bring it on
Feb. 6th, 2014 06:18 pmSo I'm gradually going public with my plans to start a feminist hackerspace in the DC area. Which is to say, I'm steeling myself for heaps of anti-feminist crap, starting from the hackerspace I've been involved with nearly since its inception, HacDC. These plans have been brewing among a very small group of us for months. I had been growing disillusioned with the feeling that I was the only person around who was willing to put significant time and energy toward starting this hackerspace, so it was dormant for a while. But between yet another round of anti-diversity awfulness on the global hackerspaces mailing list1 and ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badgerbag's excellent article on feminist hackerspaces, my energy was rekindled.
At this point we're working on identifying people who are interested in actively helping drive the establishment of the space, in the sense of volunteering significant time and effort to work through a vision and plan, incorporate, find sources of funding, and establish a physical space. Reaching out to my hackerspace community has produced some leads, as well as some baffling WTFs like this e-mail exchange that I've reformatted as chat for easier reading:
1 A previous round from last year included the infamous "e-textiles" message, a hilarious dramatic reading of which you can hear here.
badgerbag's excellent article on feminist hackerspaces, my energy was rekindled.At this point we're working on identifying people who are interested in actively helping drive the establishment of the space, in the sense of volunteering significant time and effort to work through a vision and plan, incorporate, find sources of funding, and establish a physical space. Reaching out to my hackerspace community has produced some leads, as well as some baffling WTFs like this e-mail exchange that I've reformatted as chat for easier reading:
Me, onlist: I'm feeling especially heat-resistant today, so I'd like to share an idea I've had simmering for a little while—namely, establishing a feminist hackerspace in the DC area. Model View Culture just published an article by Liz Henry that describes to a T what I mean when I say "feminist hackerspace". If you are interested in joining me and my cohorts in this effort, please contact me on- or off-list. Note that this is not meant to be a space that's "against" HacDC or the other existing regional hackerspaces, but part of a healthy ecosystem that offers folks lots of options. I'm not planning on leaving HacDC anytime soon. If you're interested in explaining why feminism and feminist spaces are a bad idea, I can't stop you, but you can be sure I've heard it before and I likely won't use my energy to engage in arguments about it.
[rest of conversation is off-list]
Dude: Could you share with me why you're deciding to do this? I'm hearing a lot of talk from a lot of my Girl-Friends that they want Woman only hacker spaces. I just don't see the point to it, I've always looked at women in the field to be awesome if not inspiration in some cases.
Me: Have you read the linked article?
Dude: Yes, the perspective I'm trying to understand is why exclude men entirely? It seems like an overreaction.
Me: Who said anything about excluding men?
Dude: You're not being very clear. If you want a fight, pick it with someone else.
1 A previous round from last year included the infamous "e-textiles" message, a hilarious dramatic reading of which you can hear here.
