The interesting thing about the PA situation is that they weren't, and still aren't, "baseless accusations". One of the terribly difficult parts of attempting to address institutionalised / culturalised sexism is that it's really hard for people to accept that they have some culpability in making the lives of those around them worse. One of the terribly difficult parts of our culture is that we all have some complicity in this.

The sexism in our society isn't fuelled by a "very vocal & stupid minority", it's the aggregation of billions of tiny behaviours and attitudes that men and women hold (the social belief that women take care of the children has a devastating impact on the rights of fathers in Family Law, for instance).

Of course, accepting that we're all unconsciously exhibiting behaviours that're continuing this situation requires an amount of humility (/ reflection / research) that a lot of us (myself included) aren't used to exercising - and definitely aren't thinking about going near if we feel that someone's attacking us over it. But it's not baseless to correct people who refer to me as a "girl" in a business setting and let them know that it's a (small! unconscious! unintentional! socially approved!) part of the way that society patronises and minimises female contributions and interests.

In fact the issue is almost that there's too much base. These behaviours are so ingrained in our culture that people can't put their egos aside when they hear criticism of them and lash out defensively with "But that's not what I intended / I'm not one of those people who hate women &c"

We know you didn't intend it, we're not calling you a psychopath, we're just sickening aware of how deeply these values are buried in all of us and we're trying to point out the manifestations of one of them to you so that hopefully we can all be more aware of them. (I still refer to women as girls sometimes, even though I dislike myself for it.) It's a nuanced, tragic point and one that comes far better from gentle friends than from anonymous internet blogs.

Sadly none of VB's articles came even close to addressing any of this.