On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 5:40 AM, Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 30, 2012, at 11:37 AM, Laura Hale wrote: > > On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 4:28 AM, Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> I believe issues relating to pornography are germane to a list discussing >> the gender gap, and I'm happy to be informed about them (as with Andreas' >> initial post) on this list. It's one of the reasons I subscribe to this >> list. >> >> Laura, if there was consensus around a different point of view at your >> conference, that's fine; but it's not binding on anybody who wasn't part of >> that consensus. >> > > In the mean time, please stop dismissing us and discounting our opinions. > > > Laura, I think you're hearing things I didn't say. I'm not dismissing > anybody's opinions; I am very interested, in fact, in what was discussed > and what the outcomes were from the WikiWomenCamp. > > Pete, I read it and re-read it and I'm pretty clear you referred to WikiWomenCamp as "your conference." This was not Laura Hale's conference. Every woman on this list was invited to attend. You were invited to WikiGenero pete and didn't attend either. WikiGenero was not Laura Hale's conference either. (And the community in attendance did not discuss pornography as a reason women failed to contribute to Wikipedia.) This was a conference you could have attended, as one male speaker did get a grant to attend and present. If it looks like I've been speaking a lot about this, it is because I was, outside of Sue, the only native English speaker in attendance. This puts a large burden on me as I have to be the face of the conference in some ways when interacting with the largely native speaking, largely USA based population on the list. It is also a bit uncomfortable because several women at the conference were not really impressed with this list and had left this list because of irrelevant discussions like the pornography one, the fact that women's voices were not being heard and the list was not action oriented. So Pete, can you please apologize for dismissing WikiWomenCamp by referring to it as my conference? This sort of issue, where you put down our outcomes by making it less important, is the sort of systematic bias in language that we discussed. This statement, where you openly dismissed WikiWomenCamp by referring to it as "my conference" upset me greatly. It was not my conference. It was a community conference that several organisations put over $25,000 total towards making happen, where we had Sue Gardner in attendance, had women from many countries in attendance, worked to be inclusive by being bilinugal, used open space to make sure everyone's voice was heard, allowed anyone who identified as female to attend, where people traveled over 24 hours to attend, where we spent hours discussing these issues.... which you easily dismissed. Please simply apologise for this statement because it was hostile and dismissive and belittled the many female chapter members, women running workshops, women running other projects, etc. who attended when you labeled it "your conference." Sincerely, Laura Hale -- twitter: purplepopple blog: ozziesport.com
_______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
