Re: [libreplanet-discuss] “I don't answer questions from women”

[Aaron Wolf]

These issues aren't either/or, they are both.

The "virginity" joke is undeniably tied to patriarchy and sexism, and
people who are sensitive to those issues are predictably going to have a
negative reaction. This is indeed part of the long pattern of
uncomfortable issues.

That said, there's still a wide range of interpretations once we go into
judging intentions and values behind the situations.

A charitable (and I believe accurate) interpretation is that RMS was
primarily focused on a mockery of religion, particularly Christian
religion, and the "virgin" reference is based on that first and
foremost. The other metaphor of "losing virginity" by using emacs could
be plainly taken literally as a suggestion of experiencing emacs rather
than anything sexual. However, it's also *clearly* a wink-wink sort of
sexual joke that would get laughs among all-male sexist tech culture and
be found offensive by feminists and uncomfortable to women in general.

It would be *too* much of a stretch to pretend that there's *no* sexual
reference. There's no honest way to make that argument.

But claiming bluntly that RMS was saying to his fans that taking women's
virginity was great — that is an unfair characterization. If that were
stated with the one qualifier that it was part of a religious joke, it
could be more fair. It's offensive enough as a joke, but it certainly
comes across as far more grotesque if it were just a plain statement.

So it's both: RMS' joke is not in good taste, turned people away, caused
offense, and this is especially a problem in a male-dominated cultural
context. It's also true that the Twitter poster went beyond what's fair
in how it was characterized.

People can be on the right side of things in terms of what they are
criticizing and still be guilty of arguing carelessly or in bad faith.

On 2019-09-24 8:58 p.m., A. Mani wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 3:05 AM Dmitry Alexandrov <321942@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> That talk was terribly bad: 
>>> https://twitter.com/sh4na/status/1174034117077413889
>>
>> Given how she contrived to paraphrase the ‘Holy Virgin of Emacs’ jest two 
>> messages below [0]: “This was about five minutes before he declared that it 
>> was the sacred duty of all male fans of emacs in the audience to take the 
>> virginity of women. On stage during the keynote” I would not take seriously 
>> even a word of that woman.  She seems to be of that kind who listens to a 
>> human, but hears voices in her head.
>>
>> What are your reasons to believe her?
>>
>> (For those who unfamiliar with St. Ignucius sketch, the relevant part before 
>> feminists compel Dr. Stallman to censor himself might read as: “And we also 
>> have the cult of the virgin of Emacs.  The virgin of Emacs is any female who 
>> has not yet learned how to use Emacs.  And in the church of Emacs we believe 
>> that taking her Emacs virginity away is a blessed act” [1].  Feel the 
>> difference.)
>>
> 
> This reference to patriarchal concepts of 'virginity' is offensive by
> default. It is a concept that was developed to subjugate women,
> promote racism, and other divisive practices. The explanation offered
> by RMS on the Gnome list (after some debate) hardly helps.
> 
> For basic applied feminism (intersectional):
> https://everydayfeminism.com/?s=virginity
> 
> That kind of analogy only contributes to reinforce patriarchal values.
> Therefore, she is on solid ground.
> 
> 
>>> Strangely this was not stated on Linuxchix website and elsewhere.
>>
>> Hmm...  Maybe it is not stated there, elsewhere and anywhere besides a 
>> microblog of some RMS-hater [2] because this is just another piece of libel?
>>
>> [0] https://twitter.com/sh4na/status/1174044476022636546
>> [1] https://youtu.be/25ejlP0uWeI
>> [2] “Finally, FINALLY, people put enough pressure for the @fsf to get rid of 
>> Richard Stallman.  It would have been awesome if all the decades of him 
>> being the absolute worst would have been reason enough to get rid of him 
>> before, but hey, at least it happened in my lifetime.”
>>     — https://twitter.com/sh4na/status/1174030740037754882
> 
> No, her point is fine.
> 
> Best
> 
> A Mani
> 
> Prof.Dr.(Miss) A Mani
> CU, ASL, AMS, ISRS, CLC, CMS, IEEE
> Senior Member, International Rough Set Society
> Homepage: http://www.logicamani.in
> Blog: https://logicamani.blogspot.in/
> Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mani_A
> sip:girlprofessor@ekiga.net
>