Debian women may leave due to 'sexist' post

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 02:13

Opinion and Analysis

At least two Debian women developers are reconsidering their participation in the GNU/Linux project following the posting of what they deem to be a sexist message to one of the mailing lists meant for developers.


The message in question was posted on November 23 by developer Josselin Mouette to the list meant for important announcements for developers.

One of the women in question, Miriam Ruiz, who became a developer in 2004 by joining the Debian Women project, told iTWire she had not resigned and did not plan to do so because it would send the wrong message, "that this kind of behaviour is a winning strategy. I don't want to be sending that message. Secondly, I don't want to flee leaving behind all the people - users and developers- that are somehow depending on my work, some of whom have been supportive."

Sources say a second developer, whose identity is unknown, has mentioned the possibility of resigning.

Ruiz, who looks after 27 packages, said Mouette's post  imitated the style of certain kinds of spam, made a joke meant to offend some people and reduced women to sexual objects.

"The mail was in essence sexist, stereotyping and reducing women to the state of sexual objects ('by leading chicks directly to your home', 'we enable people to claim new sex slaves'). Some other social groups were involved in the joke too, anyway ('If you are goth, transsexual, female or simply metrosexual'). (This is) the kind of joke you probably would expect in an all boys club, and that makes it clear that it's their territory, not ours," she said.

A discussion about the message then began on the Debian-devel mailing list which is meant for general discussion of matters related to development.