[WikiEN-l] Do NOT appeal bans, for your own sake

[Armed Blowfish]

On 20/09/2007, Sheldon Rampton <sheldon at prwatch.org> wrote:
> I think the problem is that the specific assertion that was made here
> ("women are more likely to wander off-topic in a discussion than
> men")

That was not the assertion.  The assertion was that feminine
communication techniques, e.g. indirectness and focusing on
feelings, may be seen as off-topic by those who practise
more masculine communication techniques, e.g. directness
and hiding emotions.  You will also note that the email
challenges the definition of what is on-topic vs. off-topic.

> is debatable at best and can be interpreted as insulting to
> women as rational beings.

As a woman, I'm insulted that feminine communication
techniques are considered inferior to masculine ones.
Whether you want to expand your definition of
on-topicness to include feminine indirectness and
discussion of feelings or acknowledge that off-topicness
can be a good thing, I don't really care.  However, saying
that directness and avoidance of discussion of feelings
is the correct conversational method increases the
masculine-dominated aura of the list.

> I'm unaware of any body of scientific
> research showing that men are more likely to stay on-topic
> an women.

Well, women, on average, have tear ducts 60% larger
than men's.  There's a fair amount of business advice
encouraging women to adopt masculine communication
techniques.  And there are Debora Tannen's books....