Sean is merely mocking himself with his allegedly witty posts. He has no doubt also opened the eyes of a few people who might previously have thought highly of him, even if only because of his position on Wiki. Sad really.
On 11/25/06, Puppy puppy@killerchihuahua.com wrote:
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
Puppy wrote:
Stan Shebs wrote:
Puppy wrote:
I appreciate that, Fred. I am not concerned so much about the lack of response to my concerns, as I am about the lack of response to overt sexist attacks on this mailing list.
I personally didn't respond because it looked like trolling, and
you're
not supposed to feed the trolls. But apparently my attempt at troll starvation is evidence of misogyny? Bummer...
Stan
I almost didn't respond for that very reason, but now I'm glad I did. Women are emailing me telling me how intimidated they feel - they don't want to post their concerns to this list because they also feel intimidated here. That I would have never known had I not replied.
Generally this list is home to not sexism but general stupidity. What will it take before people feel safe enough to post here?
I don't have a solution. I do, however, now recognize there is a serious problem. I didn't add anything to the recent threads about trying to increase female participation in WP because I had no idea why women would /not/ be editing, standing for admin, standing for arbcom, etc. Now I know at least one reason, and it is something I can do something about.
It appears I'm one of those "thick skinned" women Keitei refers to - I didn't even think there was much of a problem until this started, as I've said. I have now received multiple emails from different women, all stating they are intimidated and afraid to post on this list, and thanking me for talking about this. The mere fact that gender bias is being discussed seems to be encouraging to them. I think we may need to adopt a vigilant attitude towards sexist comments, and not ever let them slide or slip under the radar. If there is a concerted message that sexist comments are not welcome, gradually the climate should change. As Larry Pieniazek pointed out, we cannot change the world - but we can change how we respond to sexism in our little sphere of influence, which includes all things wp - wp itself, this mailing list, and yes irc. We have no control over irc, of course, yet if there is concerted response towards any sexism, it should have an effect. I am speaking here of personal responsibility, not Wikipedia policy or responsibility. It behooves us to remember that what may seem like a "shrug it off" comment to us, to women who are already intimidated, it may be the kiss of death insofar as their participation in Wikipedia is concerned. Keitei said
"I am afraid to say anything about feeling harassed on #wikipedia because it seems that I would be told that they were just joking or I need to lighten up or that's not a bannable offense. Not that I hate everyone who does it either, and I don't even know if they know they're doing it, but it's a shame that it's allowed and overlooked. Although I am part of the problem here for not speaking up."
If someone feels the climate is hostile to speaking up, we are not making this a supportive or even neutral environment to women. Sean Barrett is apparently mocking any concern, if I understand his emails correctly. This is not conducive to women feeling free to voice concerns, and goes beyond "allowed and overlooked" into outright hostility - if women are already afraid, mocking their concerns is definitely adding to and exacerbating the problem.
Those are my thoughts currently - does anyone else have any ideas?
-kc-
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