Came across this kerfuffle today. I'd love to see what more gendergap-focused people think about the following progression of events (note: the image is NSFW, but each of the links I'm providing are SFW if you don't click through to the image/article):
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Exhibitionism#Image_at_top_of_page<---discussion about whether to use an identifiable woman's topless photo on the top of an enwp article. The person raising the discussion notes that "*I find it hard to believe that this woman wants her picture on WP, and I don't think we have a right to show her because of a momentary indiscretion in a public place."* - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Mardi_Gras_...<---Same image is nominated for deletion on Commons, with similar rationale - The image is kept. - Discussion on enwp spins off from the same issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BLPN#Photos_of_private_people_doing_t..., splitting between one faction saying "It's legal, so it's fine" and another saying "It's a matter of ethics, not legality."
Speaking personally, my takeaway from reading through this situation has gone through "mortification in empathy for the image subject, who was almost certainly drunk and unable to consent", "frustration with Commons's dismissive approach to the questioning of identfiable sexual images", and finally "realization that in all three discussions, I see *no *users who I know to be female. Not one. It seems quite likely that the issue of whether this woman's right to be protected by BLP extends to images of her breasts...is being discussed 100% by men."
I don't quite know what my point is here, other than to note that to me, this feels very, very representative of the way women and women's issues are treated on WP and on Commons, even when we're supposed to be hyper-aware of the gendergap and its effects, and it depresses me.
-Fluffernutter