Women's Voices

As much as I love the web, there have always been aspects of this new world I abhor. It would have been overly idealistic to imagine a virtual human community without its ugly side. After all, we are still all humans, the only species that kills gratuitously, has "anger" issues, purposely hurts each other's feelings, and can't restrain our collective impulse to poison our common environment for purposes of strictly private greed.

Thus, I suppose it was inevitable that we would face something like the Kathy Sierra case. One of the San Francisco Chronicle's most gifted writers, Dan Fost, has been documenting this depressing story. His most recent piece sets the context.

It all boils down the vitriolic reaction from the male-dominated world of software engineers to the emergence of a woman's voice, one at least as passionate as her male colleagues, about the issues of how software is affecting real people in real time.

Strike that. Kathy is both more passionate and much more humanistic about subject this than any male writer I've come across.

So, what has she gotten in response to her passion? A poisonous stream of denunciations from anonymous males, outraged by her outspoken, articulate intervention in a play world they've considered their own domain.

This case has an affect beyond those immediately involved. That became clear to me this morning when I read the article by Joan Walsh, the editor of Salon.

Joan's usual incisive analysis carries the piece along until she inserts a jarring statement: "I've never admitted the toll our letters can sometimes take on women writers at Salon, myself included, because admitting it would be giving misogynist losers -- and these are the posters I'm talking about -- power."

I admit that this admission by Joan caught me by surprise. I've known her for years, read many of her articles, and was a colleague for two difficult years at Salon, before I resigned and moved on to ever greater difficulties.

I've always admired Joan as a strong woman writer. She calls herself "mouthy," but I would translate that as "fearless."

The point of this post is that we need voices like those of Kathy Sierra and Joan Walsh if the web is to ever reach its potential.

As for the "men" opposing them, let me issue this challenge: Come out from behind your shield of secrecy and reveal your identities. If you can't do this, and repeat your violent, hateful, sexist language under your real name, you are less than men.

You are what you consider a lesser type of being, i.e., pussies, aka, women. Isn't it interesting that the real women speak openly under their real names? Maybe this is what frightens these quasi-men the most, for they can only issue their loathsome threats from the dark caves of secrecy.

They remind me of the cowardly Osama bin-Laden, who gets sick every time he actually has to engage in a real battle, as opposed to issuing false fatwas and taking credit for the acts of others. (Thanks for this information, Lawrence Wright.)

To Kathy and Joan and all the other women speaking out on the web, I say, "Keep on!" There are many more of us who support you than the other type. They exist in the shadows. We exist in the open.

That's the difference. Never trust anyone who is afraid to tell you his real name, and never take his threats seriously, because he is a coward by nature. On the other hand, we live in a vicious era where the cowards (including the aforementioned bin-Laden, feel empowered.)

The web, and the real world, will eventually eliminate these scum. Meanwhile, no one can silence the rest of us.

p.s. I'm quite sure my grandson, James, agrees with me on this subject.

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