Open Source Boob Project

The Open Source Boob Project was a short-lived proposal for women at cons to wear buttons signaling "yes you can (grope my breasts)" or "no you can't (grope my breasts)". Furor ensued; poster recanted in the name of con safety.

Interesting discussions that came out of the furor:

• sexism and male privilege (of course) - many, many posts
• geek male psychology - many posts
• geek female psychology - some posts
• con safety

A history in links

April 21, TheFerrett proposes the "Open Source Boob Project":

• The Open-Source Boob Project, theferrett (4/21): Ferrett puts his foot in it. (Original post is below the cut.)

Numerous blog reactions follow:

• Open Source Swift Kick in the Balls Project, Misia
• CoffeeAndInk: Because the way to an egalitarian and less body-conscious utopia is for women's bodies to default to public space. We just don't have enough sexualized treatment of women as bodies instead of whole social persons in public spaces!
• A proposal to crush the button-enabled sexual harassment proposal, Rachel Manija, 4/22: if I hear that this button scheme is likely to go on at any con I would like to attend, I will contact the management for the hotel in which it takes place, inform them of it, point out the danger of sexual harassment lawsuits, and further inform them that if they do not get the con organizers to ban the buttons from public spaces at the con, and someone gropes me, I will sue the hotel and call the police. And that I will also encourage anyone else who is groped without their consent to sue the hotel and call the police.
• Kate Nepveu, 4/22: If you are a stranger, especially a man, perhaps especially in a group of other strangers who are men, and you come up to me and say, "You're very beautiful. I'd like to touch your breasts. Would you mind if I did?": You will put me in fear.
• Inhammer rechristens it the "public domain boob project"
• springheel_jack, the basic libertarian fallacy
• some mature non directly sexual content WRT touching and consent, sinboy LJ, 4/21: comment threads elucidate the way that the proposal frames women only as potential touchees who are either prudish or have an unhealthy desire for attention; difference between touching by men and by women; notice that this is in a public space & is nonconsensual to observers
• Open source WHAT??? (or, a policy statement that should not be necessary), cooler by the lake, 4/22: For the record: my boobies--like the rest of my body parts--are proprietary.

Including some excellent ones on TheFerrett's LJ thread:

• tablesaw
• mswyrr
• tablesaw, 4/22: Women's breasts are not magical devices for healing straight men's psyches. Women's bodies do not exist to make straight men feel better about themselves. Women have their own shit to deal with, and a lot of the time, that shit is us, even (sometimes especially) when we're trying to do better. And trying to be the spokesperson for a movement without acknowledging, accepting, and fucking dealing with your position of power is just working at crosspurposes to that same movement.

Ferrett tries to explain (4/22):

• Clarification, theferrett: Ferrett tries to explain (4/22)

Discussion continues:

• coffeeandink: What people are saying is: Women spend THEIR ENTIRE LIVES IN SEXUALIZED SPACES. All of us. ...What you're suggesting is that instead of the default being "No, you may not touch my body", you want to turn cons -- large public spaces -- into spaces where women have to repeatedly and loudly say no in order to be heard.
• hell, people got rich selling itty bitty pieces of the Berlin Wall...., Red Shoes, 4/23: An awesome collection of t-shirt-worthy soundbites from the blogospheric outrage.
• pleonastic, 4/22

Ferrett sort of apologizes: (4/22 or 4/23)

• The Open-Source Boob Project, TheFerrett: Ferrett recants on his original post with a long preface at the top. Ferrett removes the 1300 comments, then puts them back. This was deemed a faux-pology or heidipology by some.

... which doesn't end the discussion ...

• This is not a joke., Vito Excalibur, 4/23 - Vito proposes the "Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program"
• Liz Henry, 4/22, Feminist SF blog

which breaks the fandom atmospheric barriers

• Women's bodies: Just like open-source software!, Feministing, 4/23 - breaking out of fandom into the mainstream feminist blogosphere

Other summaries

• Liz Henry, 4/22, Feminist SF blog

See also

• Harlan Ellison Breast Grab Incident (2006) - seriously, what is it with guys & women's breasts?

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