Reposted by Ben Can't
Ben Can't
@bencant.bsky.social
594 followers 255 following 2.4K posts
🟪 MBMBaM Wizard Emeritus 🟦 they/he 🟩 ace trans Jew 🟨 Long COVIDer 🟧 wear ur fucking mask 🟥 benkantt.com
🟪 MBMBaM Wizard Emeritus 🟦 they/he 🟩 ace trans Jew 🟨 Long COVIDer 🟧 wear ur fucking mask 🟥 benkantt.com
![taco belle
@ animalologist
Multiple things can be true at once
22h
The purpose of SlutCon is to help ease men who are scared of approaching women, and for women who simply enjoy flirting to be in an environment where that happens a lot, since there's generally a dearth of that
At the same time, many - probably most! - women do Not want to be flirted with or propositioned by men they don't know. When a small scene only has a handful of large, well-known events, each one has disproportionate impact on everybody's ideas of acceptable behavior among other members of their milieu.
Attending the same events = specific shared context. Means
you're somewhat on the same page.
I suspect that the men who publicly raised concerns about SlutCon's impact on the scene are being megaphones for private objections and distresses they've heard from women in the scene who would NOT be comfortable at an event like that, but who don't voice it publicly because they suspect they'd suffer socially for doing so. That going to SlutCon to be flirted with gives women social cachet, and squirming at the idea means you're [not cool, can't get with the program, are probably a wokescold or a prude etc etc other pejoratives] and therefore, that you'll be excluded or held at a distance
Now, if this scene were purely a social scene, that'd be perfectly fine. Don't go to parties that don't suit you!! The issue arises because it's NOT purely a social scene. This scene is inarguably tied up with Al safety, research, and the SF tech scene in general.
When consistently being invited to the right parties is professionally advantageous, and when SlutCon itself **is** going to be an excellent networking opportunity for people in those fields, it's not neutral that {sexual proclivities} are the filtering mechanism that determines who's in the room. It means that promiscuity & forwardness is explicitly professionally advantageous.
And, if the norms of SlutCon influence the norms of that milieu outside of the e…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiknc4t5rq7yngvz7g4aezq7/bafkreibofbhecabcfimcooqfmhfkw5ycfc2adnfedemupo7aihs5fb7voy)
![Who, Me? was a top secret, sulfurous, non-lethal chemical weapon developed by MIT-graduate Ernest Crocker for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services during World War II.[1][2] Who, Me? smelled strongly of fecal matter, and was issued in pocket atomizers intended to be unobtrusively sprayed on a German officer to humiliate him and, by extension, demoralize the occupying German forces.[3]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyyd366g3hrxp5rynixm2mm3/bafkreig5a4qwpgntp5yvblqc35c35h7gu3eq25yb4shbv57dbuvnxxfuwq)
![Who, Me? had a high concentration of extremely volatile sulfur compounds that were very difficult to control: more often than not, the person who did the spraying also ended up smelling as bad as the one targeted.[4] After two weeks, it was concluded that Who, Me? was a failure.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyyd366g3hrxp5rynixm2mm3/bafkreibih3uoda66lpsf4t3oksxyr4e5ppkiu7n6zxp7pzdlfqbp6grehm)
