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

[Sarah]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 10:52, Deanna Zandt <deanna at deannazandt.com> wrote:

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>
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> On May 18, 2011, at 12:47 PM, Sarah wrote:
>
> I did say something in the end, and an uninvolved admin left a note on talk
> asking that the remarks cease. And though he meant well, and I was and
> remain grateful to him for stepping in, he asked that they cease as a matter
> of courtesy to me. But I didn't want them to stop as a matter of courtesy. I
> wanted people to recognize that they were politically unacceptable.
>
> Then I had to explain why the remarks were offensive, when what I really
> wanted was for them to end, and the meta-discussion to end. Eventually it
> did die down and a couple of other editors stepped in, and one of the
> earlier ones apologized, so it was okay.
>
> But I would love to find a way to nip this kind of thing in the bud. I've
> thought of trying to write an essay or a guideline -- but then people will
> cry censorship, and will want to know what kind of comments are suddenly not
> permitted, and who is to judge whether they're offensive, and will argue
> that not all women agree on definitions of sexism anyway. So it felt like
> too much of an uphill struggle even to begin it.
>
>
> This is the struggle of social justice issues on a wider scale, in many
> ways-- how can we address the -isms of the world in a way that enables
> processing and change to happen, versus pushing them further underground? In
> some ways, seeing terrible behavior is the unfortunate and painful reminder
> that there is work to be done... it's a balancing act that few have been
> able to pull off in the last couple decades, I feel. In any case, Sarah, I'm
> with you on this. You explain the challenges and frustrations well, in a way
> that I think represents how many previously-marginalized voices feel coming
> into these spaces.
>
>
> What I found upsetting was that a couple of the involved editors, one in
particular, were people I would regard as politically aware, even
progressive. Yet they simply could not see why what they wrote was
inappropriate, and seemed a little offended by the suggestion.

So I ended up feeling extremely marginalized and awkward. Say nothing, and
you feel as though you're being silenced, and worse than that you're
silencing yourself. Say something, and have the tables turned on you --
you're accusing, you're trying to censor, you're being too sensitive, you're
being offensive for pointing out the offence. I'm an experienced editor, yet
it made me feel very unsure of myself.

The worst thing is that I remember having discussions like this at
university more than a couple of decades ago. So what happened? We thought
we had sorted it all out! :)

Sarah
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