The Free Concept : the Gender Law
dear all,
this is the very inspiring article from the feminist journalist joelle
palmieri on the concept of free software and gender politics.
long, but worth reading!
sugar and spice,
ivana
======= The Free Concept : the Gender Law =======
In the context of liberal communications, how is it possible to provide
the means to groups of women who are carrying economic, social, cultural
and political alternatives to make visible their practices, their
experiences and their know-how? How is it possible to break men and
women inequalities? In what way can the Icts arm our resistance? How is
it possible to articulate gender concepts and philosophies with free
software? How does the free concept respond to gender needs? How does
gender respond to the needs of the free concept? It is very simple
We live in an age which is submitted to the impressive development of
communication techniques and technologies, which effects spread out to
the social, economic, political and cultural fields, and have serious
implications on the very future of our democratic life. We observe an
over-concentration of resources that reinforce the setting up of
monopolies and private oligopolies in the sector of communication. This
statement is very close to the fact that technological development is
essentially developed like a full part of the globalization process. In
addition, information and communication represent an economic sector as
such ? with high benefit rates ? which products must be given a price
like goods, and tend to cancel any notion of public services with which
communication has always been associated.
-= The role of media =-
In a time of huge concentrations, channels of weak contents and
under-information, it is appropriate to stress that the media are rather
in the stage of testing, attempt, unachieved concept and beginning. In
order to look at it more clearly, lets start with the word "media" in
the singular form. A "media" is supposed to be in between, a means of
communication, a link between transmitting and receiving information. It
seems today that it is a vertical and tense line, with a single
direction, from the top downwards and has a privatized shape... And
these lines, or pipes, are to be filled as quickly as possible! For God
sake, where is the "space-time", which gives the opportunity to
elaborate ones thoughts, refine ones ideas, and express oneself
freely... Where does the law of the market give place to the reader, the
listener, the audience, named as such, i.e. in the masculine form (in
French) by the holders of the informational power? There is henceforth
no more space for imagination, innovation, expression and exchange.
Anything that needs time. In such a situation, it is difficult to
consider a press system in which the "consumer" should not be passive.
We are thus in presence of tailor-made information; at some
broadcasters, the programs are set up from the initial "outlay", i.e. if
Reebook invests, then a basketball program will be set up. In Southern
countries, the situation is much more serious. In Africa or in the
emerging countries like Brazil, the worst of television is poured in
public or private channels: Northern models and references that have
nearly nothing in common with the lives of women and men have increased.
Much worse regarding newspapers, one is confronted to news that are not,
because they have been truncated, chosen and chopped up.
-= For new models =-
It is mainly men who make choices, or rather impose them to their target
groups, i.e individuals (females and males) who are considered as
consumers and "non-thinkers". The numbers can testify. In her report on
the question of women and media, as published in 1995 for the Unesco,
Margaret Gallaguer is formal: women are "visible, but vulnerable". As
actors (or journalists), or as subjects, women are nearly non-existent.
It is necessary to say that the selection among the editorial staff is
stern. Men decide on issues, women make the reports but not on any
issue. They are nearly excluded from the domains that concern economy,
sport and politics. Many studies on this topic, including the studies of
the Association of female journalists on general press, know that. From
the beginning until they were given the right to exercise on the labour
market, female journalists have been confronted to effective work and
editorial barriers, decided by their editorial staff. As an unknown
phenomenon, it is essentially women who become war reporters or are in
the field, and this very precarious situation makes it extremely
difficult for an "internal" promotion. Furthermore, the proposed issues,
whatever they are, should not present a gender dimension. On the other
hand, any issues on women, as victims or sport or show business stars
are most welcome. Besides, "the female magazines remain a fief of
depreciating pictures".
Any attempts of news handling with a new gender perspective is often
doubtful, and submitted to universalistic pressures, when it is not
simply rejected to the rank of specialized press. For example, it is now
common that even the very issue of feminism is the full subject of a
magazine or a TV show. However, it is most often to mock this
"rearguard" movement". Or, it is the basis for a discussion with a
"feminist-alibi" on topics like cosmetics, love while looking for a
"counterpoint" as if, it was a contradiction from the start. And the
same happens in TV shows or in "serious" documentaries on war, in which
the geopolitical aspects of such or such part of the world, are full of
males signatures and even though there was one female signature, she
would have to use the males dialogue codes, i.e. universalistic and not
the least sexually differentiated codes.
