[Actionchix] Re: OLD old LinuxChix logo and Brazil

[Sulamita Garcia]

On 3/25/06, Val Henson <val.henson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Wow.  A curvaceous woman dressed in bell bottoms, with a bare stomach,
> a tight tank top, huge breasts, lots of jewelry, tons of makeup,
> sunglasses, and a huge ponytail says "geek" to you?  It doesn't say
> that to me, it says "I am an airhead, I spend my entire day thinking
> about boys, and Britney Spears is my role model.  Oh yeah, those LInux
> boys sure are cute!"  I wouldn't believe we were talking about the
> same logo if you hadn't provided a link!  I guess this is a difference
> in culture?


Well, yeah. I think you got it too serious. When I meet Linuxchix, I was
sick of the stereotype that if you are a women, or you are ugly or you have
brain. Maybe is a brazilian culture, how can you think diferent when some
"famous" bu^H^H women says (really) "I don't need to me smart know, when I
get old and everything point down, I will become an intellectual". So the
image said to me "yeah, I have breasts, I can use jewelry, I can tech very
well and I don't care about what you think".
But I spent the whole weekend thinking about it and I know the brazilian
culture is too permissive. And I can figure out this image can be ofensive
to some cultures. Here, the only time someone comment the logo was about
"you have a logo of a tiny curvaceous woman, I think this is maintain the
pressure for beauty". But I was in the middle of our conference and had no
time to wondering, so I forgot to ask for other impressions.

I noticed that LinuxChix Brazil is using the old old logo.  My guess
> is that the culture in Brazil is different enough that that logo isn't
> offensive, or less offensive.  I understand that, and I think it's
> great that there _is_ a LinuxChix Brazil and that you're using any
> logo at all.  But I still get comments from (non-Brazilian) people
> saying that they saw the LinuxChix Brazil web site and now they think
> that LinuxChix is for women who just want to be looked at, who want to
> hang out at Linux conferences and date the men who do Linux but don't
> do anything with Linux themselves.  In other words, that logo makes
> them think that LinuxChix is a group for women who like men who do
> Linux, not women who do Linux themselves.
>
> Are you aware of anyone who responds to the logo this way?  Have you
> asked people outside of your LinuxChix group what they think LinuxChix
> is about, based on the logo?


No, but I will ask. I will start this subject in our lists.
Last month, I had that interview at GenderIT. The first of all comments in
the news forum was "women can't deal with a microwaves, how can they deal
with computers? they just know how to create pinky sites with flowers and
talk about makeup". So I intencionally made a pinky site, and announce it
like "instead flowers, high availability, instead makeup, parallel
programming".
I ask this for a friend and he said that the logo gives the impression of
lack of responsability. I think I'm kind of people how don't like anything
too serious...

Anyone can use any logo they like.  LinuxChix doesn't exist as a legal
> entity, and so we can't even pretend to control who uses the name on
> the Internet.  I would personally prefer that the name "LinuxChix"
> isn't associated with the old old logo, but there's nothing I can do
> about it.


I can understand. Can you show me the thread about the logo you started?
I don't think we will keep the old one, if the group decides to change.
Although I must say that we in Brazil never felt like we were really part of
it anyway, because very often I sent some mails and they got no response.
But I think this whole discussion doesn't belongs to actionchix, maybe
issues or girls-talk?
I'm just posting this to say that I will support the majority opinion. I
think several can see things clear then one.

--
"A little less conversation, a little more action please"
-------------------------------------------------------------
°v°  Sulamita Garcia
/(_)\  LinuxChix Brasil
^ ^  http://www.linuxchix.org.br/
         http://sulamita.net/

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