On 06/03/2010 03:16 AM, Jan Claeys wrote:
Op woensdag 02-06-2010 om 17:03 uur [tijdzone +0200], schreef Aileen
Derieg:
Although I have no wish to interrupt current discussions, I just
wanted to let you all know that I have now posted my "spy report":
http://blog.furtherfield.org/?q=node/334
First of all: I'm male and I still feel young at 36, but:
With a more mixed audience, would it have felt slightly less
jarring, for example, to hear a young man talking about "old
women", as though "old women" were an alien, barely intelligible
species? He meant well, of course, his talk was delightfully
enthusiastic, and I imagine he didn't mean me (I don't know
anything about knitting or quilting, after all), but I know from
experience what it feels like to be identified and treated as a
member of this alien species in other contexts, and I wonder how
it might feel if there were more of us, a visible, palpable
presence, listening to a talk like this.
My take on this is that it's an example of being jarred to the point of
not paying such close attention from the point of being jarred, since as
one followed the track of the talk, it ended with what we might call a
denouement of admitting that he has himself become a quilter along with
these women.
I think there is also a misperception that the speakers, the content,
the entire attitude of LGM is somehow engineered by the organizers. My
experience since my first LGM in 2007 is that there is more to Libre
than graphics, and there has been an effort, quite successful really, to
be more inclusive, encouraging of various points of view, making
non-developers welcome, and as Femke said, no proposed talks were refused.
But this is a permission, not a pulling in of viewpoints to create some
kind of "balance". In addition, there has always been by most I think an
appreciation that we have mostly non-native English speakers trying
their best to splice words and ideas together, with varying discomfort,
accuracy, and success at being clear, not only trying to translate words
but also cultural points of view.
In the end, I don't think it's so far off the beam to suggest that Libre
Graphics Meetings have the subtext of Libre Minds, both applying to the
organizers, but also speakers, and hopefully the audience.
Greg
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