Fighting Words

I’m gettin’ irritated again.

 Anyone following the news in the USA lately will have likely heard about a guy named Don Imus. He’s a famous talk radio host who is known for his provocative statements on air. Not long ago he covered a story about a women’s college basketball team. Rather than celebrate their bold, but ultimately unsuccessful bid for the championship, he opted to take a really cheap shot. He had the gall to call them a bunch of “nappy headed ho’s.”

He has since been censured and fired from his job with NBC, and he has attempted to swallow his pride and issue a half hearted apology to the young women he insulted. He has admitted that  he has gone too far (this time). As a “shock jock”, he has used the airwaves to insult many women in the past. He has just been called on it this time. Unfortunately, Don Imus is only one of many radio personalities who uses the airwaves to hurl excrement.

Another similar story comes to mind. A women named Kathy Sierra is noted for her software design skills and her business acumen. She has a widely read blog and appears as a keynote speaker at technical conferences. I say that’s commendable no matter what gender you are, and especially so for a woman. High-Technology has been a largely male only domain with a few notable exceptions. Any women who make it to the top have to be pretty good to rise above the testosterone and bravura.   

Apparently, Ms. Sierra’s blog has had some rather unsavoury photo manipulations posted in her comments section. Someone took a photograph of her, and placed a hangman’s noose around her neck along with a juvenile death threat.

WTF?

Some other bloggers have told her that this is a trifling matter, and she should just dust herself off and carry on. Understandably, Kathy Sierra has thought otherwise. She has cancelled some upcoming appearances, and departed the blogverse rather than engage in debate with people who use the anonymity of the Internet to spout venomous bullshit. There’s nothing wrong with her being upset by this episode, and wanting to keep her distance.

These two stories are similar in that they are both examples of a common disregard that we hold for strong and succesfull women. It also is wrong.

Women have been struggling for decades for equality in the workforce and respect for their efforts wherever they may choose to apply them. It appears there are still a lot of people around who don’t necessarily believe that successful women should be held up as positive examples. And worse still, the quality of public debate has hit rock bottom when the likes of the famous radio guy and the anonymous blog-commenter try to get away with crap like this. These are just two examples, and I’m sure I could dig up many more to illustrate my point.

I was just a kid when the feminist movement got into full swing. The sixties were interesting times for a lot of people, and I quickly found that it was easy to agree with the tenets of feminism, despite my gender. I don’t think I’ve ever been threatened by women who just wanted equality. How hard is it to realize that we can’t continue to treat half the population as inferior? It rankles me to hear misogyny rearing it’s ugly head time and again.

The worst part of it all is that the quality of discourse is plummeting. Rather than make a thoughtful argument in favour of their own points, the male chauvinist pigs of the world would rather attack with unsavoury comments and thinly veiled threats instead. I’ve just cited two examples, and those are just the tip of the iceberg.

People may counter my argument by spouting nonsense about freedom of speech. I agree that we should be free to express our opinions, but we should also know where acceptable discourse ends and hate speech begins. We have the right to free speech, but we should also think about the responsibility to speak the truth. It’s obvious, but not obvious enough for some I guess.

Like Spiderman says: “with great power comes great responsibility.” We could all think about this.