It's been so long since I've had a chance to vent on this list about this!
On 4/29/13 8:43 AM, Katherine Casey wrote:
Ha! That is exactly what happened when I said I was no longer watching the page and I was disconnecting myself from the discussion on the Amanda Filipacchi article:Yeah, the sheer domination by numbers of masculine voices - even when they're not trying to argue from a particularly masculine perspective, can just be draining in situations like this. Especially when they're not trying to argue from a particularly masculine perspective, frankly, because it's very hard to get across "I know you're not trying to ignore the value of a slightly different perspective, but..." without making them feel like they need to defend themselves and go on about how we're reading into them things they're not saying, they're not biased, men are capable of being open-minded, there's no single male perspective, etc. All those things are true, and before any of our male allies on this list get upset, I want to acknowledge that...but at the same time, that gender-related invisible knapsack can just sort of steer male-dominated discussions in directions that a more gender-balanced conversation might not swerve, or might not swerve so strongly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:SarahStierch#.22women.22_categories
I have never read that essay - thank you for sharing it! Interesting, I was lucky that my education and my interest in punk rock music taught me about "skin color" privilege, wealth privilege, and male privilege, but, when I moved into different areas of work (and a flipside getting my masters which was 95% women in the program, however, majority were Anglo, which is another issue that museums - and open culture - are trying to sort out) it wasn't until I got involved (again) in the "gender fight", this time focusing on Wikipedia, that I realized what was happening. And it's often a challenge to walk the line of wanting to call out male participants in some regards, but also acknowledge allies. On an interesting twist, I even find that male allies are often unaware of who they sympathize with and the life they lead and how they got that life. It's really prominent in the tech industry, and I'm sure else where.
It's quite a challenge - I don't want to be the sexist jerk, but at the same time, there is a lot happening that people aren't realizing they are doing or a part of and it's hard to know how to educate them - or if you should even say "Oh, and thanks to all those white guys who built Wikipedia..I appreciate it...BUT..." which I find myself doing sometimes. And then I get comments on Facebook saying I'm being a jerk to the white guys and I just facepalm, because inside I'm laughing going "oh, poor white guy! Truth hurts!" I was also told recently "you should be more polite and have less attitude when you talk about gender issues, maybe more people would listen," (by a white European male who identifies as an anarchist who is prone to cursing). It's been emblazoned into my head, mainly because of who said it - not that it's changing my ways.I've had to stop. It's been months now since I even nominated a "nudie" image for deletion. I now just upload my images, and when I have time, or depending on my work, I do some gnomish stuff. After I was told (by white male editors) to curb my loud mouth behavior so I an become an admin someday, I totally stopped. I'm still shocked I let that happen - but, on the flipside, as you put it - it's terribly demoralizing, depressing, and painful to participate on Commons. I thought, if I could become an Admin, perhaps I could *really* make a difference. At least on Wikipedia you know there are some women, or at least active allies and women you can even call on when needed (canvasing isn't a policy :) ) for help or support. Most of the women I know go "Oh no, I'm not going on Commons, hell no!" LOL.
Commons, especially, is just completely dominated by certain viewpoints with regard to sexual images, and Sarah, you get tons of my respect for just attempting to function there, because I certainly can't do it. I might be able to handle an inadvertent boys-zone atmosphere - I hang out on enwp, after all - but my blood pressure just can't handle the level of aggression Commons bring to bear on anyone who dares speak for the deletion of potentially-damaging images.
Ha! Glad at least one woman was there.
-Fluff
P.S. On re-reading the threads from my original email, I note that I was wrong about the "100% male" thing - Beria Lima commented twice. So uh, 99.999% male?
-Sarah
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