Re: [activities] Nomination: Michael Chesterton

On Tue, 2009-03-10 at 17:30 +1100, Blindraven wrote:
> Melissa.
> 
> I find your seemingly pro-fem-activist approach to every comment that
> comes out of anyone's mouth that has anything to do with the opposite
> gender in general to be proportionally inappropriate and completely
> unnecessary.

I believe you are indulging in a substantial amount of exaggeration
there.

> I have witnessed on a few occasions times where you have completely
> (and un-provoked) come out of your usual idle status to rip people
> apart and in some cases make them feel uncomfortable being in SLUG at
> all.

I take no shame in voicing my opinion, and I do it on a variety of
subjects. Drivers who engage in low-flying, the guy who starts the car
with the modified muffler within spitting distance of my bedroom window
at 4am, unsatisfactory quality in software, false advertising, etc.

When people joining the community are encouraged to join a channel
purported to be centric on free/open source and its advocacy they do not
expect to walk in to a scene from a seedy bar.

So, if I join (or look at the dialog of) a free/open source software
community channel which meets the description posed above, I will
express my discontent. I take no shame in that either.

> These occasions more-often-than otherwise did not involve you or any
> sexual connotations or innuendos  thereon.

This is the second time you have asserted that one has to be invited to
speak. You may want to let the rest of the channel know that
conversations are invite only. I was not made aware of this until now.

An example of the non-connotative non-innuendos would be useful. You
might have missed something.

> At some point, you decided you'd be the judge of what is and is not
> humorous, and what is and is not appropriate. You've also stepped in
> on 2 members of the opposite sex having a laugh and liturally diverged
> the situation ti to a sexual discrimination matter and proceeded to
> drive them from the channel. This was just awe-inspiring.

I am the judge of what I find humorous. I am the judge of what I feel is
and is not appropriate. Suppressing opinions of the latter is how
inappropriate things become the norm.

But again, I'm not entirely sure which incident you are referring to
here, unless it's the one you rage-quit from the other night. In which
case, refer to the pub scene above.

>  I feel you have taken it upon yourself to be the community Hyena and
> I find this completely counter productive to the spirit of the team. I
> also find the manner in which you so vocally force-promote your
> maturity to be extremely aggressive and at the best of times
> offensive, despite the fact you're supposedly trying to be some kind
> of role model for females or some such (utter) junk.

Hyena? I'm not laughing here.

Nor am I trying to be anything to anyone. 

> I personally know several members of the community that have the same
> thoughts but for the sake of peace have kept quiet, but when someone
> else's progression as a human or otherwise is exploited by someone
> else community influence I think it's time to say something.

Then those equal out the ones who I personally know that express similar
notions, but in reverse.

> Riding the wave of legitimate past sexism for the purpose of present
> discrimination is exploitative and spitefull to an almost sociopathic
> degree.

You seem to be making the mistake of thinking that all sexism is in the
past. It is not.

There's a phrase about the devil and his greatest trick being the
illusion that he doesn't exist. I think it applies to this quite well.

> T.
> 
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 10:15 AM,  <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> 2009/3/9 Harrison Conlin <[email protected]>:
> >>> On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Lindsay Holmwood
> >>> <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>>> I enjoy passive-aggressiveness as much as the next person, but could
> > you please enumerate your concerns?
> >>> Sure. In IRC, he regularly shouts out the name of male genitalia, and
> > frequently makes sexual innuendos. Also, last month he was removed from
> > the channel for doing an action of patting a female on the rear in a
> > sexist manner.
> >>
> >> I wasn't going to say anything, but since the topic was raised...
> >>
> >> It wasn't the rear, it was the front :(
> >
> > For those who do not know the context of this, the term used was 'fanny'.
> >
> > The interpretation of that word depends greatly where you take your
> > reference from:
> >
> > * The definition I grew up with, which I believe has en-gb heritage, does
> > mean the front [0].
> >
> > * However, if using the en-us definition (which due to Americanisation now
> > appears the predominantly accepted definition in .au), it is the rear [1].
> >
> > In my experience, most people in .au do know both definitions of the word.
> > I find that those who choose to use it do so in ambiguous situations for
> > maximum shock/confusion/insult value -- with the intent on claiming the US
> > definition as their defense.
> >
> > I am choosing to take the stance of 'assuming stupidity rather than
> > malice' in this instance, and hoping that Chesty merely meant the poor
> > girl's rear...
> >
> > ... which is *still* inappropriate, and should not be tolerated. At all.
> >
> >>
> >> Honestly, given the efforts we've been making in terms of addressing
> > gender imbalance issues in the past couple of years, I think it would be
> > a massive step backwards if such behaviour was rewarded.
> >>
> >
> > I agree wholeheartedly with this.
> >
> > I'd also like to point out that *everyone* can provide assistance to SLUG
> > and helping does not require Committee membership [2].
> >
> >
> > --
> > [0] Sorry, no link since I'm at work, and my desk is alongside the main
> > thoroughfare. I did try search 'nomenclature fanny' but the results did
> > not seem SFW, although the text for them might provide insight. Feel free
> > to Google for yourself though.
> >
> > [1] My mother has an amusing story from a seminar she attended many many
> > moons ago, where the speaker was an US American who complained how sore
> > his 'fanny' was from the longhaul flight.
> >
> > --
> > Melissa Draper
> >
> > w: http://meldraweb.com & http://geekosophical.net
> > p: +61 4 0359 5395
> >
> > --
> > SLUG Activities
> > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
> >
> 
> 
> 
-- 
Melissa Draper

w: http://meldraweb.com & http://geekosophical.net
p: +61 4 0359 5395

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