Naming names
 

I invite those of you on Facebook, especially women, to join in this thread:

https://www.facebook.com/allisonejos...ly&pnref=story

I get an error page when I click on it.

It says: The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren't in.

I am still trying to make sense of that last bit - because of course I'm not in the audience for something I can't see...

Further to the post above, I notice that you, Sam, are a "friend" of Allison's on FB, while Bob and I are not. Could this have anything to do with our lack of success with the link?

I have actually given up Facebook for a while so would only have observed from a distance anyway. Could you enlighten us as to what it is/was about?

I don't think that's it, because I see Allison's posts all the time. Indeed, I thought we were FB friends already since she is a regular fixture in my newsfeed.

I've managed to live my life so far without Facebook being a part of it, but I'm always willing to be persuaded...

I am a woman. So, what's this all about, Sam? I'm genuinely interested.

Jayne

I'm just saying that if women poets want to stop jerks from harassing them at conferences, after-reading parties, or conventions, they need to start naming names and publicly shaming the perpetrators. I don't mean hearsay or second-hand talk; I mean women who have personally been approached in an inappropriate manner. Asking men to police themselves is just a little much, though perhaps a dim bulb is coming on in some heads. All I could add from my own experience is that I was once annoyed and made uncomfortable by an older man coming on to me at a writers conference. I told him to bugger off.

Someone touched my knee once.
(He's quite safe; I have no intention of making a big deal of it decades later.)

Jayne: "Someone touched my knee once."

We remember these potent gestures, don't we? There is a longish poem within that one touch of the knee...

This was a large part of the reason that I crept away from Facebook for a while. I don't want to be part of this public discussion because I have got the feeling that there is a crowd of shadowy observers lapping up the gossipy details - "go on, darlin' - show us yer bits..."

Social media are not the right arena for serious accusations of this nature. There is no proper right of reply or sensible expectation of redress. Like the thoughtless sharing of over-explicit photographs, it will end in tears.

I still can't read whatever the original link led to, so I may well be completely out of order here; I am basing this response solely on Sam's last post.

I am a woman (up to a point) and, like Bartleby, I would prefer not to. Other women may, of course, do as they see fit.

However, may I make a serious request? Please do not let anything of this accusatory nature overlap into Eratosphere.