On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Valerie Aurora <[email protected]>wrote:
> Hi folks, > > I'm going to point out that posting sexually objectifying photos of > people of any gender or sexuality in a venue that is intended to be > equally accessible to all is still inherently discriminatory towards > women specifically. This is because the sexualized imagery occurs in > the context of widespread misogyny and sexism which includes the > sexual double standard for women, the objectification (in a very > literal sense) of women in sexual situations, and a much higher > prevalence of sexual violence against women than men (I don't know the > stats for people who don't identify as either but I'm sure they aren't > good either). > > In other words, because the vast majority of humans alive today live > in cultures where sexual attitudes about women are so negative, > bringing up sex in a venue like this immediately creates a hostile > environment for women. I am repeating some of what Sumana already > wrote, just being very clear that pictures of male cheesecake or > sexualized photos of homosexual men also create a hostile environment > for women. > > Other venues are a different matter. It is indeed possible to create a > safer and more welcoming environment in which sex can be discussed or > displayed with less or no harm to women, but Picture of the Day is not > it. > > This is something I have to explain constantly to tech startups here > in the Bay Area, comprised often of mostly men who think there's > nothing wrong with literally covering the office walls with penis > jokes because "we're making fun of male genitalia, so that can't be > sexist towards women." These attitudes have real and lasting harm, > both for Wikimedia project participation and content, and for many > other areas of society. > > -VAL > > This is something that I don't really understand, but I'd like to. However I won't ask you to explain, since it's probably not a great use of your time, but could you point me to some concise discussion of why sexual or sexualized imagery of any kind is inherently discriminatory against women? Is this a commonly accepted viewpoint in academic feminism? Is there an easy way to draw a line between discriminatory and non-discriminatory imagery? (i.e. is a beach selfie of a woman in a bikini posted to Instagram discriminatory, regardless of intent?). Thanks for any references someone can provide where I might find answers to those questions. ~Nathan
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