Andreas Kolbe said:
Don't you think it's bizarre that ArbCom is punishing Lightbreather for discussing
the identity of the guy who posted porn images, claiming they depicted Lightbreather? He posted those images off-wiki, and she discussed it off-wiki. In my opinion, she had every moral right to.
I completely agree with Andreas about this. It is ridiculous that Lightbreather was punished for someone else's seedy, immoral behavior. I would have had a fit if this had happened to me. I completely sympathize with Lightbreather.
Wikipedia has a truly misogynistic attitude toward women. At first, I thought that the bad behavior was an expression of other issues, i.e. sometimes what seems to be misogyny is in fact driven by political ideology or societal morals. Even though that is unacceptable, at least a stable compromise can be reached. I have found numerous examples of that on Wikipedia and elsewhere in online communities. Once people realize that you are not crusading against their beliefs or political stances, the female-targeted hostility stops too. Specifics for me on Wikipedia pertained to 2nd Amendment rights (USA), labor unions and the Joe Lonsdale rape allegations. Once I wrote some updates to firearms articles that were NPOV, added myself to one of the Wikiprojects for labor union history, and wrote a section on the Lonsdale BLP, the (three different) people who had been... difficult were never difficult again. One was actually supportive of me when I needed help later on! It was not necessary for me to compromise my beliefs, as in fact, I like rifle marksmanship, labor unions, and think Lonsdale behaved improperly to the young woman based on evidence at hand. I had never been subject to anything as extreme as Lightbreather, but rather, had felt some of the truculent opposition that wears one down as a female Wikipedian.
If only everything were so easily resolved! There lies the problem: It is not. That is the reason that I believe Wikipedia has an entrenched culture of misogyny. It can be much worse on Wikipedia than some super conservative, right-wing online venues that I frequent. Those people are not hostile in the way that some Wikipedians can be, once they realize that I am not there to troll them, and am similarly-minded. This is true even though many are male, latent anti-Semitic, anti-feminist etc. None of that becomes relevant because the subject matter does not pertain to those attitudes, and such men have no problem interacting or working with me as a Jewish woman.
So then, WHY is Wikipedia more anti-female than some of the seemingly most female-unfriendly parts of the Internet? I don't know, and it frightens me. I don't want to be subject to what Lightbreather experienced. It just isn't worth the headache and potentially, worse than that.
~Ellie (FeralOink)