Good job, Bryan Cantrill and Joyent. One small step forward.
(And now I see this posting getting flagged down the page rapidly, like anything else on the topic of Silicon Valley's disdain for women. Has dropped from #3 to #35 in roughly 3 minutes.)
It's almost as if being a misogynist doesn't take any effort whatsoever anymore. It just becomes another mundane everyday action. It shouldn't be, but you're redefining it to be.
You mean it ever actually took effort? The truth is that our entire society is misogynist. I'm a woman, and I do my upmost to not be, but /because society itself is screwed/, even I can't avoid being misogynist occasionally.
In this particular case, you're thankfully calling the actions of men "overreactions", but that EXACT word is used to belittle women the world over, in exactly this same way. Wanting people to be decent human beings is "overreacting". Wanting people to check for consent before buying them drinks, or walking them home, or coming into their house... overreacting.
And that's not even going into the gender aspects of calling a man that.
How do you define misogyny?
Yeah, the word "overreaction" can be applied to many contexts. Who would have known?
Wanting people to check for consent before buying them drinks
I wish someone bought me free stuff.
or walking them home
That one I can agree with, but how exactly does someone walk you home without your consent? I mean, if they don't have it, then by definition it's following or stalking.
coming into their house
As in, they knock and come in uninvited? Politely send them away. If they come in forcefully, that's a different issue entirely.
I'm not sure why you think it has to be necessarily. By analogy, would you say that racism is supposed to be an abnormal thing? We have plenty of examples of societies where racism is or was the norm.
But like I said, I'd require a more thorough definition of what the OP considers "misogyny". Because for some people I've noticed that all minor annoyances and socially awkward situations are misogynistic and sexist.
That's... a terribly rosy view of Western society you have there, I'm afraid.
Building an environment based on fear, reprisals, summary judgment and punishment is not a good recipe for improving the state of gender equality in tech (or anywhere). Means are as important as ends. Lining up suspected misogynists against a wall and shooting them is not a good way to go about stamping out misogyny, although that is more or less what's going on here (though not quite as dramatic, of course).
By using inappropriate means, by making summary judgments based on little evidence, and by making use of other inappropriate means the cause of gender equality is not advanced or strengthened, instead it is equated with abuses of power and instead weakened.