I’m a man. Not.

I stumbled on Online Gender Analysis, about how men and women’s word choices are differentiated by gender. (Found it via Colorado Entrepreneurs and Technology).

I ran all my blog posts through The Gender Genie. Omitting a few obvious posts (such as my last one), all the results indicate I’m a man.

I question the research, not my identity.

Sick to my stomach

I am sick to my stomach after reading Kathy Sierra’s latest post, Death threats against bloggers are NOT “protected speech” (why I cancelled my ETech presentations). My heart goes out to her, I can only imagine how terrified and violated she feels.

That the world is full of misogynist  bullies is not a surprise. Every woman alive has borne the brunt of some very nasty comments. Pre- internet and caller-ID it was phone calls, which we could at least hang up on, and get the protection of an unlisted number. (I’m still listed in the phone book under my first initial instead of first name for this historical reason.)

That this blogosphere community contains misogynist bullies isn’t a surprise either. Any community that is majority male, as the software industry is, will have its bad apples.

I’d like to think that your normal run-of-the-mill misogynist bully usually knows to draw the line when it comes to death threats. Except some don’t, especially when it comes to spousal abuse. With the added global pool of misogynists and the anonymity of the web, it’s all to easy for lines to be crossed.

What is shocking, and what I can’t come to grips with, is that other members of this community allowed this to happen.

The death threat poster needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. As a community we need to shame, ostracize, and hold accountable those responsible for enabling him.