(Correction: the first "abstinence" userbox reads "This user practices abstinence", not ""This user practices abstinence but still has a healthy sex drive thank you very much."")


On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Katherine Casey <fluffernutter.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:
I've noticed that enwp has a lot of sexuality-related userboxen. Some of these are innocuous or positive (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UBX/LGBTsupport), some seem to be a bit over-share-y (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UBX/abstinence_reluctant), and some seem downright creepy to me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UBX/girlfriendwish). When you put them together (for example, as found on the - real but anonymized - userpage excerpt here), you can very easily end up with what feels like a very, very sexualized userpage, which means a very, very sexualized user experience for anyone who visits that page. Reading the userpage that screenshot came from, for example, gave me the feeling that anyone female who speaks to that user is going to be evaluated for their sexual usefulness to the user.

Userboxen can be a sensitive issue, historically speaking, and everyone seems to draw the line differently between appropriate ones and inappropriate ones. I'm interested in getting some thoughts on where the line is, and on whether the ones that cross the line inappropriately sexualize the atmosphere on the project. My personal feeling is something along the lines of "Speaking out about your sexual identity is good, but I don't want to hear about what specific sexual characteristics you have or want your sexual partners to have". I'd welcome the lists's thoughts on whether any, some, or none of the following userboxen (not an exhaustive list of sexuality-related ones, just some I've pulled out as good examples of the question) are appropriate to have hosted and used on our projects: