Gizmodo turned my nose into a coffee shooter this morning with their post, Sex Ed Blogger Violet Blue to Start TWaT, the All-Girl Tech Podcast? (ZOMFG, thank you Gizmodo!) Snip:
“When sex/tech blogger and educator Violet Blue was listed on the Forbes list of web celebs, she didn’t expect to be publicly shit-talked by another finalist, who dismissed her as ‘some porn person.’
That person was Leo Laporte, known for his polarized and biting rants on everything from Zune to Gizmodo amidst iPhone rumors. The comment was mentioned in the only tech podcast with a combined clubhouse age of over 150-years, TWiT. That’s ‘This Week in Tech’, the irreverent podcast where Laporte pretends he’s Napoleon.” Link.
Gizmodo’s image is oh-so-worth-it. You know, while Gizmodo points to LaPorte’s “apology”, I should point out that LaPorte didn’t apologize to me, or even send it to me — he sent it to Eve Batey at SFGate, who emailed me a link to it. It’s also not the first time this guy has dissed me on his podcast (TWiT #16, thanks Nobilis). But the apology tells me something interesting about LaPorte: one, that he follows the careers of porn performers closer than GETV reporters (porn performers who only made *one film* last year, natch), and that were I actually a sex worker, his actions would be justified. Hey, he confused me with a porn performer — who am I to judge people who jack off to GETV? No one, that’s who.
Seriously however, comment detractors are saying that I’m “whining”, “overreacting” and need to “get over it” but have any other women publicly faced down men like LaPorte and Dvorak about their sneers? No — women trying to hack it in tech simply have too much to lose.
It’s clear that some of the commenters on Gizmodo get it, and others don’t — they think I wrote what I did because LaPorte hadn’t heard of me, when the point is that they were outright dismissive — if they hadn’t heard of me they could have just said, “huh, how/who is that woman on the list?” Don’t forget: they trashed all the women on that list. Any woman who chose to challenge a dis like that would surely get guys calling her “whiny” and that she “shouldn’t worry her pretty little head” (as seen in Dvorak’s comments).
Veronica Belmont writes in her post Of girls and tech,
“I’m constantly asked what it’s like to be a female working in the tech industry, and let me tell you… it’s not always easy. True, it’s not easy for women working in many fields, but technology has always had that ‘boy’s club’ feel to it. Do you know how many times I’ve been told that I should just stop bothering with technology, and maybe try porn for a living? Or that I’m obviously just a talking head that’s reading a script?” Link.
Oh — w3rd, this is post #999 for this blog! And yes — TWaT will not be left behind as a joke. I’ll be rolling out a new URL soon, so lock up your aging, easily confused tech reporter grandpas…
Update: Sexy Geek and Director of Community at Revver Micki Krimmel sent some sweet sweet blog lovin’ my way in direct regards to facing off with the boys’ club, adding a bit more to chew on. Mickipedia rocks my world!
