[Gendergap] the terms "chicks" and "fellows"; systemic bias noticeboard

[Christine Moellenberndt]

On 2/24/11 2:13 PM, James Salsman wrote:
> Is it appropriate for the Foundation to refer to women as "chicks" and
> use the title "fellow" for staff positions?  I'm not adamantly opposed
> to either, but I am convinced we can do much better.
>
[speaking as me, not as a Foundation representative]

The term "fellow" has *many* different meanings; Wiktionary can provide 
a good many of them.  In this particular instance, "fellow" follows the 
academic term; meaning a person taking a stipend to conduct a specific 
area of study.  In that term, it also follows another definition of the 
term "fellow"; that of a companion, a comrade, an associate.

And my understanding of "WikiChix" is that it's a community movement, 
not a Foundation one for all that it was founded by a Board of Trustees 
member.  It's also based off of the LinuxChix movement, again a 
community movement.  Some women embrace this term, some do not.  Over 
the last 5-10 years or so there has been a movement to begin reclaiming 
the various signifiers of femininity that were eschewed during the 
feminist revolution of the 70s: the color pink, needlecraft, the term 
"chick," etc.  Personally, i embrace "chick"... it makes me feel young 
and not like the old lady i fear i'm becoming way too quickly ;)

We can argue etymology until the cows come home.  But in my mind, it's a 
red herring.  Words do shape Worlds 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity, or as we call it in 
anthropology the Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis), but i'm not sure this is the 
battle to fight.  This is especially true in light of all the other 
problems/solutions that have been highlighted on this list and others 
which are related: new user welcoming committees, less biting of people 
(new or otherwise), and other on-wiki social changes that would make the 
site welcoming to new editors of all genders.  i personally would rather 
devote my efforts to working on these other issues than arguing over 
what we call the people who come in to work on projects, or what 
individuals call their mailing lists.

If we spend too much time fighting over words, we really will lose sight 
of the forest for the trees.

-Christine