[WikiEN-l] Unnecessary nudity on [[Hogtie bondage]]

[Matt R]

--- BJörn Lindqvist <bjourne at gmail.com> wrote:
> It is a very natural thing to assume that ones own values
> are omnipresent. We like to be around people who are similar to
> ourselves and therefore we by default assume that those that have
> different points of view are wrong. But it doesn't work on an
> international project like Wikipedia. I.e what you think is
> "potentially offensive" may be totally non-offensive to someone else.
> And what someone else think is "potentially offensive" may be totally
> non-offensive to you.

If I'd simply used the word "offensive", you might have a point, but I
deliberately qualified it by saying "potentially-offensive" for exactly the
reason you point out. I grew up outside of Europe, and I am quite aware that
there are many different cultures and values that are involved in a project
like Wikipedia. However, it is indisputable that nudity is a touchy issue for
lots of cultures, and even more so in deliberately erotic images.

I'm not sure you understand where I'm coming from, here. I am arguing that when
A) an image is used which likely to be offensive to very many readers, across
many cultures and countries; and B) an alternative can be produced which is of
equal illustrative value, but which mitigates the offensiveness to some degree,
then we should go for the alternative. It's a clear win for the project.

As a case study, consier the following two images which could be used to
illustrate the "Hogtie bondage" article (likely not work/public safe!):

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Model_in_classic_Hogtie.jpg
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Model_in_stringent_hogtie.jpg

The images seem virtually identical to me in terms of what they illustrate
regarding the topic. However, for some reason, people have been insisting on
using the unclothed version in preference to the clothed version. I would argue
that that's a clear loss for the project.

-- Matt

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com


		
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