brickening

We can simultaneously both blame rapists and have effective safeguarding policy that minimizes the risk of rapists getting access to victims.

As an example, prisons almost always have a policy of sex segregation, with separate estates for each sex. The female prison estate is designated solely for female prisoners, and the male estate solely for the males. This physical separation safeguards the female inmates from male inmates, many of whom are very dangerous and have already raped.

In recent years, a handful of jurisdictions have experimented with allowing some male prisoners in the female prison estate, which resulted in sexual assaults and rapes of women prisoners, and even some pregnancies. The rapist men are to blame of course, but they were enabled in their crimes by a set of horrifying policy changes that put so many vulnerable women at a hugely increased risk.

It's not victim-blaming to point this out and insist that this broken policy be changed.

Yes, this was mob of disrespectful, intrusive men taking advantage of the situation, as men often do. I agree with you on this and I'm not sure why you read my comment as acceptance of their behavior.

However, if the organizers want to avoid this mass incursion of males at next year's event, they need to learn from the policy failure that enabled it this time round. It's not like men are suddenly going to learn to behave themselves honorably, there need to be clearly defined boundaries that prevent abuse. As an important part of that, any policy that prioritizes declarations of 'gender identity' over the reality of being female really needs to be got rid of.

I mean, women at the event reported being pushed out of the way and hurt by men barging past them. So clearly everyone is well aware of who the men are despite whatever 'gender identity' they might claim.

But it's difficult to speak out about it when policy is actively working against you: the code of conduct for the event stated "unacceptable behaviors include ... offensive verbal comments including as related to ... gender identity" which effectively bans any attendee from pointing out the obvious, and pressures women to ignore their natural instincts, lower their personal boundaries, stay silent in their discomfort, and basically just be nice and tolerant and accepting of the injustice they see before their very eyes.

I see the original error, back in 2022, as the event organizers opening the conference to people who call themselves 'non-binary', as this implicitly made the event centered around 'gender identities' rather than the female sex. As anyone, including men, can claim any 'gender identity', the organizers effectively stopped the conference being aimed towards women.

The other problem with centering the conference around 'gender identity' is that this redefines 'woman' to be some sort of unfalsifiable inner abstract feeling of femininity. But this doesn't make sense in reality, given that this is not the basis on which women are discriminated against in tech or anywhere else.

By trying to be more 'inclusive', all they've done is promote female exclusion - the exact opposite of what the conference was originally set up for, which was female empowerment and celebration of female achievement.

If the policy isn't also to blame, what's to stop the same mass intrusion of males happening again next year?

Your 'gender identity' is literally the words you say or the box you tick when asked what your 'gender identity' is. A policy that welcomes 'non-binary people' is a policy that welcomes any man who says he's 'non-binary'.

Women at the event were saying they were literally barged out the way and hurt by men pushing past them. Everyone is well aware of who the men are in this situation, but policies that prioritize declarations of 'gender identity' over reality have the effect of pressuring women to ignore their natural instincts, lower their personal boundaries, sit silently in their discomfort, and basically just be nice and accepting.

I'm glad to see the pushback against the hordes of disrespectful men taking advantage of the situation, but it will all be for nothing unless the organizers fix their policy to keep these men out in future. Women deserve better.

The policy of the conference is to blame too. Up to 2021, it was a women-only event. Then in 2022 the organizers decided to open it to people who call themselves 'non-binary' as well, therefore implicitly making the event about 'gender identity' rather than sex. As anyone can claim any 'gender identity', they effectively changed the conference to include men, instead of being exclusively for women. They also said that men who were 'allies' could attend, and then of course found that the men did not behave like allies at all.

This policy change was a huge departure from the original mission back in the 1990s, which was to have a conference by and for female computer scientists, who every day have to endure the effects of working in a field that is very heavily male-dominated.

I hope that this year's influx of insolent men calling themselves 'non-binary' has reminded the organizers of the extent to which males will dominate given the opportunity, and why their change of policy last year was so absurd and harmful to women. By trying to be more 'inclusive', the end result was female exclusion.

That said, there has been a lot of ideological pressure to center 'gender identity' in recent years, so I can understand why the organizers may have felt the need to go along with this. But redefining 'woman' to be some unfalsifiable inner abstract feeling of femininity doesn't work in reality, given that this is not the basis on which women are discriminated against in tech or anywhere else.