[clug] Being polite on the list - or: Geek Feminism 101

[Paul Wayper]

Hi all,

I think I ought to step in here and make a public statement about what I (at 
least) expect from the CLUG list as far as treatment of women, minorities, 
majorities, religion, or other sensitive issues.

I would like to see an attempt by everyone to be polite, especially to women, 
when posting on this list.

The whole topic of sexist bias in technology has been going on for ages, and 
the myths that surround why women are under-represented in technology, and 
especially open source groups, would occupy several episodes of 
Mythbusters[1].  If you labour under the assumption that women making up only 
20% of the IT industry and only 3% of the Free Open Source Software movement 
is for any other reason than because it is at times blatantly sexist, then 
please feel free to rid yourself of these illusions. 
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki is a good place to start.

The worst thing men can do is to pretend that their behaviour doesn't offend 
anyone.  The second-worst thing everyone do is to stand by while other people 
are being offensive and say "well, it's not really my place to speak out".  It 
doesn't matter how clever your justification is, or how erudite your 
reasoning, if someone's taken offence at what you've said then you should at 
least apologise for that.  It is not hard to write neutrally, and email gives 
us all time to edit and reflect on our response before sending it.

Really, there is no topic on this list that needs to address people as men or 
women.  Any generalisation you can make about women applies equally to a group 
of men.  We aim to be a source of Linux help and collaboration to everybody.

Hope this helps,

Paul

[1] No doubt there'd be a few explosions in there as well to keep Jamie happy.