The logics of exclusion is therefore double; at the level of womens
place within the profession as such and at the level of the news
handling, in which the "male" vision is predominant.
However, the proliferation and the diversity of sources ? including
Internet networks and not only agencies that prepare and sort out the
information sources (like AFP, Reuters, BBC) ? should allow the setting
up of new models of news handling. The widening of the investigation
field, the setting up of a medium that is finally streamlined and
interactive, in which the "push" ? or what is known today ?should leave
room to the "pull", i.e. the endogenous contents carried out by the
civil society. A new way to make new contents possible which take into
consideration the social relations of sex and the global context of male
domination.
-= For a right to communicate =-
It has been established like a universal statement that the vitality of
democracy depends on the level of citizens involvement; this means that
the different groups which compose society should be duly informed and
able to express their particular points of view in order to contribute
to the constitution of social consensus. This aspiration has been often
denied notably because of the absence of democracy within the systems of
communication. For example, many studies showed that the presence of the
audience on TV sets is not an opportunity to give them the floor, but
rather gives them the role of the accomplice of what is happening before
their eyes without their approval. Another example is the creation of
the cell phones "Sms"; they are obviously used to communicate little
messages between friends, but in fact they have two other goals; spread
out advertisement without the receivers consent and finance the pipes
(10 times more expensive than the normal price), by moving between 0 and
1, which makes them profitable not only financially but also in terms of
market, thanks to the collection of personal data for further marketing
use.
This situation requires that civil society includes in its agenda the
Right to Communication and, at the same time, decides to promote
initiatives, which goal is to control the communication tools and to
develop responsible, free and complimentary media. Particularly, women
and/or mixed organizations that approach gender, must take the
opportunity provided for by the Information and Communication
Technologies (Icts) to bring to light particular analyses and practices.
-= Information in a different way =-
>From the analysis of the above mentioned tendencies of "dominant"
communication, and while paying particular attention to the womens place
and role ? as victims of a double marginalization; as actors and as
subjects of social, economic, cultural and political life ? and to the
role of alternative initiatives ? nearly totally invisible ? it seems
appropriate to set up totally independent media tools in which
information should be, not only to the service of citizens, but
especially emerging from them. A type of information that claims
diversity, solidarity, equality, horizontality and streamlining.
It is today necessary to think information differently while stressing
endogenous contents (or information) in particular. This means
concretely that all the civil society actors, women and men, must not
only have the opportunity to deliver their own contents. The shape that
they use to communicate should also be considered as a full model that
is complementary of the more classical professional (journalistic) news
handlings. This strategy gives then the opportunity to approach the
issues that are undeveloped in traditional media, and provide an open
dimension to the circulation of information, and present specific
contents according to the regions of the world, to create an exchange
and know-how network. It gives mainly the opportunity to focus on
gender, and notably the social relations between women and men, the
barriers that gender inequalities represent for the development of
peoples and societies, the alternatives carried out by women As many
prisms that give the opportunity to cancel sensationalism or news in
brief. In order to give back an effective space to a real social,
political and economic analysis of issues such as violence, nationalism,
fundamentalism, militarism, peace
-= Contents of General Utility =-
Furthermore, in the context of promotion of the contents that are at the
public disposal, it is necessary to remain alert on matters of
broadcasting control. This is possible if we create or maintain our own
broadcasting networks and if we invest the decision-making centres where
broadcasting is controlled, be it TV, radio or written press.
