Re: [Womeninfreesoftware] Hello, and a Question

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi,

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Mary-Anne Wolf <address@hidden> wrote:

So his
social skills with the opposite sex have been
known to be a problem for a long time.

Richard Stallman has made it publicly known that he has Asperger's Syndrome.  Asperger's patients have an inability to perceive and process non-verbal cues.  This does not excuse their behavior, but it does offer one explanation why some men in Free Software communities often behave badly.  I am not a psychologist, but I have male friends in the Free Software movement who are Asperger's patients, and I know from the experience of dealing with them that it is necessary to be very explicit with them about everything.  I have also found that these men are more sensitive to criticism when confronted.  It is difficult for them to process all emotions, so it seems, including shame, and so they try to evade the emotions by justifying their behavior.  I have found that it is more successful to bring up their inappropriate behavior by talking to them privately in a neutral but firm manner.  And it often takes repeated discussions, because they have difficulty generalizing from one social situation to another, and applying what they have learned from one discussion to another. 

The Free Software community is losing the valuable contributions of women because of inappropriate behavior, so we need to craft successful strategies for curtailing inappropriate behavior toward them.  IMHO, one successful strategy is persistent, focused, individualized, explicit discussions with these men to explain to them why their behavior is not acceptable.  Men who are not Asperger's patients need to offer their help in curtailing the behavior of Asperger's patients.

Of course, some men who engage in this behavior are not Asperger's patients, but are merely crude trolls.  The best way of dealing with trolls is to ostracize them.  

Just my two cents.