Bikini example - Gendergap

16 Sep 2011

I just found an example which seems to me exemplary of a male dominated 
disaster :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini

In the Article page what struck me as wrong was :

1) The Sports bikini in beach volleyball photo, which has non pertinent 
erotic content imho

2) The chapter about male underwear, which seems to me so inappropriate 
AND ridiculous I can't even begin to describe it.

In the Discussion page there is totally male point of view discussion 
about whether the girl in red is in good shape enough.

Then there is the raging Outrage comment which I fear might become 
systematic if you leave the door opened for that. I have never seen a 
kid being shocked by going to the beach and seeing bikinis. That's a 
perverse erotic assumption imho, under the guise of high morality.

I took the time to have a look at the German page :

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini

1) The first photo is semantically right, it shows better that bikinis 
are used to go the beach and swimming

2) The history chapter is better developed

3) The gallery and the drawings aptly show different kinds of bikinis

4) No ridiculous male underwear content

Also, there was a beach sports photo which seemed to me much better and 
devoid of erotic content yesterday. But sadly it's been removed at the 
moment I speak. It was this one :

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_volleyball-Huntington_Beach-Ca…

Ah yes and also the discussion on the German page is more competent and 
calm imho.

So as a conclusion, the German bikini page represents for me a right 
state of mind and proper educational content, fit to be used in a school 
with students interested in fashion. The English page seems to me more 
influence by more or less lunatic authors, or authors less interested in 
knowledge.

Arnaud