[Gendergap] Hello and a (small!) manifesto

[Daniel and Elizabeth Case]

> On Wednesday, February 02, 2011, jidanni at jidanni.org wrote:
>> K> our "mascot"? An overtly sexualized, large-breasted woman who people
>> K> regularly draw in bikinis and maid costumes? I mean, I know
>> K> Wikipe-tan is not actually The Problem. But she's the most egregious
>> K> example I think we have of the sort of unconscious "boyzone" culture
>>
>> Ah, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan .
>
> I had never seen that, and now that I have I find it embarrassing for 
> Wikipedia.

IIRC Wikipe-tan was only originally meant to be the mascot for WikiProject 
Anime and Manga; how she became the avatar for the project as a whole, I 
don't know. She's hardly an inclusive or representative figure (I'm not a 
anime/manga otaku, aside from the other issues) and we can certainly do 
better.

My own personal notes on signs of a "boyzone" culture at Wikipedia: the 
appearance of [[Lindsay Lohan]], [[Reese Witherspoon]] and [[Uma Thurman]] 
as Main Page FAs within a two-year timespan. And also the one FA that Raul 
quite sensibly (IMO) has decided will never be on the Main Page.

In the same category, there's also the discussion from the top of 
[[Talk:KaDee Strickland]] downwards, that ensued after that article was on 
the Main Page. It's hard for me not to see some of it as misogynistic ...

Daniel Case