> ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:15:27 +0000 > From: Ted Smith <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] updates to plinth > Message-ID: <1331576127.26390.4.camel@anglachel> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > On Mon, 2012-03-12 at 18:47 +0100, Mathieu Jourdan wrote: >> >> - my girlfriend took briefly a look on it, she said those colours were >> for males. > > I'm no authority on this list, but I'd appreciate it if the freedombox > initiative would use actual research for things like choosing > gender-neutral design elements whenever possible. Most actual, empirical > research on gender differences runs against gender stereotypes and finds > mostly similarity, not differences, between genders. Further, the > gendered context of design elements will change drastically between > cultures. As such, our intuitive judgments as individuals will not be > the best indicator of the actual gender-neutrality of design elements. > > I can devote some of my copious free time to doing some of the > scholarship necessary for this (and I can act as a proxy to retrieve > paywalled papers for anyone who asks). I will need guidance and specific > questions, rather than general ones.
I'm familiar with the field of Women's Studies and the theories put forth there, so I'm not a stranger to these concepts. Here's my $.02 on this: - There's no reason to include the typical masculine or feminine imagery that's shoved down our throats by Western corporate media. However, I think there's good reason to believe that the pursuit of "gender neutrality" is Quixotic, for many reasons...some of them rooted in cognitive science. - I'm not convinced that the quality of research into gender differences is very good. It's a problem for studies of cultures in general, and is one of the big difficulties in the humanities. Perhaps I'm wrong here, but I think I've seen enough to be wary. - Studies trying to map out a "universal moral grammar" have given some insight into the similarities between all humans. It's exactly what we should expect. However, when you move into complex territory like personal preference, things get very murky. That said, I know the reason I see American girls wearing the color pink is not arbitrary. Neither is my decision to grow a beard, etc. etc. - Plinth can have other themes built for it, but we need a default of *some* kind. I don't see any reason to harp on this question for long...we need to do actual work on the code. The current theme just uses the visual vocabulary that's sprung up around sites like Twitter (where Bootstrap originates), mobile OS's like Android and iOS, and modern content management systems (WordPress, phpBB, and so on). - As it stands, I don't see any reason that the default them I whipped up is "masculine" or "feminine", any more than, say, Wikipedia or Gnome. Calling cyan masculine is no different than calling a butterfly feminine, and both of those elements are in the design. We could end up going on and on about this, ad infinitum, I'd rather not...let's focus on getting "proof of concept and running code". ~ Diggity
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