[UbuntuWomen] Ubuntu, women and artwork...

[Vid Ayer]

Hi,

Responding to many in a single mail...

On 5/4/07, Danyelle Gragsone <ladynikon at gmail.com> wrote:
> I guess hanging around boys as much as I do.. I really never took
> offense to it.  Guys will be guys.. who will post pics of womens
..[snip]

Please do not top-post. Too many people are doing this ... folks,
please read : http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists/etiquette,
especially the part on "Proper quoting". Its not very difficult to
snip irrelevant parts when replying to another persons message.  I
think members on this list are intelligent, polite and helpful enough
to police themselves :)


On 5/3/07, Donna Metzlar <donna at genderchangers.org> wrote:
> If you do a Google image search for "ubuntu" the first hit (for me in any
> case) is another bad taste image.
>
> http://xhpphx.stumbleupon.com/
>
On 5/4/07, t u <towsonu2003 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> PS. I think the previous posters pointed out these pictures as
> offensive, and I agree:
> [disclaimer: links go to sexualized + objectifying pics of women -not
> work-safe]
> http://REMOVED

The purpose of complaining/raising this issue was to raise awareness
and possiblly generate enough mass to stop "objectifying women" to
promote Ubuntu as a product. It was "not" meant to  encourage people
to post more links of tasteless pictures of women(or men), even if
considered artistic and tasteful by some. Offensive material (or
worse) is all over the internet and in other visual/print media which
is not the point here.

The moot point is : Does UbuntuLinux need to be promoted at the cost
of being offensive and/or using women (as objects) in a negative way ?
 Does the Ubuntu community (read: us) need to approve it under the
guise of "freedom/art/insert adjective of choice..."?

If you agree that the pictures are :
- offensive, tasteless, etc...
- objectify women,
- not the right way for Ubuntu to go, and want to do something about
it, please suggest the next step/path to take.



On 5/4/07, Caroline Ford <caroline.ford.work at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> I think the breasts one is offensive - but the multicoloured bottom one
> is tasteful and artistic.
>

Sensibilities vary across cultures and imho, Ubuntu would be better
off concentrating on the technical advantages than resorting to
gimmicks to promote itself. Echoing others here, I too dont find
anything funny or artistic about using women's bodies to promote a
product.

Coming from a marketing background, I assure you that Ubuntu will not
be taken seriously, atleast not if it wants to be on every
Indian/Asian desktops. I can just imagine the reactions of parents,
teachers and others (folks in the corporate arena) and all the
explaining that I will have to do when I handout CD's with those
offensive pictures on the jacketcover. Do I want to promote
UbuntuLinux at the cost of my personal reputation ?...I guess not.

--
Vid