Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Jean-Thierry Boisseau

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[edit] Statements by User:JzG

Jean-Thierry does not appear to understand the difference between gender and gender bias[1]. This may be a result of differences in English usage.

• Jean-Thierry appears to be escalating the dispute and trying to drag in external parties [2]
• Jean-Thierry states that the lack of women on list of major opera composers is the result of gender bias [3], but the list cites its sources and inclusion criteria. If there have been no women who are regarded by reliable sources as major composers of opera, that is hardly Wikipedia's fault.
• Jean-Thierry seems intent on pursuing this singular view of the dispute to places where gender bias might be considered a hot button, despite the fact that there is no obvious relationship between feminism and opera [4], [5].
• List of major opera composers is highly unusual for a Wikipedia list in that it has, despite its apparently POV title, an objective definition of what constitutes a major opera composer, based on external authorities whose credentials are well established, see List of major opera composers#Lists Consulted. I wish more Wikipedia lists were this well defined and this thoroughly sourced

From a purely personal perspective, as a classical music lover, I cannot name off the top of my head a single notable female opera composer. The majority of truly great operas were composed between the beginning of the 17th Century and the end of the 19th Century, with a few notable exceptions. There are very few known female composers in this time, let alone opera composers, due in large part to the mores of the time. The great opera composers are people like Monteverdi, Mozart, Handel, Rossini, Wagner. I can see the merit of Glinka, and can accept Beethoven despite his limited work in the field (and speaking as a singer, he was not in my view a great or sympathetic writer for the voice!). Britten? Of course. Borodin? No stranger in paradise he. Who are the female composers of this level of fame? I have heard Keiko Abe, met Marie-Claire Alain, know (of course) of Hldegard of Bingen, but in reviewing the List of female composers no names sprung out at me (except for the wrong reasons - is WalterWendy Carlos really a celebrated female composer?). The composers listed are household names and their operas contain tunes which are part of the popular repertoire and conscsiousness; I reviewed my iTunes library and found entries for every single one of the composers listed except Glinka (which I will remedy), and the only entries from the female composers list I found on a quick review were Keiko Abe and Wendy Carlos - and Carlos was playing Bach. The accusation that the list is excluding women on the basis of gender bias is patently absurd. Guy 11:56, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Statement by User:Antandrus

Jean-Thierry Boisseau has been using my talk page as his main platform for discussion of his involvement with the project, at least since September 25. Discussion begins here: User_talk:Antandrus#In_answer_to_your_question_on_Mak.27s_talkpage and continues in two long threads on the page, including occasional comments on his own talk page. (I don't mind this, of course, I'm just pointing it out so arbitrators, and others, know to look there.) These threads do give some idea of what he is trying to accomplish, and show some of the communication difficulties alluded to in the statements of the involved parties.

His principal claim is that we are gender-biased and don't know it. My own position should be clear in my responses to his comments. Overall, I think he's missing the point of what Wikipedia is and is not: e.g. we report what we find in outside sources, and do not serve as a vehicle for an anti-"patriarchy" crusade. Antandrus (talk) 21:57, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question

Should we put Jean-Thierry's IP address on this page, since he keeps accidentally editing under it and it appears to be static, for clarity's sake, or would that be rude? Mak (talk) 17:29, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I keep forgeting to log in . If it's okay, I could change those to my signature, but I'm not certain if that kind of change is possible here? Jean-Thierry Boisseau 11:26, 9 October 2006 (UTC)