Hi Sonja, About IMC-Women: this is a proposal for a new women/feminist oriented Indymedia, and still in its 'process phase', see http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcWomyn I am quite enthusiastic about the the idea, though I think it is a bit limited still (focusing too much on gendered participation rates in Indymedia only) and I think the proposal should maybe be more modest about its scope (very Western oriented) both geographically and regarding the issues it raises. Anyway, I think it's a good start in attempting to bring multifaceted issues of sexism and leftwing media activism more to the foreground. Cheers, Ingrid. -----Original Message----- From: Sonja van Kerkhoff [mailto:Sonjak@xxxxxxxxxxxx]=20 Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 9:20 PM To: gender-it@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gender-it] More tech + activism frustrations Thanks for your comments Anna and Ingrid. >my problem was that mainly most of the (white male) participants (be it >=3D editors or >programmers) did not want to look at the implicit sexism and racism in=20 >their shaping of editing guidelines and tools. I must say that the =3D Dutch >Indymedia has already travelled a long way from the initial kind of=20 >'freespeech fascism' and now tries to cut out racist and sexist=20 >postings, but the problem is that often these postings simply get not=20 >recognised as such and that the initial technology is set to publish=20 >first.=3D20 I often feel (having grown up in New Zealand and now living in the =3D Netherlands for the last 14 years) that these sorts of attitudes in the =3D Netherlands come more from the idea that 'we are liberal' and therefore =3D feminist issues are not only invisible but made fun of as = if that was =3D the 'old days' or the 'other non-liberal countries, when to me, things =3D are so blatantly sexist - or at least, more sexist than they were in my =3D worlds in New Zealand. On Monday last there was an interview with the writer Erika Jong, and I =3D found her responses to statements that feminism is no longer = necessary =3D heart-warming. The interviewer (a woman) said that here (in Belgium) = =3D that perhaps we just hadn't had clever enough women to be leaders, but = =3D that didn't mean that the political system wasn't allowing them in.=3D20 Her response was: how clever is Berlusconi or for that matter Bush? The interviewer didn't seem to get the point, which was to be expected, =3D when you don't see it, you don't. I think too the best way is to = focus =3D on alternatives and when they work, then others will see, there is = =3D another way of doing things. That's why we need spaces like this to be = =3D able to talk without having to justify or to explore without being =3D shouted down. >And then the editorial group questions why (or ridicule that(!)) there=20 >are so little postings in the 'feminism' category (while the=20 >'anarchism' category is overflowing with testosterone-induced =3D postings). >I think it's great that IMC-Women is being set up (although personally=20 >=3D I >would have called it IMC-Feminism)... Count me in! Can someone please explain what IMC-Women is. I don't know what this is. regards, Sonja