I had looked at this article and yes, it contains the sort of muddled stuff which sends me bonkers! Bad history and bad sociology mixed up with random advice and juvenile opinion. Errrrk. Makes you want to give up, although to be fair, it is a difficult topic to write on and would need considerable effort to make useful. I suppose, like many articles, it can best be considered a starting point.
The fact that the article is poorly written (and dubiously, if copiously footnoted) does not mean that many of those points Kaldari lists are untrue. In creating and criticising articles, we need to distinguish what we would LIKE to happen from what DOES happen. That applies to the encyclopedia in general as much as to topics concerning this list in particular. For example, women DO indeed struggle with the "double shift" of having a career and having a family. Women DID connive to trade beauty and sex for affluence and status (what else could they do?) and there are many examples of how significant this is historically, some of which should be used to explain the claim. More significant, though, is that women STILL do it, so it is pretty well undeniable and much as we would wish otherwise, unexceptionable. I am not sure if it is worse than men using attractive females to further their status - a practice barely reduced over the millennia and still common, indeed lauded, today.
Although the sections giving advice are ridiculous, even more annoying to me is the lack of understanding of the Rape of the Sabine Women as a subject for art. The most famous is Nicolas Poussin's 1636-7 Baroque version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. The 1870 version used unhelpfully and erroneously in the article is a pale 19th century piece of historicism. More important is that the word "rape" "...is a conventional translation of Latin raptio, which in this context means "abduction" rather than its prevalent modern meaning of sexual violation." The story [[The Rape of the Sabine Women]] is about abduction and it is in the context of the Romans subduing a people (the Sabines) famous for their bravery and austerity. As usual, taking the women was a part of the war and a part of the effort to Romanise a conquered people. It is not so much about dating or rape (as we now use the word) as about war and subjugation.
From the point of view of WP, there are germs of truth and germs of misunderstanding all through the article and I use the word "germs" advisedly. In short, lots more work needed on this article!
If you really want some entertainment, you should try reading the
"dating" article. It includes such mind-blowing revelations as:
* Teenagers and tweens have been described as dating.
* There are reports that guys are asking out girls for dates by text
messaging.
* When young people are in school, they have a lot of access to
people their own age, and don't need tools such as online websites
or dating services.
And of course lots of great gender stereotypes like:
* During much of human history... women "connived to trade beauty
and sex for affluence and status".
* Educated women in many countries including Italy and Russia and
the United States often find it difficult to have a career as well
as raise a family; many delay finding a mate and having children and
wonder if they're too accomplished that they won't be as appealing
to men.
It also includes lots of random advice like:
* dating at a movie is advisable only if followed by a drink
afterwards.
* men are attracted to 'curls', 'ribbons', 'bright colors', and
women should 'avoid sarcasm.'
* Women can use 'pseudo-infantile motions such as the head-cock' and
gaze intensely with widened eyes and laugh often, touch, and move in
ways to emphasize their body's roundness, such as shrugging their
shoulders or sit hugging their knees, to mimic buttock imagery.
I swear this stuff is in the article. I couldn't make this up!
And to illustrate the "Dating worldwide" section, they use the
painting "The Rape Of The Sabines: The Abduction" which shows a guy
with a sword carrying off a scantily clad damsel in distress. I
guess our editors have some unique ideas on dating etiquette.
Ryan Kaldari
On 10/24/11 6:00 PM, Gillian White wrote:
Apart from any content problems, the article had no
context. It was not linked to what should be regarded as its
parents. And that lack of coherence, combined with its specific
terminology made it largely incomprehensible to people unfamiliar
with American educational systems, aside from its social
practices. For example, it is by no means universal that students
live in residential colleges while attending university. I had a
go at giving it some context so readers can go from one article to
the next (specifically, from "courtship" to "dating" to "college
dating") but I agree that it would be better if it was renamed, as
the issues that are distinctive to dating in college/university
could then be developed.
Yeah, personally I think the subject is notable. There has
been tons
of academic research and popular history written about the
history of
dating, college dating, the invention of the 'teenager,' etc.
Even
just within the United States.
I think I did a radio series on this once -- IIRC, Beth Bailey
was a
really great source. She wrote this fascinating book: http://www.amazon.com/Front-Porch-Back-Seat-Twentieth-Century/dp/0801839351.
Susan J. Douglas was good too, as well as Stephanie Coontz and
Barbara
Ehrenreich. They are all American, though. Lots has been
written about
the UK too, but I'm not sure about other cultures/countries.
Thanks,
Sue
--
Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
On 24 October 2011 11:16, Daniel and Elizabeth Case
<dancase@frontiernet.net>
wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nathan
> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 2:13 PM
> To: Increasing female participation in Wikimedia
projects
> Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Am I crazy?
>
> I question whether "college dating" deserves an
article to begin with.
> If it does, which the text of the article doesn't at
all establish,
> the current article has a pretty fatal case of
systemic bias.
>
>
> On the surface I tend to agree, but then I read
the AfD:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/College_dating
>
> Daniel Case
>
>
>
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