what triggered this
Jane, that's the crux of the problem. I don't think psychotic tech guys need any kind of trigger, except that she's a female, visible, and part of the tech field.
Very true, sandra! And that certainly seems to be the case here.
Post a Comment