On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:11:14 +0200, Alexander Terekhov wrote: > LMAO! > > http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/EMACS_virgins_joke > > (The page above is full of links so follow the URL.) > > ----- > Richard Stallman gave a keynote at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit in > July 2009. A sexualized part of this talk was described by attendee > Lefty in a blog entry A Good GCDS Beginning (with a significant > disappointment): > > [Stallman defined] "EMACS virgins" as "women who had not been introduced > to EMACS" along with the advice that "relieving them of their virginity" > was some sort of sacred duty for members of "The Church of EMACS". > > One commenter noted that the routine is a regular part of Stallman's > talks but that the singling out of women as 'EMACS virgins' was new. > Matthew Garrett has provided a transcript of a previous similar > presentation by Richard at RMS and virgins: > > "Then if you become a hacker you can celebrate that by having a foobar > mitzvah, a ceremony in which the new hacker stands in front of the > assembled congregation of hackers and chants through the lines of the > system source code. And we also have the cult of the virgin of emacs. > The virgin of emacs is any female who has not yet learned how to use > emacs. And in the church of emacs we believe that taking her emacs > virginity away is a blessed act." > > A few days later Lefty emailed Richard expressing his concerns, and > blogged the ensuing conversation. His original email included: > > "Your remarks gave the distinct impression that you view women as being > in particular need of technical assistance (presumably by men, since > there's apparently no such thing as a _male_ "EMACS virgin"); > additionally, women are quite capable of making their own decisions > about who might relieve them of whatever sort of virginity. I (and > many others) viewed these remarks as denigrating and demeaning to women, > as well as completely out of place at what is, in essence, a technical > conference." > > The response claimed that the comments about women were intended as > humour, and that the complainant was misunderstanding the joke. Richard > refused to offer an apology. > > "I do not believe I owe anyone an apology. I did not insult or attack > them, but it is clear some people are attacking me. I think I am being > criticized unjustly criticized, and I feel I have been wronged." > > However, most of the response was about the Church of St IGNUtius and > its potential offensiveness to religious people, rather than the issue > Lefty was trying to raise. Lefty emailed again, reiterating the core > points. Richard's response was that he had already dealt with them -- > which he had not. > > Responses to this blog post have focused on Richard's right to email > privacy -- an example of Derailment -- rather than the original issue: > > "Does RMS think all source code should be free, or his private e-mails > as well??" > > "Have exactly the same question. Any further discussion of political > correctness is pointless before this question is answered, as you cannot > seriously request polical correctness without respecting it yourself. > Sounds fishy." > > Excuses > > Excuses given for RMS's behaviour include: > > That it was not his Intent to be sexist, here > That it was humor -- Richard's own excuse, here > That it was making fun of religion, not women, here and here > He's just like that, here and here > That Richard has earned respect through his Free Software work, and his > bad behaviour should therefore be ignored, here and here > That his judgement was impaired because he was worn out by arguing about > Mono, here > > Silencing tactics > > Some silencing tactics have also been tried against his critics that > don't so much excuse RMS as suggest that his critics should shut up: > > That the joke was sexist but the fuss about it is out of all proportion > here > Nobody who has not made significant contributions to Free Software > should be allowed to comment, here > Only those directly affected by sexism may comment, allies may not here > Lefty's ally work is in itself condescending towards women, here > The complaint is "whiny bullshit" and "attention-seeking", here. For > bonus points, "women should be left out in the cold, not just in the > open source movement but in every job..." > The complaint about sexism is just a disingenuous attempt to achieve > another goal: silencing RMS's criticisms of the Mono programming > framework here and here > The complaint about sexism was just someone (presumably Lefty) > disguising his offence at the jokes about Christianity as a more > acceptable complaint about sexism here > Versions of this very list (Matt Zimmerman also made one in his blog) > are "cherry-picking" and mischaracterising a real debate here > Versions of this very list are merely encouraging trolls, who should be > ignored here > Writing about this kind of thing is a waste of time and anyone serious > about Open Source should be writing code here > That the attempt to include women in open source is "nonsense" and > "creepy", and should be ignored, here > Reverse sexism, here > > > Responses > > Gran Canaria Desktop Summit 2009 by Matt Zimmerman: "This keynote was > the least interesting of the talks I attended at GCDS... He did his > Saint IGNUcius routine, throwing in a sexist joke for good measure." > Simple conference organisation suggestion by Matthew Garrett: "don't > invite RMS to keynote at your conference without an explicit apology and > expression of understanding beforehand. I'm seriously at the end of my > patience with people being unwilling to call others on behaviour they > perceive as unacceptable." > Richard Stallman and his fans by Livejournal user "certifiedwaif": "Do > blog posts like this just bring out the worst commenters, or is this > representative? They seem much more concerned about Richard Stallman's > right to email privacy than appropriate conduct at a technical > conference that both men and women are attending." > All hail the windmill tilters by Christian Schaller: "And before someone > starts shouting at me for not realizing that sexism do exist in the open > source world, please save yourself the energy. I am sure it exist, along > with racism, anti-semitism, bigotry, general intolerance, gay and > lesbian hating, supremacism, communism or whatever evil you want to come > up with. I just dont buy into using them as the default fallback > whenever the reason for something needs to be explained." (In fairness, > Christian has added a comment indicating that "a longer conversation > with a female coworker about the issue and her relating her experiences > is causing me to re-evaluate my stance on how much sexism there actually > is in the community in general.") > Permission to suck by Abi Sutherland: "So one thing women in Open > Sourceor anyone who is a minority in a skills-based groupneed is > Permission to Suck. They need the understanding, from themselves and > others, that any and all suckitude is to their account alone, just like > it is for the majority." > Backlash: feminism considered harmful by Matt Zimmerman: "We have a > problem in the way that women in free software are regarded and > treated... What I want to discuss here, though, is how people are > received when they speak up about this, for example by criticizing > sexist behavior they have observed. Often, the problem is denied, the > critic themselves is personally attacked, and the victims are blamed. In > short, there is a backlash." > RMS and virgins by Matthew Garrett: "My point here isn't to claim that > [RMS]'s a bad person as a result. I've got personality flaws large > enough that you could probably drive a bus through them, but I'd be > slightly upset if people thought I was evil because of them. My point is > that nobody is above criticism, and if someone behaves in a way that > offends a large subset of the community then they should to be > criticised. Failing to do so sends the signal that we don't care about > those who were offended, and at the same time provides no incentive for > people to change their behaviour as a result. And yes, I think those who > have high profile positions in the community should be held to higher > standards than others..." > RMS emacs virgins by Chani: "so I didnt comment on this little > incident, even though I knew I should. I mean, its RMS, I dont really > expect him to change. and its easier to just ignore it and pretend it > didnt happen. thankfully, lefty tackled the issue for us. ok, > publishing private mail is rude, but Im glad he did. the comments > section makes me sad btw, I have never heard of this cult of the > virgin of mary. I interpreted RMS speech the same way lefty did, I was > just too shy to speak up about it." > > Retrieved from "http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/EMACS_virgins_joke"; > > Category: Incidents > ----- > > regards, > alexander.
God! It's no surprise that RMS picks his feet and eats the toe jam in public. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
