Grants:IdeaLab/Outreach to Outspoken Women

Inspire campaign

Outreach to Outspoken Women

Let's try to enlist the help of outspoken organizations with a fierce respect for freedom of speech and sexual equality.

idea creator• Wnt

community organizer• 105.129.35.229

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created on01:48, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Many attempts to make Wikipedia more friendly to women make the assumption that women, or at least feminists, have an agenda that is often at odds with the goal of providing as much information as we can about anything. For example, we are told that having too many illustrations of breasts or too many articles about Playboy models is going to drive women away. I think we should turn this around and say: let's do more to recruit the feminist organizations that are most friendly to freedom of expression, and ask their help in making Wikipedia as it is more acceptable to women - in part by changing attitudes about what we think is "acceptable to women"!

What is your solution?

An activist organization exists to get out information and make people think. Wikipedia gets out information and makes people think. It is necessary only to teach activists the difference between slanting articles in a POV fashion, and expanding coverage of areas that people need to know about. Every edit we make expresses a POV; every political point of view, whether anarchists or Republicans, is equally biased. Successful editing requires only the willingness to allow all points of view to be heard in an article, and this is analogous to the actions of organizations that want every point of view to be expressed without penalty in society. There is therefore great potential for effective collaboration.

If we can enlist the help of liasons within a range of organizations ranging from FEMEN to Dykes on Bikes, we can give Wikipedia a vast new supply of hard-to-find sources, photos, and ideas that will make it ideologically more diverse. Meanwhile, cutting-edge organizations can put in a good word for Wikipedia in the wider community, in this case the feminist community. Done properly, this should work out much like a collaboration with a museum or art gallery; except that instead of collecting art photos, we are collecting insight into human lives.

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Participants

• Community organizer wx 105.129.35.229 13:54, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements

• Perhaps you can start with communities of women who already have a strong online presence. For example, I spend time on Jezabel and xoJane. I think the real world women's' groups are a good idea too, but it would be really women on these forums are connected to real world activism too.

Ok I basically live online (I'm in grad school!), but I know people who are involved in helping sex workers in Africa, competitive women's cycling (they're Dykes, but I don't know if they're specifically involved with Dykes on Bikes), the Rachel Corrie foundation, the ADA anniversary tour, burlesque dancing at burning man, and many other IRL things that effect women.

It would be really easy to click a sign up banner or article link in one of these sites. People are already online, so they're not going to think "oh that's interesting" and then forget about it. Xttina.Garnet (talk) 14:59, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

• Endorse the drafting of experienced and self-assured women into Wikipedia who will not be intimidated by male chauvinism or aggressive gate-keeping. Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 20:06, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
• I think some delibrate campaigning for these groups is definitely worthwhile: most feminists and women's activists understand the importance of nuetral spaces, and often have a more stubborn streak that might do well in the community. Sadads (talk) 17:44, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

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