On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 6 February 2011 16:32, Lena ... lenarohrbach@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