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Elevatorgate

proper noun

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.

OriginEnglish Watergatebf. ← French hôte ← Middle French hostel →

Scrabble 16

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Meanings

proper noun

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.
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.
2015, Stephen LeDrew, The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement, →ISBN
3 more examples
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, Karla Mantilla, Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral
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, Corey Wrenn, A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory
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.
2018, Russell Blackford, The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism

Origin

From elevator + -gate.

Full word history & related roots →

Cite this entry

APA

Elevatorgate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elevatorgate

MLA

“Elevatorgate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elevatorgate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Elevatorgate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elevatorgate.

Source: Elevatorgate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.