This is a question of thinking information differently, according to the
following principles:
- the access to information is a fundamental right,
- information is not a good, it must be free,
- the reader, the listener, the viewer is not a consumer,
- the contents must be endogenous. In this context, it seems justified
to pay attention to a new way of editorial treatment that is
organized in four directions:
- to approach issues that are not developed in traditional media,
- to propose a multimedia, streamlined and horizontal treatment of
information (radio, written press, electronic press, TV)
- to conceive nomadic, boundless, mobile media tools,
- to put these tools in the hands of the contents "bearers",
while breaking with professional corporatism
- to set up relays, in different kinds of tools. These new ways of
handling information give us the opportunity to consider a "star-shaped"
information, in which each civil society actor/actress is in direct
connection with the others. Thus, each interlocutor can bring his/her
contents, and echo to the others while completing them and enhancing
them. This structure helps to bring to light a collective richness at
the international level. And the exchange of know-hows and experiences,
the gathering of the means around a common content, the confrontation
of individual, collective or regional situations, and especially their
publication and their broadcasting, make disappear the geographical,
economic and political barriers. In order to concretely implement these
media tools, it is important to create a network of models and build
up these tools on a different economic model, which will guarantee its
continuity, by:
- leaning on the concepts of solidarity economy (previously co-financed
by the state and the civil society actresses/actors),
- involving the territories (local elected people, regional
administrators...),
- keeping control on broadcasting,
- using the Icts, like a cheap technology,
- giving impulse to the policies of access to the internet network,
- using the philosophy of free software.
-= Gender: a catalyst =-
These public service tools must correspond, and not only respond, to the
common interest. They must come from the peoples needs, otherwise they
would be meaningless, and create public spaces of discussion in which the
receivers, the emitters, the prescribers meet or come together in order
to bring to light those needs. In this context, gender recovers all its
relevance since women and men, according to their social, religious,
ethnical, generational, sexually-oriented, etc. origins, will finally
have the opportunity to express different needs and interests. First
of all, it should reveal practical needs for women and for men, while
keeping the statu quo of sexual division in work. Then, it should
achieve transformation by initiating strategic needs/interests that
are going to completely transform this gender relation into a more
equal status.
-= The free concept: future of gender =-
Women represent around 80% of the poor and 67% of the illiterate. Most
of them are also victims of a triple discrimination; they are women,
the majority works in economic sectors that are not valued at the
national level ? social or informal ? and most of them are marginalized
in their social, geographical or political environment. Very often,
they also carry economic, social and political models that are totally
different from the most visible system; an unequal, discriminatory,
with high financial benefit system. And yet, this paradox remains
invisible. How come? For migrant women living in poor suburbs in
France, black women whose degree is not recognized in Quebec or
Senegalese female fishers coming from the surroundings of Dakar, with
no literacy level, publicizing their practices and their analysis of
the disparities and inequalities between men and women, corrupts the
universalistic uses. It also reconsiders gender social relations such
as the domination relations as inherited from patriarchy, colonialism
and imperialism. And it defies a major taboo ? womens access to the
public space ? and becomes thus a major stake. Therefore, the use of
free software becomes self-evident. Indeed, the word "free" refers
here to freedom/liberty, and not to the price; this is a confusing
language concept for Anglo-Saxons. More than twenty years ago, Richard
M. Stallman, known as the "father" of this concept, set up the Free
Software Foundation in order to launch the famous "GNU Project". His
ambition was to give everybody the opportunity to use any software that
was socially useful, and to facilitate its copying and modification, as
easily as possible. He precisely defines four types of freedom/liberty
for software users:
- "be free to execute the software, for any uses (liberty 0).
- be free to study the execution of the software, and to adapt it to your
needs (liberty 1). To do that, the access to the open code is required.
- be free to share copies, and help therefore your neighbour, (liberty 2).
- be free to improve the software and publish your improvements, in
order to provide the whole community with benefit (liberty 3). To do
that, the access to the open code is required." Obviously, these notions
sound mainly computing concepts, but they have been transformed since
then in tools that are used by the majority to break up with all kinds
of fractures (social, ethnical, sexual...). Furthermore, the GNU has
become a legal basis entitled GNU/GPL (General Public License) which
permits appropriation without any obstacles (for more information,
see the GNU site).
