Standing with DNLee against sexism at biology-online.org, and Scientific American's cowardly conduct

Update, approximately 11:00 am, PDT, Sunday October 13, 2013. Mariette DiChristina has published an explanation for Scientific American's removal of Danielle N. Lee's blog post.. Smells of Rhincodon typus innards to me.

Update, approximately 9:30 am, PDT, Monday October 14, 2013--reorganized the lists

Update, approximately 3:30 pm, PDT, Monday October 14, 2013; Danielle Lee's post has been restored: Responding to No Name Life Science Blog Editor Who Called Me Out of My Name

Danielle N. Lee, PhD  is a biologist and science writer who blogged independently at Urban Science.  Some time ago, she moved her blog to Scientific American, as one of a group of  bloggers at http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/,  Her blog is The Urban Scientist.  She also tweets as @DNLee5.

On October 11, 2013, she published a blog post about being invited to contribute to a content aggregator called http://www.biology-online.org/ [edited to add: other than the website, Biology-online does not seem to have a Facebook page or a twitter account]  When she discovered that she would not be compensated for content, she politely declined.

The person issuing the invitation, somebody named Ofek who is evidently an administrator, then called her a whore.   

That was bad enough, but then the administrators at Scientific American pulled down DNLee's post describing the interaction.  

[edited to add] Here is the response from SciAm's editorial director: Tweet from Mariette DiChristina: "Re blog inquiry: @sciam is a publication for discovering science. The post was not appropriate for this area & was therefore removed."

Fortunately, the post had already been published as a guest post by Dr. Isis: Tell Someone “No”, Get Called a “Whore” – #StandingwithDNLee #batsignal and then by Ophelia Benson,Tell Someone "No", Get Called a Whore 

[edited to add: The person who insulted Dr. Lee introduced him/herself as "Ofek, the Blog Editor at Biology-Online.org".  Biology-Online.org has been entirely silent since this issue blew up.]

[edited to add, 4:35 PDT 10/122013] This clarification from Mariette diChristina was published at Buzzfeed earlier today. To my mind, it is a notsplanation, especially as many, many more-personal-than-"discovering science" posts from others remain published.

“I’d like to elaborate on the original brief statement on Twitter that this blog fell outside Scientific American’s mission to communicate science. While we interpret that mission with a lot of latitude, Dr. Lee’s post went beyond and verged into the personal, and that’s why it was taken down. Dr. Lee’s post is out extensively in the blogosphere, which is appropriate. Dr. Lee is a valued member of the Scientific American blog network. In a related matter, Biology Online has an ad network relationship, and not an editorial one. Obviously, Scientific American does not want to be associated with activities that are detrimental to the productive communication of science. We are pursuing next steps.”

There are a number of issues swirling around here:

1. Sexism anywhere (a woman says no to a man's proposition, a man says, well then you are a whore)
2. Sexism in science 
3. Sexism and racism anywhere (misogynoir)
4. Sexism and racism in science 
5. The whole deal about a person's work -- writing a blog post -- not being compensated by an organization that is deriving revenue from said content
6. An organization (Scientific American) removing a contributor's work for specious reasons (that is, previous posts by many SciAm bloggers on topics other than "discovering science" remain online).
7. The silence of biology-online.org to its employee's sexism
8. [edited to add] Corporate responses to a public-relations catastrophe (Both Biology-online.org and Scientific American are exhibiting epic fails.)

[edited to add: Pre-SciAm apology posts] Relevant posts (which I will add to as I find them)

