I've made it to one or two Renaissance type events as well, craft fairs, and technical conferences. It is just not necessary to have an anti-harassment policy.BarnOwl wrote:@ Dilurk -
Never been to a SF&F conference, but I've been to a few Renaissance Festivals/SCA events, lots of craft shows and folklife festivals, and scientific conferences, large and small, in my field(s). No problems with harassment myself at any of those, ever, so you're probably right - it's just not necessary to have an anti-harassment policy. All of the events I've attended have a male:female ratio that is better balanced than that of the atheists/skeptics etc. conferences, and all are more diverse in just about any category you care to choose. One of the things that strikes me about the photos and accounts of atheists/freethinkers meetings are how homogenous they appear to be. Apart from the fact that the attendees are predominantly female, the International Quilt Festival has more diversity, FFS.
That has been my experience as well in my own field. It's the unspoken assumption that the poor woman is not going to be competent and the condescension begins. I hate that. It goes beyond the pale to see middle aged white men trying to tell me that they know better about what sexism is and being condescending towards women. FFS PZ, Laden listen to the womenz. If you want to help feminism, stop trying to help it.Hands down (hands off??) the most persistent and pervasive sexual harassment I've experienced has been in the workplace, particularly in hospitals (beginning at age 16) and medical schools (still happening, middle age). And these are places that have strongly-worded, supposedly progressive policies in place. Do they work? Not in my opinion or experience. An MD friend who now works in primary care was the only woman in her medical school (and probably the state, at the time) to be accepted into a general surgery residency. The Chief of Surgery called her "Dr. C***" every single day, several times a day, in front of other residents, medical students, OR staff, other surgeons, everybody. She persisted, and was a successful surgeon for many years, until all that time standing in the OR took a toll on her body. Makes Ophelia's paranoia and pearl-clutching seem utterly bathetic (and yes I mean the B not the p :mrgreen: ).
