In activist circles, getting called out for racist or sexist behavior means you're kicked out, immediately, no questions asked.
Based on my understanding of it, the red/yellow card system is largely an effort in self-policing, in that they're based on the assumption that someone who receives a red card will learn and change their behavior.
This seems like a bad assumption. A better system might be to have a simple mobile app or website, run by the conference, that allows women (and only women) to report harassment by a particular person, causing that person to be immediately blacklisted.
This is severe enough that you won't see it being used as a joke, and it'll be effective at removing scuzzy people from conferences.
The mere idea of abuse creates an incentive to steer clear of any females in the audience, which is sort of the opposite of the desired goal - acceptance.
Of course there's potential for abuse -- that's a feature, not a bug.
By taking the patriarchal power dynamic and turning it on its head, systems like these create radically better environments for collaboration and collective empowerment.
If you're a man who would avoid talking to any women at a convention where women calling you out for harassing/threatening/misogynist behavior, the real problem isn't the system that allows women to hit back harder than their abusers, it's that you have far too high a probability of doing something harassing/threatening/misogynistic, and you should take some time to reconsider your behavior-patterns.
Based on my understanding of it, the red/yellow card system is largely an effort in self-policing, in that they're based on the assumption that someone who receives a red card will learn and change their behavior.
This seems like a bad assumption. A better system might be to have a simple mobile app or website, run by the conference, that allows women (and only women) to report harassment by a particular person, causing that person to be immediately blacklisted.
This is severe enough that you won't see it being used as a joke, and it'll be effective at removing scuzzy people from conferences.