I believe it's a subject of much debate (even among feminists), but some of
the basic ideas are covered at
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Sexualized_environment

Ryan


On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Nathan <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
>
> 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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