
My First Virtual Reality Groping - xwvvvvwx
https://mic.com/articles/157415/my-first-virtual-reality-groping-sexual-assault-in-vr-harassment-in-tech-jordan-belamire#.jL0XX0ZBo
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raarts
Being treated as a actual object is something every woman has to deal with. In
the real world there are laws and social norms, but in VR apparently nobody
steps up if they see it happening. I can see this being a very unpleasant
experience, and if behaviour like this becomes normal/acceptable in VR I can
imagine it takes the fun out of it.

Also, groping in real life does not do the body any physical damage too. But
it's still outlawed.

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kinkdr
There is no denial that the author had an unpleasant experience, but it is
nowhere close to what a real-life sexual assault feels like.

If I was the author I would choose different words to describe the experience
out of respect of people who have been sexually assaulted in real life.

~~~
hyperjeff
Of course, the author would agree that it's not close to real-life assault. If
I said, "I shot a bear in virtual reality," it would be missing the point to
complain that it's nowhere close to real-life bear shooting. No one said it
was real-life, quite the contrary.

The story does bring up a central trouble spot in multiplayer gaming: no
mechanisms in place for holding players responsible for being an asshat.

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gozur88
That's not sexual assault.

~~~
Mz
_sex·u·al as·sault: 1.an incident that involves sexual contact that is forced
on somebody_

No, it isn't the same thing as _rape._ I wish we had a different term. But
dismissing this as "not sexual assault" is not a great place for this
discussion to start, for a number of reasons.

~~~
gozur88
Redefining well understood terms is also not a great place for the discussion
to start.

~~~
Mz
I actually looked the term up online and copied and pasted it here because I
generally agree with you that this is not a great use of the term (see my own
previous blog post where I bitch about something similar:
[http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-woman-
rant...](http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-woman-rants-about-
man-bashy-stuff.html)). But, really, as someone who is very openly female on
this forum, I am finding the discussion here kind of threatening and
dismissive. The comments here create an impression that many men kind of think
"Eh, no big deal feeling a woman up virtually. It isn't like it's REALLY
sexual assault."

And I have been downvoted and your remark here has apparently been upvoted,
which implies a general attitude of the overarching crowd, not just an
isolated opinion being expressed. It is no wonder so many women are afraid of
not only participation in VR, but even openly participating in many male
dominated internet spaces.

~~~
x1798DE
> The comments here create an impression that many men kind of think "Eh, no
> big deal feeling a woman up virtually. It isn't like it's REALLY sexual
> assault."

I don't think anyone has at all insinuated that this would be acceptable
behaviour, people are just reacting to the editorialized headline claiming
this is sexual assault, which is a term generally used for more serious
offenses. In the same way that people would almost certainly react the same
way if you claimed that you were assaulted when someone knocked the books out
of your hands. Technically true and no one is on the other guy's side, but (in
that situation), you'd be being melodramatic.

I think it goes without saying that this sort of behavior is rude and
annoying, but honestly it's not any different than other rude and annoying
behaviour engaged in by immature people, whether they are tea bagging your
avatar or calling you a faggot on the chat.

~~~
Mz
No, it doesn't go without saying and thank you for saying it because every
single reply to me has been essentially dismissive. This is what a lot of
women mean when they talk about _rape culture._ And I find it enormously
frustrating that no one here seems to see why a woman would feel that a group
of presumably all men responding in a consistently dismissive fashion would
create a threatening atmosphere that has the potential to encourage bad
behavior towards women of the sort described in the article.

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x1798DE
Nowhere in this article does the author say she was sexually assaulted, and if
this was the original headline it has since been changed to the original
medium post's headline: "My First Virtual Reality Groping"

This is, by the way, a repost of the medium post that was previously discussed
here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777340)

I think this version adds nothing to the original version, which has identical
text.

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NormenKD
Please, give it a read. Society gets ready for VR, but somehow still isn't
ready for interacting Women.

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blackflame7000
If this qualifies as sexual assault then I have been murdered about 40,000
times between halo and cod. Articles like this do a disservice to actual
victims of heinous acts.

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steauengeglase
Time to patch in a pan-dimensional baka-hammer.

