[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Eastern Girl

I think it's sad that it came to this, and frankly, you can keep your thanks. I didn't take it down because you politely requested it. I did it in the interest of keeping the conversation going.

We've opened up a conversation here and I think we can keep it productive and moving forward if we all take a step back and tone down the dramatics. "Keep your thanks" is a bit combative, but I'll overlook it because I can now see you're upset.

I think a question you need to ask is if you want equality, or if you want special treatment for women. This conversation is going in the right direction, and if we're all respectful to the broader change that is evolving by the day here, you'll see that removing a sexualized avatar is part of the solution we ultimately want to keep this an all-inclusive site. Because I am male does that mean I shouldn't care about sexualized images on a site to which I come to talk about current events?

I never went in the YLYL thread, but I can't help stumbling upon soft-core avatars on a regular basis in other threads and since it's topical I asked you and others to remove them. Your reaction to that request has definitely surprised me, though, and that reaction has coloured my impression of how well thought out your arguments are much more than the picture to the left of your text.

Originally Posted by Eastern Girl

I will say that what is odd to me is that you didn't take the time to read through the threads, but you managed to find time to request my avatar to come down. I hope you find the time to also politely make requests for the boob/ass/"No Fat Chicks" avatars to come down.

Well it took me two minutes to reply to your post whereas it would take a couple hours to read through the hundreds of posts on this topic spread out over at least three threads, so I'm not sure how odd it is. I definitely will read all the posts if I have time as I didn't know such an interesting conversation was happening here.

And please go back and read my post to you about taking your avatar down as I'm now going to be saying this for a third time. I did ask everybody to take down their sexualized avatars - they add nothing and I'm surprised in light of the current conversation and progress we're all making here you guys even need to be asked:

Originally Posted by Sliver

I haven't chimed in on this issue at all, but I would like to politely request you change your avatar, Eastern Girl, as well as anybody else with a sexualized avatar.

Originally Posted by Eastern Girl

I was optimistic when the mods took the thread down. I saw it as a positive step, but the negative reaction from some has diminished that optimism for me. I see a lot of anger, both on the board and in 'real life.' That is why I said I weep for my niece. Perhaps that was a poor choice of words, but it upsets me knowing that she will face sexism, and she will.

You really see a future where they might not ever see sexism? I can't see it, nor imagine it. I see targeted anger (look at Emma Watson's situation). I see some of our choices up for debate and that is difficult to bear. A lot of women and men fought to gain these choices and now suits are debating whether we should be able to keep them.

I don't have a crystal ball, but, yes, I am optimistic. Don't you think things are trending more toward equality? Look at how we treat homosexuality as a great example. I graduated high school in 1994. If we didn't like something we called it "gay" or "gaybar". If you hated somebody you'd call them a "fag". Those words are going the way of the dinosaur and I'd say most of the positive momentum on that front has been in the past five years. And myself and my friends would never dream of judging somebody negatively just because they're gay.

There are always going to be people (probably all of us) that pre-judge others based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, socio-economic background, accent, and, yes, gender. Our goal is to work toward equality for everyone. So sure, some girls will likely face sexism even a hundred years from now, same as somebody may have a preconceived notion about a person with a Newfie accent; however, I think our society right now is on a progressive path of working toward breaking those barriers down. Gender is one where progress will continue to happen and I am 100% sure my eight-year-old daughter will be less impeded in her journey through life by her gender than every previous generation before her. That's why I'm optimistic and not weeping.

Originally Posted by Eastern Girl

I think it sucks that you chose to determine the validity of my arguments based on my avatar and location.

Well your avatar is representation of you. You chose an avatar of a half-naked guy to represent you in a serious discussion about sexism and gender equality. That was a strange choice on your part; please don't put it on me for bringing it up and asking you politely to take it down. If you didn't agree it was distracting from your argument (I don't see how you could since it was), you could have always left it up.