[Xmca-l] Re: Analysis of Gender in early xmca discourse

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Dear Alfredo,

Again thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply. You are one of us with an invested interest in being welcoming to others who have not normally been welcomed or felt left out.

There could be a vast deconstruction of the post by Huw that reveals the very kind of sexism in which is being addressed in the Ally video by the founders of the Ada Initiative. But I'm not going to do that here, because delving into that would be full of triggers and it would likely fireball into a lot of flame wars, and that is precisely what I had referred to originally in previous emails.

What surprised me is how easily it slipped into the very kind of discourse that the Ada Initiative is working against, and so given that Huw has a background working in that environment of tech, he has in his attempt at humor provided us evidence of the very kind of pornographic insertions women in tech are loathe to contend with. It shows what we have to deal with on a daily basis in a professional environment. And that's as far as I will go about the XKCD comic, which is to me rife with sarcasm, irony, and inside-tech-speak.

In my attempt to use humor, and in support of what Jenna says, if it quacks like a duck it's likely a duck. And rather than blame/castigate/avoid a person for making sexist accusations, perhaps it might be a better move for the accused to ask "What have I done that feels sexist to you?" It is victim-blaming to tar and feather a an accuser of sexism for wanting to address the emotional impact of harm that the person feels or witnesses, or, in the case of an ally, who does not want to encourage a toxic atmosphere that harms others.

Instead of attacking a person, perhaps it's worthwhile to consider the behavior of the person, behavior that makes people unwelcome and work to change the behavior. It isn't arbitrary rule-making. If anything is arbitrary, it is the privileged who make rules up arbitrarily to maintain control over others, or in a desperate move to maintain the status quo.

As far as my post about squirrels... I apologize if it was too Zen for people. I meant it to be poetic, as my gift to Mike and the fertile ecology he has fostered, or should I say forested. It was intended to be read in the same way as a haiku, but in prose. Right now I am on a farm, and there are squirrels everywhere gathering nuts. Being that it is October, harvest time, and I saw the similarity between that and XMCA members and what they receive from the list. I am hoping, in the way artwork communicates, it might reveal to Mike how I feel about him and his contributions. It was my way to say thank you. I regret very much it had to be sullied by being juxtaposed with Penises.

regards,

Annalisa