Elevatorgate

English

Etymology

From elevator +‎ -gate.

Proper noun

Elevatorgate

1. A controversy of 2011 over whether the American blogger Rebecca Watson was right to suggest that a man in an elevator inviting her to his room for coffee was behaving inappropriately.
   • 2015, Karla Mantilla, Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral:

     One of the difficulties for the women whom Elevatorgate is “Storifying” lies in making a determination as to when his following them becomes obsessive enough to qualify as stalking and whether that signifies actual danger for the women he is obsessed with.

   • 2015, Corey Wrenn, A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory:

     This divide can be traced to the infamous 2011 “Elevatorgate” incident following Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson's experience with sexual harassment at a skepticism conference.

   • 2015, Stephen LeDrew, The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement, →ISBN:

     Dawkins' reaction to the Elevatorgate debates was therefore not only ideological but also strategic, born of a pragmatic desire to maintain movement cohesion and ideological focus.

   • 2018, Russell Blackford, The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism:

     Seymour would have been on stronger ground if he'd criticized Nagle for her comments on so-called New Atheism and her description of a sequence of events in 2011 that was labelled at the time as Elevatorgate.

See also

• Donglegate