The threats made against Kathy Sierra are vile, disgusting, and not uncommon. For instance: Ginmar, an Iraq war veteran, receives hateful comments and threats every day. Min Jung Kim writes about the constant barrage of stalkers and creepy comments she receives.
I heard about Ms. Sierra canceling her ETech presentation when Liz Henry IM’ed me this afternoon, and she wrote a powerful response, along with a challenge for all of us:
I’d like to make a call to action. When this kind of shit happens, we’ll call it out and document it in public. Call it in the moment. Call it in front of your coworkers. Call it if it’s major or if it’s minor, it’s all part of the same spectrum of misogynist behavior. How about just saying, once in a while, right in the moment if you can, “That’s not funny,” when it’s really not. Say it crosses your boundaries. Say it’s not acceptable to you. This takes practice, but with time, we can all do it and find strength in numbers.
