I was planning to run an article about the 1st Annual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day taking place on February 1 later this week. It was an event designed to raise awareness for the sexism that occurs against so many female writers in the games and technology space—something I’ve even written about in the past here on Starpulse.

The idea was for people on February 1 to link to a male tech writer’s piece, but say something about their looks or physicality. For instance, “here @adanzis writes about DmC, and boy, aren’t his eyes blue #objectify URL.”

I’ve known one of the organizers, Leigh Alexander, for years and was going to do a quick Q&A with her about the event, but it was recently called off.

In a blog post, Alexander writes, “At first I was excited, but now I see the scale of the discussion and coverage is creating a number of valid risks.” While she and others were looking to “catalyze discussions about the way we use language,” they became worried that people would be uncomfortable and the point would be lost. In fact, they worried that #objectify could be “using harmful language toward people who may be vulnerable” already—people who are gay, men with body issues, etc. The “real mission is making everyone feel welcome,” said Alexander and that’s why the event was called off.

Sound off on the comments below what you think about the decision.