@Dot Your comment makes me the Saddest Blog Dude in the World, since I already said I wan't going to get into the details of the PA situation. Even if I wanted to dredge up that debacle, I wouldn't just be repeating what other people have said dozens of times over, I'd be repeating what I've said. Accusing someone of being demeaning by calling a woman "girl" is significantly less severe than accusing someone of launching an attack to take down a blogger just because she's female. And that is several orders of magnitude less severe than accusing someone of making fun of and being complicit in the violent sexual assault of women. If anyone wants to make a genuine point about institutionalized sexism, gender inequality, the effects of horrific violent crime, hostility towards women — or for that matter, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, intolerance or crime in general — then he or she will have the support of the vast majority of people whose opinions are worth listening to, myself included. But if she can't make that point without accusing someone of something he didn't do, then she's accomplished worse than nothing. That's not doing someone a kindness, that's slander. (Or libel, if you claim to be a journalist). That also goes for:

if he can't make the point without accusing one person for being complicit in and responsible for 1000s of years of institutionalized sexism

If she can't make the point without creating false equivalencies between one person and another, lumping everyone who disagrees with her as all being "the people who called me misogynist slurs"

If he can't make the point without accusing the target of not intending to do it, but still somehow being responsible for things that the target never said and would never say

If he can't make the point without assuming the target is guilty until proven innocent

If she can't make the point without putting the target into a position of having to defend himself for things that he never did

If she can't do it without creating a double standard, where it's okay for one person to say something but not another

If he can't do it without equating "I didn't do what you're accusing me of" with "So you're saying the problem doesn't exist!"

If he can't make the point without saying that the target is responsible for all the horrible things that other people do

It's lazy, it's irresponsible, and it accomplishes nothing. It does nothing but make the accuser feel better that they've somehow addressed the real problem in our society. It hasn't. It's made it worse. The people who are using these slurs, sending death threats, dismissing claims of assault or harassment as lies: call those people out by name. Publicly shame them. Let them know that their behavior will not be tolerated. It's happening right now to a game developer, and it's making the rounds on reddit. Put the focus on the guilty. Don't just call out the higher profile people, like John Gruber or Mike and Jerry of PA, because you know they'll get more attention. Don't wave your hands and blame it on some deep-rooted social problem that we're all complicit in. Because most of us are not complicit and will not tolerate it. Don't just say that it's a nuanced and deep-rooted cultural problem that must be addressed. Address it. Slander, pointing fingers, witch hunts, baseless accusations, flame wars, and tsk-tsking on a message board or in blog comments isn't going to do it.