private conversations are private.

If she was feeling that they were being inappropriate, there are other ways to handle it. I'm not a fan of naming and shaming without trying to handle it privately first.

Such as me saying I find the use of "chick" in that way to be unnecessarily derogative, but she really was out of line in my opinion.

"Private" conversations held with people in close quarters (e.g. conference keynote-esqe seating) is not a private conversation. Sexual jokes create an unnecessarily hostile and unwelcoming environment, especially when women are so drastically underrepresented.

I fully support her in calling them out publicly. Quietly informing the authorities does little.

I'm sorry, we just disagree. I'm the type of woman who will speak to people if I find their speech to be that distracting if I'm unable to move. These guys? If I was that upset? I would turned and said "eyup mates, can you keep it down? I'm having a hard time hearing the speaker"

I don't police their conversation, any more than I would like them to police mine.

I don't like passive-aggressiveness. I spent a lot of my life being passive-aggressive and always wondering why nothing ever changed.

> Quietly informing the authorities does little.

As an aside, every PyCon attendee agreed to a code of conduct during registration, and the conference staff are available to address and remedy violations of that code.

I appreciate that PyCon has a good policy and applaud all conferences that make an effort to make their conference a safe place. Through a mix of official (staff) and community enforcement (tweets/public outcry), one day it will be truly welcoming and all members will live up to the code of conduct.

'Be careful about what you say when at PyCon. Otherwise someone might hear you, report you to the authorities and post your photo on the internet resulting in you losing your job'.

You have a truly strange concept of welcoming.

official good. Community enforcement can easily become lynchmob.

And she broke the CoC by posting a picture of the people in question with a derogatory statement on twitter. Thats far worse than the joke they said to themselves.

Don't you think the guys would have been removed from the talk, even if Adria didn't post the picture to twitter?

absolutely!!! but one of them would still have a job

I think this is becoming a much harder area for guys to navigate, in the sense that, are all sexual jokes off the table if females are present? I don't know the answer, hopefully there will be more dialogue around this so that everyone can understand general etiquette rules when in such an environment. I believe that some guys can just be dicks but some might just not be aware that they are being offensive.

> are all sexual jokes off the table if females are present?

Honestly, I wish they were off the table regardless of who is in attendance. They're rarely funny, and they add nothing to the conversation.

I don’t find your jokes funny either. Furthermore, they usually add nothing new to the conversation, so please just stop joking altogether.

Oh wait, that goes for everything you say, so just stop talking.

Full ACK.

Sexual jokes can be very funny if told correctly, in a non-discriminating fashion, in the right context to the right people. That also means that they can backfire horribly, especially if random people around. To me, thats not even a question of sexism, many feel uncomfortable if that happens, regardless of gender.

An open space conference certainly never is the right place. Also, cheap jokes about "dongles" are never worth it... please, keep it classy...

> I wish

There it is. Certainly doesn't warrant people having their privacy violated.

> are all sexual jokes off the table if females are present?

I'd say so - but that doesn't answer the harder question: What is a sexual joke? That matter is open to interpretation and that's where public shaming becomes a problem: The individual that's the most easily offended gets to lay the blame.

Sexual jokes during presentations are tacky no matter who is in attendance.

But does your thinking the jokes between two friends are tacky warrant their private info (photos) being posted online?

i didn't even imply that.

funny story, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. They wanted to get rid of her for sometime but the actual crime she was convicted of was literally "wearing male clothes"