Woe is the one who runs away

Yesterday there was a blog post that made the rounds which was about some high-profile British skeptic acting in an inappropriate manner towards a woman in the bar at a recent skeptic event. The author, Michael .W. Story, goes on, in the post, to feel bad for himself for having done/said nothing about the incident.

The following paragraphs are from his blog post:

So what to do? If you think this post might be about you, then take responsibility for your behaviour and apologise where necessary. If you see this behaviour, don’t stay silent. 

For all the fact that this has pissed me off a huge amount, I am wary of naming the offending person. He’s someone with a lot of clout, someone who could make life very difficult for anyone who identified him. I feel it’s up to someone whom he has victimised to make that call, but if that’s you and you are reading this then I will absolutely back you up.

So according to Michael:

#1- don't be like the author and ignore someone in obvious distress. This to me seems like a no-brainer. You'd think that anyone who saw someone else being harassed would at least have the balls to tell the perpetrator to stop, or even go so far as to call the authorities if the harassment did not stop or escalated. But it appears the author of this piece was lacking in the balls department. Most women I know, including myself, have more balls than this guy apparently has, and would have told the jerk who was harassing that woman to piss off. But I digress...

#2- Because the author failed to say a thing in the first place, and is afraid of what the offending person could do to him if he said who it was (British Libel Laws are very strict and different from the USA), he now wants the victim(s) to speak out and incur the full brunt of the law by naming names. Of course he is man enough to back you up if you do call out the offender... Or so he says. Personally, I wouldn't trust this guy as far as I could throw him, so the offer of him backing anyone up is useless. Kind of like he was when the actual event took place - useless.

Now, the worst part of this guy's article is that it is in no way about the woman who was being harassed. He could care less, which is evident by the lack of him ever stepping up and saying something at the time that the harassment was taking place, and this telling little sentence:

I want to talk about my experience of sexism and harassment. 

That is probably the most obvious 'clue' that his post was never about the victim at all. It is all about HIM and how he feels. Even this woman's harassment has become HIS experience... Fuck her and how she must have felt right? Let's just focus on the author and how bad he feels. Oh woe is he for having to feel bad about not stepping up and helping her. Poor baby!

Sorry, but FUCK YOU Michael. This is not about you, nor is it about making you feel better about your lack of stones. You feel bad because you were a fucking coward, and still are. Sorry, I'm not buying your bullshit, which is why I'd never trust this coward to back anyone up should they come out and name names. He's already proven himself to be less than reliable when push comes to shove.

He has even managed to stir up more crap by dropping hints as to who this mystery offender could be:

Now after all that summary, I want to talk about my experience of sexism and harassment. Skeptics, you can dismiss this as an N=1 anecdote, but please at least read it. I have personally witnessed a prominent person getting disturbingly touchy-feely with women and getting away with it, despite the knowledge of nearly everyone who knows him. What’s more I’m willing to bet that you know who I am talking about from just reading the previous sentence. 

Over time, as his power and influence grew I noticed that he could go further and further and get away with it. Once someone’s prominence gets to a certain point it becomes very hard to criticise them. 

One has to ask why the author feels writing this is even necessary? Why is it so important who this guy is? Isn't the fact that harassment happened the important issue here? Isn't that what all the fuss has been about for the last year+ since Rebecca Watson stepped into that elevator and was 'sexualized' and 'harassed'? One might even ask if this story Michael is telling actually happened since there is no naming names going on, or a victim stepping forward to corroborate the story.

For Michael, if this story is indeed real, it seems that his knowledge of who this person is makes him feel really special, otherwise why would you even mention it? It reminds me of like the kid who has a secret, is dying to tell someone, so they drop hints all over the place to get attention... "I know something you don't know... La la la la la".

And now everyone is curious as to who this person might be. Wave a red flag in front of a bull and see if he gets a little curious. Duh! Of course people are curious. And it's also a good distraction from the fact that this coward never did a fucking thing to help that woman in the first place. Good one there Michael.

As for the victim who has been completely overlooked and lost in this whole ordeal... I wonder how she feels about it all. Maybe she'll console you Michael so you don't feel so bad about having done nothing to help, and how you continue to do nothing helpful.