[Gendergap] Wars

[Marc Riddell]

on 3/17/11 12:22 PM, Sandra ordonez at sandratordonez at gmail.com wrote:

Laura, I hope you dont feel bad. Whether people agree or not, you were
sharing your perspective, and thats one of the reasons for this list, so
women on Wikipedia can feel more empowered to voice their opinion. And the
men - don't feel bad either, we are dealign with issues that permeates human
history, and thank you for caring about them. 

As a Latina who basically grew up in the civil rights aftermath, I see there
are some wholes that may be responsible for some of the tension we have
experienced on this list. I say this, b/c I've belonged to various groups
focused on empowering people of color, and there are certain unspoken rules
that I don't think may be common sense for some people in this group. Why
are these unspoken rules important? Well, because they provide the gel
necessary to work effectively in groups were the emotional component is just
as important as the practical one. Unfortunately, sexism and racism are not
logical problems, and can be treated only in logical ways. These are my
recommendations: 

* Lets create a manifesto together: Why? Because it will allow us to create
together a certain description of the type of culture we want this group to
embrace, and provide a more cohesive unity that unfortunately is some times
hard to do non-verbally through internet based interaction. 

* Lets accept that people are going to vent, voice their anger, or
frustration at times. This does not mean that this is how they feel 100% of
the time. For example, as a Latina I can voice my frustration over
discriminations I've experienced but this doesn't mean I want an all out
race war. I can voice my anger over the poverty minorities have experienced
b/c of descrimination, but this doesn't mean that I want other people to be
poor instead. 

* Lets accept that we need to empower women to feel more comfortable voicing
their opinion. If you are someone who already had a loud voice, great, but
there is a good percentage of women that would appreciate this type of
support. This doesn't mean they are "weaker" this just means that culturally
we have been told that our opinion doesn't matter, and we need a little
nudge. 

* Lets accept that women know women better than men. All viewpoints are
valid, but lets understand that experiencing the world as a woman is much
different than experiencing the world as a man. 

* Lets accept that the men on this list are trying to become better
feminist, and are open to guidance. Just like I have had to explain to
non-ethnic friends that certain behaviors are not appropriate, we may have
to do it with a few of the guys. However, it seems that they are open to
becoming better feminist. 

Lastly, lets accept that we will clash heads at time - but so what!! We are
on the SAME TEAM! lol

LETS ROCK OUT!! We can do it! 

sandy



Nicely said! Thank you, Sandy.

Marc

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