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A Mani

Feminism in India:

A. Mani: “Microaggressions - The Small Things about Gender, Sex and Sexuality”, April 2020

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Feminism in India:

A. Mani: “Sexism in the Science Experiment”, March 2020

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The Life of Sciences:

A. Mani: “Being a Lesbian Trans Woman of Science in India”, October 2019

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I received the Orange Flower Award for this article on LGBTQ Issues (for women writers).

The Life of Sciences:

A Mani and Sayani Basak: “Explainer: Mental Health Issues Faced by LTQ Women of Science”, October 2019

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Feminism in India:

A Mani: “How To Fight Sexism And Queerphobia In STEM”, February 2019

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On the “Name and Shame” method of Combating Sexism and Sexual Harassment

                                                            A. Mani
                                               
In this article, I will try to provide an assessment of aspects of the “Anonymously Name and Shame” method of combating sexism and sexual harassment. The method has precedents, but has not been as visible as it has been in the recent past in the Indian media (especially in the social media). A few lists are out in the open — two of these are due to Raya Sarkar and one is due to an anonymous unverified person. There have been many discussions of the strategies in the Indian media including the right wing media. At one level, at least one of the lists seems to be influenced by right-wing agenda and the overall credibility of the lists is low. Here, I will avoid focussing on political motivations that have been considered elsewhere, and stick to strategies.

The patriarchy/discriminatory order structure imposes rigid oppressive roles on women and adversely affects their well-being. It also tries to convert men into sexist zombies and prevents them from learning anything about humans. A relevant primer on the psychology of sexual harassment can be found in this article. In addition, it should be noted that in the Indian context, women (especially religious women) are far less likely to report sexual harassment and misconduct due to societal brain-washing.

Name and Shame Dynamics:

The basic strategy of the “Name and Shame” method is as follows:

0. Form a small group of qualified honest feminists (referred to as “list makers” below) for vetting information supplied by sexually harassed women in academia,

1. Collect and Verify data from sexually harassed women in academia,
 
2. Name and shame accused people to the extent possible, and
 
3. Publicize the list.

This process primarily helps:

1.  The victims to overcome (to the extent possible) the shaming and brainwashing imposed on them by the patriarchy/discriminatory social structure. For example, one of the messages (read bullshit) that the patriarchy pounds into women is that of purity and chastity,
2.  The victims to escape retaliation, and
3.  Women to be wary of potential predators.

The quality of the resulting list is naturally limited by various factors, and the scope of possible vetting processes is limited. Factors that can potentially influence the vetting process include:

1.  Biases of the list makers,
2.  Verifiability of the 'Victim's credentials' and 'veridicality of the Victim's Account'. Apparently, Raya Sarkar does not have anything in place (including online verification) on the matter.
3.  History of incidents reported against the perpetrator: It is known that offenders tend to repeat past offenses,
4.  Amount of information collected: The form used by Raya Sarkar does not have 'caste' fields in the form. In practice, caste can be used by the harasser to intensify objectification of the victim — the omission does not reflect in favor of the list maker.
5.  Proactive verification of accounts.

All Hindutva apologists and other religious extremists are potential sexual harassers and misogynists capable of inappropriate sexual conduct by way of their beliefs — should not some questions on the information aggregation form used by Raya Sarkar bear upon this class?

 

Well-known stuff:

Some other 'lists' that have been used to combat sexual harassment, microaggressions, stalking and sexual misconduct include:

1.  Callisto-Campus: The reports on people and incidents collected are not publicized at all, but victims have the option of initiating action through the people managing the portal.
2.  Microaggressions Aggregator : The people managing the list focus on microaggressions only and avoid naming apparently.

At the end of the day, guerilla lists created by the method are likely to include:

1.  Names of serial offenders,
2.  Names of offenders whose victims are no longer under their sphere of influence and
3.  Names of innocents planted by their opponents/detractors.

Personal Experiences:

I have experienced plenty of discrimination, misogyny and some sexual harassment. Covert discrimination is very hard to combat because perpetrators can easily hide behind vagueness at multiple levels. I believe in free software philosophy and am part of the movement. So at times, I fight my battles openly — open security models are better and it is always a good idea to teach basics of feminism. Not every battle can be fought that way and I may find mature lists of some use. The dynamics of the lists mentioned in this article are also of interest to me from a formal perspective — how does one define ideas of such strategies being successful?

I do interact with plenty of people in academia, in the free software ecosystem and activist spaces. Yes, men in Indian academia are also often conservative, misogynist and may be sexual harassers. These people have dialethical views on these matters. A name and shame strategy cannot solve much.

 

Remarks:

Problems with 'due process' (as per Visakha guidelines) in India at the implementation level are well-known. These have been worked upon to different extents by GSCASH committees, and most of the problems associated are due to the lack of enough eyes on such committees, and limitations imposed on their power. Mature name and shame strategies with enough safeguards can complement them because the patriarchy does not try to think.

 

References

[1] Example Reactions on Guerilla Lists: Tag: Name and Shame

[2] Scroll.in:  Reactions

[3] Sexual Harassment:  Basics

[4] Callisto-Campus: Link

[5] Microaggression Aggregator:  Link

[6]. JNU GSCASH Archives: Archives

How To: Study Women in STEM

This guide is intended for feminists of diverse backgrounds and experience seeking to study women's issues in STEM in general, and Free Software Development, Computer Science/Engineering and IT in particular. 
 
Most people in such fields are busy people, often hard pressed for time and time for living. Then there are women who may not be willing to talk or reveal their identity to the general public for various reasons. That means that you better be very prepared and professional in your approach.

If you are just a news person with interest in women's affairs and seek to cover some geek related sexist incident, then you should be aware of all of the resources below and more on good rules  of such reporting  (that may not be part of your news channel's policies).

The resources that you should be aware of include:

• Geek Feminism Wikia: 
• Ubuntu Women  
• Women in Free Software: Planeteria:  Some of the posts fall under women's issues and others need reading between the lines.
• LinuxChix: Mostly Positive Stuff.
• Nerd Stories: Personal Narratives

The wikia has references to other studies, includes information on various incidents and geek women, but is generally deficient on many theoretical aspects. Admittedly the focus is on women in the west. You will, for example (as of this writing), not find enough material or information on sexism and gender discrimination in Latin American and South East Asian countries - though it fairly well known that the situation is not good. All this means that the focus of your study should be appropriate enough.

If your study can be done through interaction in private and public mailing lists for women's issues, then do consider the option and follow all related privacy rules. If in doubt, do ask! Also note that it is not advisable to proceed through mass public channels like Reddit - mainly because these are spammed by organized bigots/vested interests and moderators do not have sufficient control.

The other problem that you need to be aware of is that many geek women may not be particularly competent in feminism or aware of feminist terminologies and the "apparent trivial nature of complex questions". If your study concerns contrasting narratives, then you better fix a good time and explain the complexity in advance. The same applies for studies with a focus on feminist epistemology.

Your work-flow may therefore be along the following lines:

• Fix Topic
• Do your Homework
• Rectify Topic
• Identify Potential Respondents.
• Check if Topic and Methodology will appeal to potential respondents.
• Fix Possible Questions - What kind of answers are you anticipating?

Rest should be easy.

Finally if you doubt everything and nothing less than real-time studies of your subject will convince you, then stay with us.

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All Rights Reserved, Copyright A. Mani' 2014
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