You can be bold and write an essay Sarah. But to that became a policy the community will need to agree. And in fact there are in en.wiki guidelines about what not to write in a request for deletion, so you could create somenthing like "what not to write in a Featured Picture request". _____ *Béria Lima* Wikimedia Portugal <http://wikimedia.pt/> (351) 963 953 042
*Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. É isso o que estamos a fazer.* 2011/5/18 Sarah <slimvir...@gmail.com> > On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 10:37, Fred Bauder <fredb...@fairpoint.net>wrote: > >> > We had a situation recently where we were discussing a BLP, and part >> of >> > the >> > content was that the woman had experienced a serious sexual assault. In >> > the >> > course of discussing how to approach it, a couple of remarks were made >> > that >> > tended to downplay what had happened to her, and one person -- in a >> > different section on the talk page -- commented on how attractive she >> > was, >> > and how he wanted to have her babies. >> > >> > I was so disgusted by this that I felt (and to some extent still feel) >> > that >> > I didn't want to be involved in the project anymore, because why am I >> > wasting my time in that kind of atmosphere? I felt that it said >> something >> > about me, rather than about them. >> > >> > I also had to decide whether to say something, or let it lie, and if I >> > did >> > say something, I had to make sure I was polite and circumspect, rather >> > than >> > screaming it from the rooftops, which is what I wanted to do. And it >> > suddenly felt like nothing had changed in the last 40 years, that these >> > remarks still appear, and that women are still made to feel bad if they >> > challenge them. And if we do challenge them, must be extra polite about >> > it. >> > Not make a fuss. >> > >> > So that felt kind of depressing. >> > >> > Sarah >> >> Now we're getting down to a serious discussion. The actual horns of the >> dilemma a Wikipedia administrator is in. In a way being limited to text >> fails to communicate the immediate expression of disgust that would >> happen in a face-to-face situation, so there is a failure to communicate >> feedback effectively. A polite note fails. >> >> 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. > > Sarah > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap > >
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