LogFAQs > #884045338

SmartMuffin posted...

stop having cultural memes that insist shared interests are required for romance

This is important but it's also not at all the core of the issue. The fact is, if you drop in 100 male nerds with 10 women, there will likely be harassment, no matter WHAT the women's interests are.

The problem is those dudes are taught that they should proposition women EVERYWHERE. This is bad already in bars where they think they should ask out every woman no matter what availability she is signaling, but it's CRITICALLY worse when at a professional conference where NO ONE is there for sex. This goes back to Adams argument about your penis turning your brain off. I guess all those dudes were just so horny that they forgot they were in a professional environment and not some club? No, they just also view a professional environment as a mating zone.

You can throw around statistics all you want, but the fact is, if you are one of the 100 awkward male libertarians at a conference, you have the ultimate power to affect that harassment statistic. If 10 out of 100 dudes were going to harass, and one of them decided not to, then only 9 out of 100 will. Why would you NOT choose to do that, if you cared AT ALL about your community (libertarianism, games, whatever)? Why would you relegate your behavior to a statistic?

THAT is why people blame communities for pushing away new members. Because they care more about justifying bad behavior with statistics, than using their power to improve the community. That's what makes it a community issue, not just a few bad apples.

Besides, SSC argument is that hostility to women is only <49% the reason for bad gender balance. Which is like, duh? No one would disagree with that. There's way too many other reasons.
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_foolmo_
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