[Gendergap] Hardcore images essay

[Sue Gardner]

On 14 February 2011 16:23, George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> Question: Are female participants discouraged by the hardcore
> pornographic or explicit content in certain topics or articles?
>
> Do you find it offensive, degrading, discouraging?

That's a great question, George: I'm glad you're asking it :-)

Why don't we try this: let's ask every woman here to answer the
question solely from her personal perspective. Let's refrain from
speculating about what other women might think, and let's hold back on
assessing or judging what anybody says. And let's take
censorship/intervention/etc. off the table --- all we're doing here is
information-gathering, we're not talking about implications.

(Oh, and we should also be aware that the women here may be
unrepresentative of the general population on this issue. If explicit
imagery on the Wikimedia projects _were_ a major factor in the gender
gap then women who currently edit would be unusual, in that they had
NOT been deterred.)

So the question is: female editors, have you come across explicit
material on the Wikimedia projects that you find offensive, degrading
or discouraging?

Thanks,
Sue