1. Thank you, Carol Moore dc, for writing an excellent response to what (I
agree) was a very silly and irritating comment at the
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/05/01/meet-the-inspire-grantees/ post.
2. Regarding the edit-a-thons, you said:
Hmmm, looks like some guys even object to
edit-a-thons, trashing their
posters on campus...
http://www.newsrecord.org/news/students-combat-gender-imbalance-online/arti…
Actually, the male students didn't trash the wiki women posters, but made
and posted separate "wiki dudes" posters of their own. The NewsRecord post
said that doing so didn't constitute a Title IX violation, yet.
I find it kind of disturbing that male students would feel the need to
react that way, by making the wiki dudes posters. It is obvious that there
is less coverage of women in Wikipedia than of men, and that most notable
figures in American and European (in fact, global) arts, history and
science have been men, who have received plenty of attention and
biographical scholarship already!
The fact that the anonymous male students went to the trouble of creating
separate posters, rather than vandalizing the existing wiki women posters,
indicates a level of forethought that is beyond mere impulse trolling. If
I were to wear my politically correct hat, I would say that even members of
the patriarchy realize and acknowledge that there is more scholarship
devoted to notable men than notable women. The truly oppressive patriarchy
would believe that that is appropriate, and go about their business. Do the
wiki dudes guys truly believe that men are being overshadowed and
under-represented on Wikipedia and elsewhere, I wonder? If so, that
demonstrates a troubling lack of awareness of reality, especially on a
college campus.
I don't have any suggestions for remedying the situation, nor am I
condemning anyone's actions e.g. for "making men feel marginalized"; I
suspect that these men are deliberately choosing to marginalize themselves.
It is just a remarkably peculiar reaction to wiki women edit-a-thon's, and
I hope we don't see more of it.
~Ellie Kesselman a.k.a FeralOink