Every few weeks or so, some
onewhite dude suggests that the way to solve all of our online problems is to require users to submit ID verification and use their “real names,” ignoring years of research and commentary.This is what I like to call the White Man’s Gambit.
– Jillian C. York,
Peter Steiner’s New Yorker cartoon: On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog *** I’m using LGBTAIQ2S+ as a shorthand for lesbian, gay, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, bi, trans, asexual, agender, intersex, queer, questioning, two-sprit, and others who are not straight, cis, or heteronormative. Julia Serrano’s trans, gender, sexuality, and activism glossary has definitions for most of terms, although resources like OACAS Library Guides’ Two-spirit identities page go into a lot more detail. Serrano also discusses the tensions between ever-growing and always incomplete acronyms and more abstract terms like “gender and sexual minorities”.
**** Galloway links to the Geek Feminism page, so he knows how harmful is suggestions are to women, LGBTAIQ2S+ people, and so on. Apparently he thinks it’s enough to say that “these problems can be addressed” without saying how. Kara Swisher, if you happen to see this, would you please put him on the spot for this on one of your podcasts? Thanks!
Image credits:
- “Exhausted, frustrated” by mohamed_hassan from PxHere
- On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, by Peter Steiner, 1993, originally published in the New Yorker.
