[Gendergap] Hardcoded discrimination

[Lena ...]

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>  On 6 February 2011 16:32, Lena ... <lenarohrbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I agree with you. It should absolutely be the users own choice. But
>> right now, you don't have a choice. If I want to get a user account,
>> it says "Benutzerkonto" (German: Account for male users)
>
> Wow.
>
> So just to make sure I'm understanding this: on for example the German
> Wikipedia, not only are all registered users identified as part of a
> male category (Benutzer, "male user"), but the actual invitation to
> register in the first place is itself also gendered (Benutzerkonto,
> "account for male users")?

Yes, or almost yes. It's a complicated issue. In many european
languages, for hundreds of years it has been normal to address mixed
gender groups only with the male terms. But they still are the male
terms (you normally don't address females-only groups like this). This
has been a big issue for feminists. By now, government departments,
public agencies, schools, universities etc. are required to also use
the female words (works like this: Benutzer/in; Benutzer/innenkonto).

There are women who don't care, women who care a lot, and women like
me who normally don't realize how much they care until they are
addresses using the female words and suddenly feel more spoken to.


> In marketing, depth of attachment/affiliation/identification to a
> product is often gauged by asking people if they feel like the product
> "is for people like you." The corollary of that is that marketers try
> to increase users' sense of attachment/affiliation/identification, by
> persuading them the product is in fact "for them." We are doing the
> opposite.

Yes! This is exactly how I feel about this (I just couldn't express is
that well in English)

Best,
Lena