-= A common interest =-
Besides, this philosophy gives the opportunity to develop
transcontinental projects of new endogenous media, based on Icts,
in order to give value to economic, social, political and cultural
alternatives ? as carried by women in the world ? and to analyze gender
disparities on a global scale. Indeed, free software are, most of
the time, free. No need to spend money, no more "robbery" is possible,
no more violations of the intellectual property law, because there is
no patentability system. Their setting up is a common interest. They
allow local adaptations, particularly in the language field. If only
one individual shows a need, that is supported financially or not by
a specific body, and immediately the software are translated into a
language, a dialect. The opportunity that is given to very restricted,
retired or isolated groups, and particularly women, to have access to
information and publication is therefore unique. Furthermore, this
brings up a new way to look at the relations among the developers
of free software. Some are therefore collaborative, participative,
simple, in constant evolution in order to satisfy these criteria
and demand which are in increase. No other software owner is able to
perform this work, because of the underlying philosophy of benefit
that governs them. There are free software which give the opportunity
to publicize any contents without any computer knowledge, ability or
technique. Therefore, there are word processing or computer-assisted
software, tabloids, image processing, sound and Web publication software,
as well as read/write mails, or Web surfing software. These software dont
require any financial investment. To use them, it is enough to possess
or download an operating system on your computer, which will carry
them; it is the case of Linux ? free as well ? and many others. Then,
it is enough to download them from the Web to use them out line.
The technical dependence on Microsoft is then reduced to a few weak
elements; the corporate sector, NGOs, or any body of the civil society
which "subcontracts" its computing works and the internet servers. The
latter often dont authorize the download for instance of free Web
publication software. However, a few "non-ownership" solutions already
exist for the civil society actors or internet servers, and are made
available for the whole public. Then, like the four Stallman rules,
the access to the users guides of these software are a full part of
the freedom/liberty that these software authorize. Like documentation,
training can be permanent. There are electronic users or developers
lists ? according to the level ? that give not only the opportunity
to get new information of major improvements but also to get involved
in them! And even though the internet connexion is not necessary,
there are bridges between users and all those who have no access to
the network. Concretely, if anybody downloads a word processing via
the Web, he/she can copy it on an electronic support and send it to
a neighbour, who will use it to publish a document, that he/she will
print or orally re-transcript... So everything is planned within this
"community" to go along with change.
-= Multiply the related effects towards equality =-
Therefore, these free software present the double advantage of
demystifying the tools and developing the free access, included the
multiplication of contents, without any restriction or obstacle, for
a very low cost, and safely, in any language. This is very useful
to break up the geographical, cultural, social and educational
barriers. Bringing together knowledge, innovation, invention,
success, good practices, becomes hence a commitment; it is a way to
"understand each other" without imposing any model. The contents on
gender reports and issues find particularly their meaning in this
process. This participative philosophy gives the concerned people
the opportunity to exchange experiences and know-how, as well as
the existing obstacles and "structural brakes" in order to elaborate
solutions and common strategies. As a collaborative philosophy, it
multiplies the "leverage" effects, it sets up new dynamics, it encourages
multiplication, diversity, as well as complementarity. As an interactive
philosophy, it permits unlimited reactivity and accelerates the process
of development and changes. Conceived in total complementarity with the
Net, it ensures international visibility. Since less than five years,
we have observed the development of websites, the setting up of oral
ways of communicating ? for example, for diasporas and particularly women
Iranians. It looks like a kind of virtual "room" in which internet users
converge regularly at fixed hours to chat, and exchange their points of
view thanks to operations of "sharing" contents - i.e. link up through
automated ways ?, the multiplication of know hows such as research and
iconographic expression, and broadcasting interviews in an audio shape...
Besides, all the contents that are set up and put together can be
"reconditioned" or "re-packaged" under more classical forms; paper,
radio, television, or even plays. In this way, it multiplies the
means of dissemination and opens new strategies that can go faster
than traditional medias. So why do we still hide? What are all the
groups of women waiting for to appropriate these new tools, especially
those who are working on gender and feminists issues? The convergence
of intentions and strategies of expression between the "free" concept
and the different movements for equality between men and women do not
need to be demonstrated anymore. Now it is up to us to act!
P.S. May 2004
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