----- Original Message ----
From: "Hartmut "hase" Semken" hase@hase.net To: Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Fri, February 18, 2011 1:08:50 PM Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Women4Wikipedia
Am 18.02.11 14:09, schrieb Sandra:
Well I find that statement a bit inappropriate for a gender gap list,
considering that i find the problem quite serious.
Indeed, it is. And still: men do have the feeling that feminists are out for revenge rather than equality. This is not a statement to discredit feminism as you want to make it, it is a descripion of a very common feeling.
The problem is very simple: feelings are not about facts - or rarely are. Whether a feminist actually /is/ seeking revenge was not part of the satement at all, btw.
I do not think it is so simple to separate feelings from facts as you suggest. Feelings, in the sense you invoke, are no more than reactions to our thoughts.
From Descartes, you might realize that there is a valid viewpoint that our
experiences are the *only* things that we can depend on being real. Facts may be important to physics, but physics can only important because of what humans think and feel about it.
(Unless of course you are trying to imagine the world from non-human-centric veiwpoint. Which is an interesting exercise, but I think not very relevant.)
I am not sure if this email will make much sense to anyone so let me try a different explanation. Validation is vastly important to inspiring humans to act. Facts are rather irrelevant, however dependable and universal they might be. It is a fact the you must consume less calories than you burn to lose weight. But humans, who are aware this fact, universally have difficulty acting in line with it whenever it more convenient for them to consume a larger number of calories than not. Humans are not fact machines, but rather feeling machines. Are you trying to move boulders or humans? Facts will be more relevant to the former task, feelings to the latter.
Birgitte SB