Wikipedia vs. women?
A group called Wikichix recently spun out of Wikipedia because its members felt their experiences at the collectively-authored online encyclopedia had been tained by sexism. While they don’t intend to stop contributing to Wikipedia, the Wikichix want a female-only space to talk about women in the wiki world. Among other issues they hope to address are several conflicts over Wikipedia entries that dealt with feminism (such as the 5-year battle over the category “feminist science fiction”) and lesbian public figures. Plus, the Wikichix say, men often try to silence women in debates over Wikipedia entries — either in a subtle way, or with overt, obnoxiously sexist comments.
In my most recent column, I talk about what the Wikichix want. It’s not their own “women’s encyclopedia.” They just want Wikipedia to be a place where women are as influential and respected as men. Read more about the revolutionary Wikichix.
December 29th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Women and Wikipedia…
Annalee Newitz (who just gave a talk on “Busting Myths about Why Women Can’t Be Technical” at 22C3) pointed with an article to WikiChix, an initiative in the English Wikipedia (see Signpost) to counterfight systemic gender bias. The overwhelming maj…
January 8th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
It’s too bad that wikichix continues the systematic gender bias with its own name. It should be Wikiwymin.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:34 am
[...] Annalee Newitz tells the story of Wikichix, a new group for female wiki editors/contributers to discuss their experiences as “women in the wiki world.” [...]
February 1st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
As a guy, the really frustrating part is that I can’t go find these guys who are discriminating against women so I can beat them up.(-:
[zombie] Technology needs BRAAAAIIINS!!! [/zombie] Who cares about sex, race, orientation, etc.? Intelligence is scarce enough, without discriminating against people based on secondary criteria.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I think that Wikipedia is best served by authors who write with commitment to the facts not by political actors trying to make a point.
Is Wikichix is a sexist organization? I think that it is, at least by the wikipedia definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexist
We are talking separatism. All the female “speakers” at this public forum didn’t just happen to be female. Gender is the criteria on which participation is based. It’s sex based discrimination. It sucks.
I also don’t think that a revision war over feminist scifi proves that wikipedia is male dominated. I don’t see any evidence supporting that conclusion. I don’t see any examples of systematic sexual bias presented on the Wikichix site either.
Be bold. Replace “mankind” with “humankind” globally on Wikipedia. I bet you won’t see too many reverts.