"open source" jackassery

[trochee]

I posted this as a comment to a f-locked post on the jackassery, but I'll repost it here:

my previous opinion of [theferret] theferrett was that he was a smart but emotionally-stunted male nerd (well, we know lots of those) who used polyamory rhetoric to sleaze on lots of women and pretend that he was enlightened by doing so.

Now... well, that's all still true. It just makes me annoyed that he calls it "open source". What a fuckwit. That's dragging both male allies and the open source movement into the scum, providing the anecdotal evidence that is all most people will ever need to complete their stereotype (male poly = "lech", open source = "men who can't get laid"). And then to declare it as a "movement", as if software or SF cons need *more* herds of men objectifying women.

I'm not poly, nor do I wish I were, but I can respect (most of) the people who are serious about it. But poly rhetoric interacts with sexism and male privilege (um, mormon rape camps? in the news now) and so men (or little boys in grownup bodies) need to check themselves. It's awesome that the internet (poly, mono, straight & queer, men & women) rose up to smack him down. But I wish this kind of rhetoric wasn't associated with sexual liberation or with open source movements.

How did that little weasel choose such an appropriate username?

Some of my favorite responses:

• A modest proposal from misia
• Nerd culture promotes this from springheel_jack
• Meanwhile, now I see the whole "open source" element and it further pisses me off. It fucking pollutes the lovely philosophy of open source. from badgerbag
• A lovely roundup at FeministSF.net.

Buh. I don't intend to suggest that I have anything intelligent to add that all these brilliant women (and a few men) haven't already said. But sometimes, the stupid, it burns.

ETA: This made Get Off the Internet, which - though tremendous fun to read even when not on fire like this - has really validated its own existence with this scathing description of the original weaseling.

Comments

[penelopesque.livejournal.com]

Spinning off springheeljack's critique, what I find interesting here is the high diagnosis of children on the autistic spectrum in Silicon Valley and that this spectrum of disorder runs in families. No really that wasn't a non sequitir.

It's a standing joke among the less sensitive and more perceptive techies that the field is full of men with varying degrees of Aspergers and ADD. Both of which - while being different disorders - effect the brain's ability to read facial expressions. Maybe all those adolescent geeks aren't shirking human interaction because they don't think it's important or they don't want to mature, maybe they're shirking it because they can't actually grasp it -- while still being perfectly able with the high functioning parts of their brains to analyze how it would make more sense if ...

I know there's a tendency to think that children are being overdiagnosed these days, but it's utterly amazing to see what a difference early intervention can make in the life of a child. And how it's rudimentary things - like teaching children to look at people when they're speaking and using flash cards not to teach letters or numbers but facial expressions.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

all the more reasons to convince nerds to read non-superhero comic books. Trying to figure out what's going on in Adrian Tomine's work is an exercise in reading facial expressions. And you don't have to worry about the people feeling weird because you're staring.

I do wonder about the autistic spectrum running in families. That's hard to pin on genetics -- geekdads and geekmoms who don't make eye contact will raise children without making much eye contact; it could be (at least partially) a learned behavior.

But this all goes beyond geek socialization failure -- what pushes me to outrage is the appropriation of the language of liberation and the idea that he's somehow liberating women, when in fact he's found a way to leverage his male privilege and feel good about it (all his later qualifications and backpedaling notwithstanding). grah.

[penelopesque.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, The Ferret guy is completely out of bounds.

I was thinking more of Springheel Jack's indictment of geeks as a whole.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

I think you're making a good point here.
Reading the guy's older entries, you can totally see how much he is craving love and attention and not really getting it in the word that he is caught up in.
Bah. The whole thing is dumb.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I do hear you. And I hear the compassion you have for him, and I admire that.

And yes, he's an attention hog. It's just hard to stand by, because it feels like being silent is implying tolerance, if not assent.

bah indeed.