----- Original Message ----
From: Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org To: Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Mon, February 14, 2011 6:59:47 PM Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Hardcore images essay
On 14 February 2011 16:23, George Herbert george.herbert@gmail.com wrote:
Question: Are female participants discouraged by the hardcore pornographic or explicit content in certain topics or articles?
Do you find it offensive, degrading, discouraging?
That's a great question, George: I'm glad you're asking it :-)
Why don't we try this: let's ask every woman here to answer the question solely from her personal perspective. Let's refrain from speculating about what other women might think, and let's hold back on assessing or judging what anybody says. And let's take censorship/intervention/etc. off the table --- all we're doing here is information-gathering, we're not talking about implications.
(Oh, and we should also be aware that the women here may be unrepresentative of the general population on this issue. If explicit imagery on the Wikimedia projects _were_ a major factor in the gender gap then women who currently edit would be unusual, in that they had NOT been deterred.)
So the question is: female editors, have you come across explicit material on the Wikimedia projects that you find offensive, degrading or discouraging?
In my personal experience, I when I have come across material I found offensive I was discouraged from editing in the immediate area (or even commenting) and leaving my name in any way associated with the material. I personally would never generalize this discouragement to other areas of the wiki however. It hasn't always been explicit material that I have found unpalatable. But I have always felt that there is level of material (of many varieties) on the wikis that I cannot not strongly object to as counter-mission that I wish to campaign for it's deletion, but that I object to enough on a personal level that I will not do anything to help curate it. Certainly my participation in certain topical areas is discouraged by this. But I don't know that this fact should be seen as problematic. Isn't necessary that there be some pieces of material on the Wikimedia projects for every single individual to find objectionable and offensive? I know of a great deal of material that I find prosaic does discourage others who stringently object to and are greatly offended by it. Shouldn't it work out that much of what I am discouraged by will be prosaic someone else? I don't know the answers here. But I do know that I would find it very hard to mediate with LDS editors over the image on Temple Garment if I were simultaneously campaigning for the deletion of some pornography image.
Speculation here: Women will probably always feel discouraged from contributing to the Hardcore Pornography article, no matter what images it contains. We will likely be more effective in efforts towards seeding pieces of articles that women might be feel encouraged to build upon than removing pieces of articles that may discourage women.
Birgitte SB
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