[gender-it] Imc-Women

  • From: "Hoofd Ingrid Maria" <g0201759@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <gender-it@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 16:40:25 +0800

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


Other related posts:

  • » [gender-it] Imc-Women