2009/8/25 <binz75...@free.fr>: > Now I understand better the "joke" from holger. It is absolutely unacceptable.
I think I may be digging my grave here, but the remark came from me, not Holger. I don't know if "Holger" is typically a male or female name either, but at any rate, Holger had nothing to do with it. I'm going to try to soften the blow of my remark (I didn't even consider it a joke either), but I'm not sure I'll be able to do so properly. I am also trying to shut up as much as I can over that comment, since I *really* don't want to drag the discussion too far afield from the conference, nor to make excessive noise to distract away from the topic at hand: that the conference may take place. I think my comment was taken to insinuate that a woman whose feminity was cast in doubt isn't a woman. Let me try to explain where I'm coming from: I don't like to be excluded any more than you do. I know that sometimes I need to be excluded, and I try to understand it, but I still don't like it. When the suggestion started drifting towards an exclusionary event, even though I understand the necessity of it, it still triggers a response in me of distaste. And yes, I apologise for how I expressed my distaste for an exclusionary event. It was a gut reaction, and it was wrong of me. I consider myself to exhibit some feminine traits, even though I'm predominantly masculine, whatever you may take "masculine" and "feminine" to mean; I think I have a bit of both, and so does almost everyone else. By bringing up Semenya's recently publicised treatment here, I was trying to highlight the difficulty of being exclusionary based on gender traits. I would have liked in principle to attend the conference, if only from the sidelines as I try to do on this mailing list, mostly as an observer except now, and I felt that this was a privilege I was about to lose. Again, this is just a gut reaction from me. I didn't express myself properly, and I'm trying to do so now. I am trying to not sound aggressive, or menacing, or overly combative/argumentative, and I'm trying to tone down what I perceive to be my "masculine" traits. I can sit down and rationalise why exclusion is important. If nothing else, to compensate for centuries of an overwhelming exclusion in the other direction. However, my gut doesn't always immediately remember the centuries of exclusion in favour that its male ancestors have perpetrated on others, and when that happens, it doesn't like it and tries to bring up a recent social situation where sex-based exclusion is turning out to be a big fiasco and ultimately futile. I'm rambling... but I really hope I managed to offend a little less this time... and I hope I didn't make it worse. - Jordi G. H. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-women-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
