Poor Mojo's Newswire

A woman in the tech community identified people violating the stated Code of Conduct of the group. She was summarily run out of the community. Oh, wait, that wasn't just this week, that was six years ago. A woman in the tech community takes her blog offline and stops speaking publicly after receiving death threats for a month. That was also six years ago. A man attending a festival for the tech community harassed and attempted sexual assault on multiple women in attendance. That was three years ago. A man attending a high-profile invite-only tech event groped and harassed multiple women in attendance. That was also three years ago. A very high-profile man in the tech community is arrested for multiple counts of sexual assault. The tech community assumes loudly and repeatedly that the women reporting the assaults are lying. Again, this was three years ago. A woman representing her employer at a large tech event was physically assaulted by a man attending the event. That was two years ago. A sponsored hackathon lists "friendly (female) event staff" delivering beer to participants as a "great perk" of participating. That was last year. A prominent man in the tech community was hired by a large computer manufacturer to be its master of ceremonies at a customer summit, where he said things like, "Men have invented everything worthwhile. All we can thank women for is the rolling pin." That was also last year. A woman who produces online feminist educational content ran a Kickstarter campaign to examine tropes about women in video games. In response, avid gamers sent her rape and death threats, vandalized her Wikipedia page, and created a game that allowed the player to "beat up" the woman's image. Again, this was only last year.

Today in horrible advertising ideas, Ford India plugs the cavernous trunk space of its Figo hatchback by depicting captive women stuffed inside. That’s Silvio Berlusconi in the first image, leering at a troika of half-dressed model types. In the second ad, Paris Hilton seems to have kidnapped the Kardashians, one of whom is inexplicably wearing a bikini and high heels. As Autoblog points out, the campaign—which also features racecar driver Michael Schumacher with bound-and-gagged competitors—is being unveiled just a few days after the Indian parliament passed a major anti-rape law. Nice one, guys.

Two football player high school students in Connecticut are charged with the second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. The allegations come amid other complaints of hazing at the school, but Torrington High School officials insist that these are individual instances and not a part of a larger cultural problem. But whether or not the alleged rapists Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, both 18, are maverick sexual assailants isn’t really the cultural question. Rather, the fact that students in the neighborhood and the school have taken to Twitter blame the young girl and not the alleged rapists highlights a broader rape culture that assumes men are only haphazardly involved in sexual assault, but it is usually the victim’s fault: “If you look at crime statistics these things happen everywhere and we’re not any different than any other community,” said [Athletic Director Mike McKenna]. But on social media in recent weeks, dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female, have taunted the 13-year-old victim, calling her a “whore,” criticizing her for “snitching” and “ruining the lives” of the 18-year-old football players, and bullying students who defend her.