It’s good to hear where you were coming from with the feminist thing, and as I said before, I’m definitely sympathetic with your position as a speaker in that environment. I just think it’s important to point out that highlighting gender differences contributes to making tech circles feel unwelcome for some women, and that’s a shame.

It’s different than the cannibal line because it draws attention to all the women in the room, not just the one heckling you. I certainly don’t mean to blow a one-liner out of proportion, and I don’t think that it, in and of itself, caused anyone any harm. It’s the cumulative effect of many, many unwelcome comments on gender that’s a disincentive for women to stay involved.

I wouldn’t read much into all this - it was a very difficult environment to speak, half the loud crowd wasn’t listening at all, the mic/laptop setup was tough, and anyone who choses to interrupt a speaker, for any reason, in that kind of environment is being quite rude. I’d have been more gracious if she were pointing out a mistake or yelling out something relevant to the point in some way, but she wasn’t. A stand-up comic would have been much harsher than I was.

I don’t recall exactly what i said, by my intention was to jokingly communicate I wasn’t interested in being interrupted again during my limited time in that environment - the feminist crack served the same purpose as the one I made later when someone interrupted me to suggest innovators are tasty or something, and I suggested we move all the cannibals in the room to the back, next to the feminists. Both were comical exaggerations and nothing more.