[Gendergap] User blocked for sexist comment, many disagree - it wasn't sexist.

[Sarah Stierch]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Block_review_for_Baseball_Bugs

The first "unblock" statement shares the link to the joke and the reprimand
by an admin on the users page telling them they can get blocked for ongoing
comments like that. Fluffernutter points out that there is a "boyzone" in
Wikipedia and that it's not right to mock a users gender. I do appreciate
Fluffernuter speaking up about this, I know it's not always something that
she likes to get mixed up with (so to say - as we talked about in IRC
today).

A dialogue takes place ranging from people thinking the joke wasn't sexist,
to Fluffernutter is being "PC".

I don't believe that the user the joke was directed at participates in the
conversation - for all we know they might have not been offended - but, this
is just another example of how people seem to be unclear about what "sexist"
behavior is.

Where I've worked and attended school, it was always very clear that
behavior or comments like that were/are not prohibited, but more often than
not, people don't speak up when people behave poorly (silent victims).
Unlike on Wikipedia, where people generally do speak up - the shroud of the
internet, I suppose.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, an educational environment. And when people
have to start questioning "Is this offensive or not? Is it sexist or not?"
then clearly there is a problem with something in the culture and system.

-Sarah Stierch

-- 
GLAMWIKI Partnership Ambassador for Wikimedia <http://www.glamwiki.org>
Wikipedian-in-Residence, Archives of American
Art<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch>
and
Sarah Stierch Consulting
*Historical, cultural & artistic research & advising.*
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sarahstierch.com/
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