Donglegate

English

Etymology

From dongle +‎ -gate.

Proper noun

Donglegate

1. A controversy of 2013 in which a woman at a technology conference took offense on overhearing an apparently ribald joke involving the word dongle and published the two men's photographs on the Internet in an attempt to shame them, causing one to be fired from his job.
   • 2014, Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Gender & Pop Culture: A Text-Reader, page 182:

     The interaction, now referred to as “Donglegate,” resulted in one of the males being fired by his company. Richards herself became the target of hate, threats, and a denial-of-service attack on her website.

   • 2015, Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed:

     With Donglegate she pointlessly robbed that man of his employment. She degraded his masculinity. And so the community responded by degrading her femininity.

   • 2016, Stephen McDonald, William Salomone, Sonia Gutierrez, The Writer's Response: A Reading-Based Approach to Writing:

     The bigger the so-called Donglegate story became, the more disproportionate and unfair Richards' original tweet seemed, even if that level of exposure was never her intent.

See also

• Elevatorgate

Anagrams

• Golden Gate