[Gendergap] [Commons-l] Fwd: Photo of the Day on Wikimedia Commons

[Gillian White]

This anime image is not appropriate on the front page. Questions of art, of
education, and of publication, all require judgement. Judgement in these
matters is normal and necessary and is not of itself something which needs
apology. Here are some reasons why I think it is okay to decide NOT to put
this picture on the front page. This is not to say that it should be
deleted, it is simply not appropriate for the front page – and that does not
constitute censorship.

 The commonality of discriminatory product placement

Most areas of endeavour exercise care and some discrimination about their
products. It's not that they are illegal or censored; it's that they are
inappropriate in some places. For example, at a recent exhibition in the Art
Gallery of New South Wales, a very explicit drawing was placed at the far
end of the exhibition and a sign was placed discreetly to inform members of
the public who had to make a choice about whether to view them. In the case
of Wikimedia, there might be gory images, for example, of the effect of
land-mines which explode in children's faces. They are probably valuable –
encyclopedic and even educational – but would they be appropriate on the
front page? Their value is not diminished by leaving them in the body of the
repository and it is not censorship to make some small efforts necessary to
access them.

 The woman's body

If you put a large-breasted indigenous naked woman in an image, people would
not be commenting on the size of her breasts. They would see them as part of
the woman herself, whereas the breasts on which people have commented in
this anime are plainly “designed” for service to (some) viewers. In fact,
this image's offensiveness to many comes not from the size of the breasts
but rather from the whole backbreaking pose of the woman.

 Art and education

If this is a form of art, the question is not whether or not you like the
breasts (there are lots of breasts in art) but whether the art has its own
integrity. That is an aesthetic question, which is why the colour palette is
not under challenge as it contributes to the integrity of the image. Commons
has criteria for aesthetic quality, but they do not specify or restrict
subject matter. However, whether you like this art or any component part of
it in any image is irrelevant. Audience approval of the “tits” is only
relevant if the image is about titillation. Only if this is the purpose,
does the approval of the pose and body parts become relevant.

 If the image is not about art but is rather about education, then the
subject's body and pose are misleading, as are the clothes and everything
else, even the colour palette. Above all, if it is about education, then an
argument that its primary purpose to educate about the art form (manga) or
the medium (the software) is spurious and disingenuous.

Thanks,

Whiteghost.ink

PS I am a newbie female Åustralian Wikipedian and have been following this
list for a while but this is my first contribution to it. I really think
this is the wrong sort of image for the front page. Apart from all the other
arguments, I think it is likely to deter whole demographics (plural) from
contributing to any of the WM projects.
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