Nevertheless, Ali Coded
Ali Spittel
・7 min read
Trigger Warning: graphic sexual content, racism, sexual harassment
Nevertheless, Ali coded. And wrote about it online.
last year's version of this post
Ali Spittel
Passionate about education, Python, JavaScript, and code art.
Classic DEV Post from Apr 6 '18
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These messages are infuriating, disgusting, and awful.
I admire your strength for pushing on and inspiring so many others despite this constant stream of harassment. 💜
Thank you for sharing the ugly truth about what it means to be a prominent woman in tech. It's an important (if not disturbing) wake-up call to anyone out there who refuses to recognize that this sort of awful harassment goes on every single day.
💜
This was such a difficult thing to read as a woman who has dealt with sexual harassment as well.
What makes me really upset is the screenshots are from essentially every platform (Twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.). A woman isn't safe from a man's unwanted passes on anything nowadays. It's ridiculous and I'm sorry that you have to deal with this nonsense. I applaud you for being so strong and continuing to create amazing content for those of us who love hearing and learning from you despite all this unwanted attention year after year. You are an amazing person, Ali. Don't let anyone ever let you think otherwise.
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Love you for posting this!
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Wow, I'm so sorry that all of this happened to you. These messages are appalling 😞 Nevertheless, you coded.... and you're doing amazingly!
❤️
Did I just witness a
seizurestroke amidst erotic role play? All of this is terrible, but I can't get that one out of my head. Not only is it absolutely disgusting to send that unsolicited, but I'm seriously concerned for the brain that strung those words together.He sent a different version of the erotica to one of my close friends too, so bizarre.
can we raise money to get all of these guys an intro to grammar book?
more like an "intro to how to be a decent human being" book
This is a seriously disappointing collection of disrespectful, demeaning, and downright gross comments. 😞
Thanks for bringing this up and sharing your experience!
People really need to be reminded about the reality of what it's all too frequently like to work in this industry as a female developer. Thanks for persevering through this hate.
Ahh, the annual rogue's gallery of terrible comments. Thanks for posting this, as always. It's terrible that so many bigots exist...but at least you're able to turn them around and use them to educate the rest of the world that gender discrimination DOES exist today in tech.
Well well well.
If I was the author of one of those shameful messages, I would be really grateful that you took the time to blurry my name when you had the option to show my cowardice to the world. And I would contact you to say that I'm sorry and will try hard to not be stupid in the future.
And to the dudes working at Twitter, Reddit and other fake "social" platforms where this shit is endemic:
😭😩😡😡😢😢🤢🤮😡😭😭😭😢🤬🤬
Such an important thing to share. Why do people think this is okay?! I hope this will help show people this is a real thing that happens. I’m so sorry it happened at all.
Appreciate you sharing this ❤️
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OMG!
The ugly side of humans... or non-humans 😶
I wish this never kills your motivation or (your why) to keep excelling.
It just goes on and on 😢
More power to you Ali 🙌🏼💪🏻
common decency seems to be missing in the world of social media. sry to hear you and other people have to put up with these kinds of messages.
I hope you continue being you and don't let these people get at you.
Holy potatoes. As a cis dude, I hear about that stuff and read a few examples here and there, which are already puzzling/disgusting/worrisome, but seeing such a volume laid out is something else.
I don't know how I would deal with this without seizures. Kudos for the resilience and managing to keep some faith in humanity.
I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to continue putting yourself out there, helping others learn, and being a positive voice in the dev community!
All of this in spite of the garbage and harassment you have to deal with regularly.
Thank for sharing your experiences and thanks for what you do, Ali! 🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍💪💪💪
I have no words for how disgusting humans are and how glad I am that you are still here, coding, teaching, and inspiring. Keep up the great work and keep calling out trash humans!
Thank you for compiling this list again this year! Same as last year, I was amused at first, then I questioned the education of certain countries and then I got upset by the fact how demanding it must be as woman to get those kind of messages in this frequency.
Keep going and stay strong 💪🏾 😊
Reading the entire thread of messages, 98% which are about unwarranted and extremely annoying sexual advances just left me shocked and disgusted at how low people can get. The other 2% which borders on doubting your knowledge/expertise, best exemplified by the guy who asked if you can explain OOP in Python well, is even worse because while the bulk of messages you receive are awkward sexual comments from sexual predators, a far larger number of people, have this unconscious bias of doubting women's ability and competence even when they aren't predators themselves which is really sad. But I'm most impressed by your resolve to keep going. If that huge gang of human degenerates can't break your spirit, definitely, nothing else can.
These messages are brutal to read, one of them far more graphic than what is typically shared publicly. I can't even imagine reading them as the targeted recipient. Nobody deserves this.
Thank you for opening up and sharing.
Thank you for posting this. I can't imagine how horrible the ones are that you declined to add here. Don't let these folks discourage you! For every creepy creeper there are folks who also just want to build cool things using code and I hope you keep posting great content. I have a daughter who's trying to get into a tech related field as well and I cringe when I think about the kinds of things she will face as well. Seeing posts like this fighting back gives me hope for her as well.
I’ve dealt with messages like yours recently on some coding chat sites. It usually scares them away when I reveal how old (or I should say young) I am. It’s the ones who keep at it after that which worries me.
Sounds like you can handle them well and I should take lessons from you.
Oh good god.
Thank you for sharing, happy you're still coding.
Oh Ali, I can't hardly believe such poor attitudes exist. Thank you for putting up with such garbage and being an encouragement to the coding community. Thanks for the help you have been for me in getting started in coding this year after surviving cancer. I have a copy of your book here, and have been using it as a guide. All the best!
I feel soiled now...
Thank you so much for posting this!
I hope I have never been that guy towards someone else. It makes me really think about how we choose to interact with other people.
... also, I'm sorry, but "your dress is the floor" made me go wtf?! and chuckle unbelievingly.
Absolutely disgusting, I actually feel like I'm going to be sick. Absolutely nobody should have to put up with this kind of disgusting behaviour.
Keep on being awesome Ali! You're an inspiration to many!
WomenAreAwesome #TreatWomenWithRespect
This is an awful, yet a very real and true thing that women have to deal with online. I've received a tiny fraction of messages like these.
Thank you for bringing this to light ❤️.
Damn, sick and scary af.
And nevertheless, she coded. You inspire many others to keep going, to keep writing, keep learning, even with all that shit, so thank you for that. ♥️
Ali, I’m so so sorry all this has happened to you!!! I kept waiting for the screenshots to end but they kept going and I’m just devastated. I wish things weren’t this way. Thank you for continuing to code and teach and write despite all this horribleness!!
Despite being blocked on Twitter, I do feel that even though you get way more disconcerting messages than any other female I know in tech (either because you're transparent or because you're you), you are appreciated very much by your carefully curated community. Anyone who isn't harassing you is very much appreciative of your easygoing twitter and hope that you don't let these men stop you from success.