On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Carissa Wodehouse <
carissawodehouse(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Aw,
We were doing so well there for a minute and then it got into wars! I agree
with Carol about needing to move on to a new topic. Laura, I think your
emails are getting out of line with the purpose of the group.
I apologise for my posts, vis-a-vis Fred, Michael and Erik. The tone was
out of line. My understanding of the purpose of the group was incorrect. I
thought the purpose was to work on projects to help increase women's
involvement on Wikipedia, to help encourage new ones, and to develop and
implement strategies to increase women's involvement. My lack of
understanding regarding the purpose of the list is partly to blame for
that. I apologise. I'm tired. I'm frustrated. I didn't realise how badly
men would take my message, and I didn't mean to offend the men on the list.
There are no easy solutions to the problems facing the list. Having the men
fork off wouldn't necessarily solve the problems. It would probably create
a new set of problems. I don't have a solution for the balance.
At the same time that I realise that there are no easy answers and that I
was offensive, I don't want to back away from my claims. Erik's response
with the tone arguement resulted in me crying. It appeared to be as
insensitive to me as he implied I was to him. The tone argument has
historically been used to shut down minority voices, by only allowing
minorities to engage with the majority in a way that makes them feel
comfortable. Couple that with other posts on the list with men telling
women to act people, I just lost my cool. It really, really, really hurts
me as a woman when a man implies that a woman should act like people. Who
are people? Are women not people? It feels like there is a whole lot of
masculine privilege taking place on list. Men are backing up other men. I
felt dogpiled on. I am getting told that men are e-mailing other people on
the list complaining about the angry feminist who hates men. I'm not an
angry feminist. I don't consider myself a feminist. All I want to do is
work toward a specific goal: Increase the representation of women on
Wikipedia, specifically women working on women's sport related articles on
Wikipedia. My feelings were hurt because it seemed like men, when I had
tried to initially go out of my way to highlight their value and say they
did good work but that it would be more empowering for women to work with
women, took my post as a personal attack on them. That was never my
intent. I was being told off list by another man to consider the
motivations of the men on the list and realise that they don't mean to
offend, and that I should think about their intentions. This too hurt
deeply it felt like men were not giving me the same consideration, but I was
being asked to be better than the men, being held to a different standard...
that my points weren't as valid and that my interpretations weren't
responsible, nor accurate...
This will be my last post on this subject on this list. I don't wish to
offend any more men. I really, really want to help get more women involved
in Wikipedia and it is clear that it can't happen in the context of this
list. The list is just not equipped to help do this... and honestly, I
can't take any more men implying I'm discriminating against them because
they are a man (on a list dedicated to reducing the gender gap), I can't
stand having the director of the foundation using an argument that has been
historically used to suppress minority voices to dismiss my views. It makes
me tired an depressed. I don't need this in my life.
Let's get back to producing ideas and methods, no?
I'm currently trying to host wiki academies to help get women's sport people
involved in editing sport related content on Wikipedia. Any help that can
be provided would be appreciated. I'm also trying to work on articles about
women's sport at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Netball . Any help
improving those articles or getting more women involved in editing those
articles would be appreciated.
I'm going to hold my workshops. I'm going to try to get netball to featured
status... but after that, I've had it. I really have. I'm happy to try to
work with Women4Wikipedia and other local groups to accomplish the goal of
increasing participation. Wikipedia is too important to ignore in terms of
providing visibility. I'll continue to help organise wiki conferences, to
help bring more people into the wiki community and to connect. I'll
continue to try to work with my local national chapter. Where applicable,
I'll do work on Wikipedia. I'll stay on the list until I finish running my
Sport Wiki Workshops in Australia.
But beyond that, no. How to drive women away from Wikipedia: Belittle their
feelings, imply they aren't people, have influential men in the Wikipedia
community who hold positions of power dogpile on women who express concern
over how you handle the effort to bring more women into Wikipedia, imply
that wanting your own space to work on increasing female participation on
Wikipedia discriminated against 87% of the Wikipedia population, and provide
no leadership or support for women who are actively working towards helping
accomplish stated goals of the organisation to bring in more women, make
women feel guilty for offending men on a list intended to help increase
women's representation on Wikipedia.
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog:
ozziesport.com