1. October 11, 2013: DNLee, Urban Scientist (at SciAm) Give Trouble to Others, but Not to Me (original post now pulled)
2. October 11, 2013: Biology-online.org Forum When Is It Okay to Call a Scientist a Whore? 
3. October 11, 2013: Isis the Scientist:  Tell Someone “No”, Get Called a “Whore” – #StandingwithDNLee #batsignal
4. October 11, 2013: Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels: Tell Someone "No", Get Called a Whore 
5. [edited to add] October 11, 2013: David Wescott, It's Not A Lecture: Free crisis PR advice for Biology-online.org  
6. [edited to add] October 11, 2013: DNLee, JAYFK, .@DNLee responds to be called a 'whore' for saying "no thanks".
7. [edited to add] October 11, 2013:  Shareef Jackson, #Sciencelooks Good Hey Science? Respect Matters: #Standingwit DNLee
8. [edited to add] October 11, 2013:  Lisa Buckley, Shaman of the Atheistic Sciences, Respect in Science: When saying "No" gets you called a "Whore". #StandingwithDNLee
9. October 12, 2013: Isis the Scientist:  An Open Letter to Scientific American and Why You’ve Lost a Reader: #BoycottSciAm
10. October 12, 2013: Dana Hunter, Rosetta Stone (at SciAm):  I'm Standing with DNLee, Why Isn't Scientific American?
11. October 12, 2013: Kate Clancy, Context and Variation (at SciAm): This is not a post about discovering science
12. October 12, 2013: Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels: Another hostile work environment.
13. October 12, 2013: Sean Carrol, Preposterous Universe: Don't Start One, Don't Be One
14. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Anne Jefferson, Highly Allochthonous: I will not be silent any longer about the way women and people of color in science and leadership are treated
15. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Gradient Lair: DNLee called urban whore by biology-online, SciAm
16. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Rachel Zarrel, Buzzfeed: Blogger’s Post About Being Called A “Whore” Is Deleted By Scientific American 
17. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Janet Stemwedel, Doing Good Science, (at SciAm) Standing with DNLee and "Discovering Science". 
18. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Dana Hunter, Rosetta Stone, "Now is the time we raise our voices" (at SciAm)
19. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Stephanie Zvan, Almost Diamonds, Help me out here, Scientific American
20. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Kelly, Life as an Extreme Sport, SciAm Doesn't Think that Sexism in Science is "An Issue" -- Will They Think Boycotts Are?
21. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Dr. Rubidium, JAYFK, What @scianm's actions tell me as a female scientist of color
22. [edited to add] October 12, 2013,  Dr24hours, Infactorium, Really, Scientific American?
23. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Malicia Rogue, Storify, Scientific American censors blog post for not being 'scientific' enough
24. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels, Scientific American has its reasons
25. [edited to add] October 12, 2013,Dina Spector, Business Insider,  Scientific American Is Getting Slammed For Deleting A Blogger's Post About Being Called A 'Whore'
26. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Maryn McKenna, SuperBug Wired Science, On Science, Communication, Respect, and Coming Back from Mistakes, 
27. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Metafilter, Are you an urban scientist or an urban whore?
28. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Greg Laden, Greg Laden's blog,  Internet Meltdown, #standingwithDNLee
29. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels, How Not to Ask for a Favor
30. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Joshua Drew, The Drew Lab at Columbia University: This One Matters
31. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Geeky Girl Engineer #standingwithDNLee
32. [edited to add] October 12, 2013 Liz Ditz, I Speak of Dreams,#standingwithDNLee don't ignore #biologyonline or its employee, Ofek the Blog Editor
33. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, George Chidi, Raw Story, Scientific American dustup over blogger being called ‘urban whore’ after rejecting request for unpaid work
34. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Paul Willett, We Love the Stars Too Fondly, Scientific American and the Epic Fail
35. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Chris Clarke, Coyote Crossing, SciAm and Danielle N. Lee
36. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Ferniglab A Disgrace? Yes. Surprised? No.
37. [edited to add] October 12, 2013, Alldigiocracy Nobody Ever Called Einstein a Whore
38. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Tressiemc, Academic Whores
39. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Courtney McNamara, Healthy Policies, #Standing with DNLee
40. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Greg Laden, Greg Ladin's Blog, Will SciAm's Response to DNLee's Post Deletion Mean Anything If It Happens Monday?
41. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, MegaloBomb, Shark Alley, The Challenges of Being A Woman Scientist, Especially With Sharks
42. [edited to add] October 13, 2013,  Mama Joules, Mama Joules, #IStandWithDNLee
43. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Sarah Rae Fruchnicht, Opposing Views, Scientific American Blogger Called An "Urban Whore" for Refusing to Work for Free
44. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Ken White, Popehat, Biology-Online.org, "Urban Whores" and The Many Axes of Douchebaggery 
45. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels, Don't Ever Do Anything In Case Your Motives Are Impure
46. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels, Urban Bloggers
47. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Rogue, Medium, How Scientific American Screws It Up Bigtime
48. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, InBabyAttachMode, Late to the party but I am #standingwithDNLee
49. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Cheryl, Nuclear Diner, Danielle Lee's Blog and the Scientific American Magazine
50. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Ivan Oransky, Retraction Watch,  Scientific American faces firestorm after removing blog post about scientist being called a whore
51. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Brian M. Lucy, Brian M. Lucy, Scientific American faces firestorm after removing blog post about scientist being called a whore.
52. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, The Daily Dot, Austin Powell, Biologist silenced after revealing publisher's sexist response
53. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Slashdot Scientific American in Blog Removal Controversy
54. [edited to add] October 13, 2013 Mónica Ivelisse Feliú-Mójer  Ciencia Puerto Rico Why Women Leave Science, You Ask? This Is Why
55. [edited to add] October 13, 2013 Scott Jaschick, Inside Higher Ed, When Does A Scientist Get Called A Whore?
56. [edited to add] October 13, 2013 Chronicle of Higher Education, Storify 
57. [edited to add] October 13, 2013 Blackladies Reddit First Psychology Today, Now This?
58. [edited to add] October 13, 2013 Email of apology from Alan Weisleder, co-owner of Biology-online.org, to Dr. Danielle Lee.

[edited to add: SciAm apology post and those commenting on them] Relevant posts (which I will add to as I find them)

1. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Mariette DiChristina has published an explanation for Scientific American's removal of Danielle N. Lee's blog post.
2. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Callie Beuzman, Jezebel SciAm Apologizes for Deleting Blogger's Post on Being Called a "Whore".
3. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels, Scientific American Responds
4. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Greg Laden, Greg Laden's Blog, Scientific American Blogs Responds
5. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, David Kroll, Terra Sigillata, A View on Scientific American Blogs and Censorship of Dr. Danielle Lee
6. [edited to add] October 13, 2013, Rob Beschizza BoingBoing "Urban Whore" Train Wrecks Scientific American's Holiday Weekend
7. [edited to add] October 14, 2014, Honee_V, Biology-Online.Org, Apology to DNLee
8. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Isis, Isis the Scientist Derailing and my final thoughts on Scientific American's Public Statement
9. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Kate Clancy, Context and Variation, Why #StandingWithDLee's Orientation towards SciAm Was So Important
10. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Daniel Lende, Neuroathropology, Lily White
11. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Arturo R. Garcia, Racialicious, Scientific American Does Not Stand With DN Lee
12. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Cedar Reiner, Cedar's Digest, On the benefits of "Overreaction" -- #IstandwithDNLee
13. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, SciCurious, The SciCurious Brain, Standing with DNLee5, Let's Get Voices Heard
14. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Amanda Hess, XX Factor Slate, Scientific American's Troubling Response to Its Blogger Being Called "Urban Whore"
15. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Ken Fisher, Ars Technica, For Shame:  Trolls Defeat Scientific American, Popular Science
16. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Kristopher Hite, Tom Paine's Ghost,  Do Not F^ck With Science Writers
    

Bigger-Picture Posts Prompted by #StandingwithDNLee

1. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Janet Stemwedel, Doing Good Science, The Ethics of Admitting You Messed Up
   
2. [edited to add] October 14, 2013, Melanie Tannebaum, PsySociety "But I Didn't Mean It!" Why it is So Hard To Prioritize Impacts Over Intentions 

Twitter hashtags:

• #standingwithDNLee
• #boycottSciAm
• #replaceyouscienceblogtitlewithwhore
• #IstandwithDNLeee

Gradient Lair taught me a useful word new to me: misogynoir

Comments

[Ophelia Benson]

For fairness I think Isis's post should come before mine - I posted DNLee's article via Isis, not the other way around. Isis got it directly from DNLee.

Helpful compilation!

[Liz Ditz]

Done.