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Empire Node: Where Paying Attendees Get Yelled at by Feminists

4 points by StudlyCaps ↗ HN
Three days ago I went to New York's first Node JS conference, Empire Node. There were a few interesting presentations, a few that were a waste of time (like a DNS server written that displays cat pictures), and one that was wildly inappropriate and rather infuriating.

I can't call it a presentation or a talk because the "speaker" quite literally yelled at us for a good twenty five minutes. My ears actually hurt when it was over. The tirade was delivered by one Kassandra Perch. It was billed as "Don't be a Yutz" and it was basically the woman going off on guys in tech.

Some highlights included a jab at the Node JS team for wrongly calling themselves a meritocracy.(The nerve of those bastards! There's nothing meritorious about revolutionizing server-side JavaScript. They collect paychecks just 'cause they have cocks and balls.) Then there was her angry comments about the event space having separate bathrooms for men and women. (Don't worry though, she put up unisex signs.) And then there's her tag line, "People say I seem so angry. WELL I AM ANGRY!"

I've read all the same stories everybody else. Stories about guys in tech who allegedly said and did some incredibly assholey things to women(I've never worked at a place like that. Maybe that's a silicon valley thing?) I don't condone that shit. But at the same time, I'm tired of being yelled at by feminazis who think I don't deserve my job.

The thing that really pissed me off is the fact that companies paid money to attend this event. What were these choads who organized Empire Node thinking? I call bullshit. Fuck you Kassandra Perch and fuck you Empire Node!

3 comments

[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 19.9 ms ] thread
UnoriginalGuy
Unfortunately there are many people who only view sexism and unprofessional/inappropriateness in one singular direction. I wouldn't anticipate them taking your complaints very seriously at all, and you'll just get labelled for even having the gall to express them here.

All I can suggest is you let it go and skip Empire Node events in the future.

StudlyCaps
Yeah I agree. I think it's like hipster Kewl to be a "feminist technologist." Like even if you're not an especially good programmer you can become your own brand and give talks and organize events based on being a "feminist woman in tech." Guys are falling all over themselves to get drunk on this Kool Aide, too. Like "how can we help? Yell at us some more!"
duncan_bayne
Here's video of the talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMSZEGNMwUw

I disagree with some of her points (in particular those surrounding 'demanding the time of a representative', and criticism of the term 'meritocracy'). But that's normal, because the only presentations with which I'm 100% in agreement are those I've recently given myself :)

But: your characterisation of her presentation is dead wrong, and amusingly seems to be a combination of the criticism of tone and defensiveness stuff she was talking about. Her presentation is polite, well structured, informative and well considered.

(Also, I'd take your 'fuck you' a lot more seriously if you posted under your real name. 'Fuck you' from an anonymous account reminds me of my two year old shouting 'you a poop head').