alias_sqbr

Oh, I agree. Parts of fandom are female space, but if you're going to talk about the parts of fandom that are female, you've got to attach some sort of modifier to the term 'fandom' so, as you say, everyone knows what you mean. That context is missing here. On one hand, they talk about valuing all fans and fanworks (Fandom as a vast, sprawling whole), on the other they're obviously talking about a specific subgroup (subset fandom) and seemingly assigning priority to it. They're trying to be all-inclusive while actively privileging the experiences of one group, and that sort of thing usually doesn't work.

I think knowledge of where they're coming from is fairly important considering that, as Cathy said, they're basing OTW's aims and ideology on where the board members and immediate supporters are coming from - their history and their experiences, which is not necessarily the experience of you or me or any other fan picked at random. I realise that OTW was born out of some very specific incidents (fanlib, strikethrough, boldthrough, etc) but the number of people aware of and deeply affected by those incidents (strikethrough and boldthrough in particular) are fairly likely in the minority of fans when Fandom is viewed as a whole.

What's interesting to me now is that they've just brought on someone who is a comics buff. A woman in comic fandom can not be unaware of the gender imbalance present there, and the problems that creates. Comics fan hubs also tend to be primarily found off lj and on creator or news boards.