Women and TLUG - a personal rant

[Renata Rocha]

Victim blaming and denial are the most important issues to be
addressed when talking about sexism, and, unfortunately, men are not
the only perpetrators of such violence.
Renata Rocha
http://renata.org


On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 5:31 PM, Maureen <maureen-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I am a woman and I attend TLUG as often as I can but working in the
> theatre oft times Tuesdays are out for me.  I was at TLUG last month and
> will be again this Tuesday,tomorrow in actual fact, I have never had
> anything but the same sort of courtesy I gave everyone there returned in
> kind.  I am learning about Linux and everyone is most helpful. I even
> love going out for beer and listening to the discussions.
> I believe we reap what we sow.
> Thanks guys for always being so kind and helpful.
> Maureen
>
> On Mon, 2013-12-09 at 12:19 -0500, Renata Rocha wrote:
>> I like TLUG a lot, and used to attend the meetings. But you haven't
>> seen me at the meetings in a while, and probably won't see me anytime
>> soon.
>>
>> Some men who attend TLUG and we know who they are have a
>> predatory/harassing behaviour when in presence of women. If you attend
>> TLUG, have seen this happen and have ignored this behaviour of your
>> colleague, you are enabling violence against women to keep happening
>> at the TLUG environment, and keeping women away from the group.
>>
>> I have myself promised not to come back to the meetings while I see
>> this kind of harassment in public being ignored, and the people who do
>> it not held accountable for their actions.
>>
>> What you can do: talk to these members and make them at least
>> apologize for their actions and make women feel safe and comfortable
>> again at the TLUG meetings. I'd love to learn and hang out with you,
>> but your environment is not welcoming for me and for other women in IT
>> I know. We're in this for the same reason as everyone else - learning
>> and sharing.
>>
>> (Yes yes I realize there's more than man/woman in the world, but for
>> this case specifically I wanted to keep the universe limited. )
>>
>> Renata Rocha
>> http://renata.org
>> --
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>
>
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists