Let me start this off by saying I'm furious. I'm furious at my gender, and my 'professional' community.
Maybe you haven't seen Iris Classon's recent blog post about her stalker, but here's the gist: she's been programming for a year and a half and she is already experiencing the worst of us. Our sexism. Our selfishness. Our lack of decency.
We don't have to tolerate this kind of behavior. We can reject those that propagate it. We can shout down those who defend it.
Why the hell are we debating if conferences should have anti-harassment policies? Why are we surprised when a woman shows up at a user group? Why do we assume that just because someone is different they can't be as good as us?
And that's what this is; an inability to interact with anything or anyone different than us. This is us thinking we're the best thing to happen to the universe. This is poison.
Grow up. We're not in high school anymore. We don't have to act like a frat house. We can treat each other with dignity and respect.