Harassment is:
- any form of repeated behaviour intended to intimidate a person or make them feel unwelcome or uncomfortable
- repeated interactions with a person after they have made it clear that further interaction is unwelcome
Harassment occurs both online and in person at geek events.
Responses
See Reporting harassment for some useful suggestions on how to report harassment.
Aside from reporting specific incidents of harassment to authorities (pretty much only works if the harassment was IRL and very physical) there may be other ways to get administration to respond and attempt to prevent future harassment.
Ask if the event or virtual space in which the harassment occurred has any type of policy or TOS regarding harassment. If not, you may want to ask the administration to institute such a policy. If one is already in place, you can discuss with the administration ways to make it easier to report violations. Of course these measures are only effective if the incidents that are reported are taken seriously and the policy is enforced.
Another mechanism some people choose, especially when they feel that authorities (community organisers, law enforcement, etc) may not be responsive, or when the authorities have already proven themselves unresponsive, is to Name and shame their harasser.
Incidents/examples
- "a Photographer friend of ours wandered over, sighing that she’d already had her arse pinched four times.
- F.I.R.S.T. Robotics groping incident
- further incidents are documented under Online harassment
- Photography can sometimes be harassing in its nature, or be part of a pattern of harassment
- Annalee Newitz documents three incidences of sexism and sexual harassment in the geek community in 2012 along with responses and analyses.
- Spot The Question - a story illustrating how male allies can fail to perceive incidents right in front of them
Dealing with harassment
- Conferences and other geek events may wish to have a Conference anti-harassment policy
- Blogs should have a Comment policy
