Agree with Tom. A user should be able to say that they are gay, or support
LGBT rights; user boxes about what sort of women an editor likes, what sort
of penis they have, whether they enjoy cross-dressing etc. seem out of
place, and slightly creepy.
Again, this is an area where real-world workplace standards should be
applied.
Andreas
On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 6:32 PM, Tom Morris <tom(a)tommorris.org> wrote:
"Straight but not narrow" is not necessarily
fetish/philia related: people
saying they are straight but not narrow often means they are straight but
support gay rights. But that's just a side issue.
I have a gay userbox/category on my user profile for a few reasons:
because I use it as a litmus test of whether I want to participate in
Wikipedia (if the community cannot accept me as I am, I'll find something
else to do with my time), because I try and practice a life of openness (I
edit in my real name, and take the extra risk that comes with that, so why
the fuck shouldn't I be out?) and because I hope that if there are users
who are LGBT and need support or just a kind ear from an admin who can
empathise with them, they can find me and email me.
The difference between having a "This user is gay" userbox and a "This
user is single and wants to find a girlfriend" userbox is the underlying
point of mating that declaration. The motivation for having the former on
my userpage isn't to, say, find sexual or romantic partners. (Not that
having someone in my life with an encyclopedic knowledge of something
wouldn't be useful at times…)
Even though I can see a very worthwhile point in listing that I am gay on
my userpage (as listed above). I can't quite see how a userbox proudly
proclaiming my sexual activities serves any great goal in building an
encyclopedia. Nobody is actually going to get a date from a userbox, and
beyond that, I can't quite see any real use for them. I just hope that we
don't throw the useful baby (things like LGBT userboxes) out with the
bathwater.
Yours,
--
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>
On Tuesday, 14 May 2013 at 16:01, Katherine Casey 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 (
http://gyazo.com/fa31a70c0b5bf29600a3058ae6dc4d6e)), 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:
abstinence but still has a healthy sex drive thank you very much.")
practices abstinence but still has a healthy sex drive thank you very
much.")
practices
abstinence for religious reasons, but disagrees with the Silver
Ring Thing.")
practices
abstinence but is not sure whether through shyness or through
moral choice.")
Fetishes/philias/sexual identity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UBX/aquaphile ("This user is an
aquaphile.")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dark_Tichondrias/Userboxes/User_Cross-dre…
user enjoys cross-dressing.")
a
dominant." - also available in sub)
varied sex
life.")
is probably a furry.")
considers
blond hair to be attractive." - also available for brunnettes,
redheads)
[they]
had a girlfriend")
Miscellaneous sexuality-related:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UBX/safesex ("This user supports and
encourages the practice of safe sex.")
proudly
uncircumcised")
constitutes varied,
right?)")
single")
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