The chix-IN-Linux
By SVAKSHA on 2008 August 7 [Thursday], 14:41:00 - THOUGHTS - Permalink
Controversial ...absolutely!! The name LinuxChix evokes mixed feelings amongst women on mailing lists and one can be sure to be asked (usually by men) "Isnt it derogatory". Not really. In India, English is not the lingua-franca used to harass women...rather, the local languages are more colorful, if you must. On the streets you will have heard atleast some of these "indian words" commonly used to de-humanise women in daily life, which can make your grandma turn beet red. Its something any woman would encounter on Indian streets across any Indian city and its hard to escape it and here context matters a lot, but I digress.
IIRC, the "chix" terminology is all about taking a
term with negative connotations and giving it a spin, psychological empowering
if you must. It is also a p(h)un twist on UnIX. But most of
all, I love the attitude, the zing and pizzaz that the women (and men) bring to
the LinuxChix lists, beyond the work they do locally. I just like the aspect of
LinuxChix being for women who use, support Gnu/Linux and men who want to
support women in computing. Its that simple.
For the most part, we as women get and give respect in the technology space via
the work we do. That power is within us, via our
actions. It definitely does not come from having the appropriate cultural name
or a perfect name. The latter does not exist and IMHO "culture" is a vague and
arbitrary term (mis)used in India to control people in the absence of
rationality and logical argument.
Having seen Christian "bubulle" Perrier wearing a Debian Women tee, I was curious. He said that was his way of showing support and I thought 'hah, most men would wear a man's tee even if it had the logo of a women's group'. To my surprise NO, Debian-Women had NOT printed men's tee's, so Christian was wearing a women's Tee, albeit one his size. That stuck in my head for a long time and he even posed for snaps wearing the DW tee. C00L :-). I had given him some IndiChix tee's last year and he wanted to know if we printed men's T's and when I replied in the negative he nodded happily and promised to wear them as is.
At mukt.in, not a single female student questioned the name,
the only questions were from men. That says a lot to me. So I had a
precondition for giving away tee's to the men - Wear it right
now. Nope, its not a present for your girlfriend/wife/friend. If you
support women, show it off!!
Talking of Indichix, the situation is peculiar, we have volunteers for the Indichix Labs in cities where we need sponsors (Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Mangalore, etc.. and no volunteers where we have sponsors (Mumbai and Pune). Strange...I always thought space would be a premium in Mumbai. My talk/presentation slides on "women in Libre software communities" is available here.
Comments
hey nice tee you are wearing the geek tag one....
Actually the reason men ask that question all the time, is because if they say chick, they are accused of some kind of sexism. I've said it before, my mom was a feminist and brought me up a feminist. She called herself broad and chick and lots of other things. Growing up, I had no clue that some folks even considered these words offensive.
Of course experience then in the world outside my mom's feminism, my use of such words led to hostile accusations of sexism. Lots of our mother's brought us up with these words, and if you were a child of the 60s its more probable that she did. So assuming immediately that we are using it in a derogatory fashion is most unfair. I've still actually not been shown how it is derogatory at all. All of the independent women I've known in my entire life have always used it. Thus it is a perfectly reasonable question on the part of men.
I don't understand this thing with the women's tee vs men's tees. T-shirts are t-shirts as far as Ive ever understood. I find it amusing though that, when I wear pink, it's never a man that comments on my "gayness" but always a woman. A pink tee isn't a woman's tee, its a tee.
but I love it :P
of course with no offense...
all live in harmony!
you gurls cud have done a tag line at the back..!
ok no seriously now.. coming to the point we are trying to make here...
personally i find the word "chix" kOol
after attending your talk.. and listening to the points you made, and those flame mails you showed!! i seriously think, we do have a bunch of jerks out there.. but then... it has to be always there.. you get jerks everywhere :P
And I am sure, girls do avoid such situations in real life too!
Good to see that you all are together, and i am sure, you will find more people, who are neutral on the gender issue! after all FOSS/FLOSS the OS Community is supposed to be free? even if not that, the world is a *free* place
but I would still protest.. why care about such people ? just bond and blend with neutral people ...
@Joseph James Frantz
"..Actually the reason men ask that question all the time, is because if they say chick, they are accused of some kind of sexism."
--- exactly!! been there
@tazz: Black tee's are my fav :-P
@Joseph.James.Frantz: Am not a kid of the 60's, much later
Some women dislike being called names and its their choice. I dont care too
much for labels or name-calling. For example. In an effort to insult and
provoke or demean me if someone were to call me names it only shows how foolish
the other person is. My capabilities and intelligence will not diminish because
the other person said so. The power to react is within me and words can only
affect as much as I let them. I like the name LinuxChix, but more than that I
like the ATTITUDE the women (and men) bring to the table. That is the
differentiator for me.
Reg tee's : True a Tee is a Tee but a womans tee is stitched differently. Not sure how to explain it but few folks would want to wear a short sleeved womans size Tee
@Ajay: For some reason your comment was caught in the spam-trap
Check out the DW list [http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/2005/07/msg00028.html] and more if you see subsequent threads. Later he started going off-list with his death-threats.
Reg Tee, Point noted. Next time we will add a huge logo with a bigger tagline. Did you see the LC-brazil chapter tees? I had shown it to Krish and others that day.
Hmmm.. in case you come up with good taglines let me know.. I will hand write it on the T Shirts :P
I love "grey" tees!!
@VID "..For some reason your comment was caught in the spam-trap
"
--- wth.. now that is a sexist spam app :-P
I would want to see the Brazil Tees.. Did you bring them over.. or just the pics ??
@Ajay :: LOL, lemme think up some taglines. I had carried the tees but didnt get a chance to use it. Superkid didnt like the logo on the site but when he saw it on the tee he thought it looked great, as did Krish.