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My username is gender neutral and I'm confused for a man all the time, especially in forums like AVS and flyertalk that are mostly male spaces (less so here, but I'm sure it will happen eventually). It makes me laugh, and if I'm called "he" I will sometimes gently correct, but yes, elfwreck and amalthia are right -- there is a "male" assumption (and a white and a heterosexual assumption for that matter), and therefore there's nothing wrong with women claiming their community and pointing out "hey, we're here." Fanfic *is* a community that's predominantly female -- there's nothing inherently evil in pointing that out. I could be wrong, but I believe the desire to claim women's history in fandom arose from a number of claims that vidding had started in the 90's on YouTube, and by men. (Actually it started in the 70's... with women.)
If you believe AO3 or OTW is discriminating against men in some way, please be specific and identify it. If any man has been prevented from using the archive (either as a writer or reader), joining the OTW, using its resources, running for the board, being on a committee -- I'd truly like to hear about it.
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