Gender bias

[Bisleybill]

C'mon Affinity... its 2018,  progressive application like this should break with the heavily male context of its images/voices etc. Set a new agenda, show you really are a part of the future!

Otherwise a fantastic application.

[Merde]

What the hell are you  babbling about?

[Patrick Connor]

@Bisleybill

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums.

....I'll get my coat  

[Novak]

25 minutes ago, Merde said:

What the hell are you  babbling about?

I'm clueless as well

[Bisleybill]

exactly!

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Merde said:

What the hell are you  babbling about?

I assume, while I cannot speak for the OP,  @Bisleybill is referring to stereotype female pictures in artwork used by Serif. And also (perhaps) to video tutorial voiceovers. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I myself am interested in this topic, too, but I do not support the OP's posting. In the contrary. 

Serif shows on the startup panel a montage like this:

To me this looks rather androgyn or 'open to gender interpretation'.

As to tutorial voiceovers. We all can be glad to have such a huge amount of video tutorials provided by Serif. Those are created by real persons who invest a lot of time and effort to create these. In this area I don't think (personally) that the creator's gender matters at all. It's all about content and learning.

Maybe @Bisleybill can elaborate a little more what he/she/it's point is?

d.

[Mithferion]

While I don't want to enter in a discussion about this topic (these forums are not the place to do so), I must say that I don't care if a product has a man or a woman (or many) in it's cover/commercials/marketing material. I care about the product itself.

Best regards!

[Medical Officer Bones]

We, the Ministry of Inclusiveness and Diversity, concur. The imagery of humans on all Affinity product pages is, in one way or another, problematic from the point of view of gender, diversity, and cultural/religious perspectives.

What follows is an overall review of imagery as used on all of Affinity's landing pages.

Affinity Photo landing page

1 androgynous person at the top (unclear gender: could be both, or neither). This could be an affront to religious (sub-)culture groups. Or make some more traditionally oriented conservative groups uncomfortable. Some males may take offense. Some females may take offense. Better to remove.

1 woman's face to demonstrate retouching tools. This is an industry-targeted image, but the abuse of a woman's image leverages her looks in a feminist unfriendly manner. Perhaps an additional image of a muscular man with fake retouched abs? But that would be man-unfriendly, male-sexist, and gender conforming image as well. Can't do one, can't do the other. Removal would be best. Don't show retouching of any person, bimodal or otherwise.

1 woman used in an illustration in the PSD import/export. Only the face, though. There's a half-naked male surfer. Both are an affront to certain groups. The male is "surfing" the girl, which could be explained in a negative context and perhaps be seen as a symbol of male patriarchal domination over women. The half-naked male serves as an unwanted male sex-symbol, and also may cause friction with certain groups with thyroid issues hurting their self-image.

1 male in the Stunning real-time effects: the thought that only males would be able to drive motor cycles is an affront to gender-equality in the job market in general and motor sports in particular. However, portraying a woman being blown to bits might send out a negative message that alludes to women's inability to drive vehicles and causing more accidents than males (which is untrue, because young males cause statistically many more traffic accidents compared to young females). Best to remove this person, and just show the bike (best to check with motor bike brand if management objects to their cycle being blown up as well).

 

Affinity on iPad landing page

1 female portrayal in the heading. The snake symbolizes evil and the fall from grace, indeed the mortal sin, caused by a certain female in certain religious thinking. This is seen as a negative female portrayal by many sub-culture groups, and is better removed from the page to prevent misunderstanding. Seeing that all art portraying women throughout history somehow may be offensive to any one sub-culture group, it is advisable to remove all such instances or references. Perhaps instead show only the leaves.

1 young female child under the "Capabilities never seen before on iPad": portrayal of children may be seen as unwanted in certain sub-cultures. Better remove any such imagery. Two other instances on this page ought to be removed as well.

1 female at Dedicated retouching tools: See same comment above. Remove.

1 human hand at Fully optimised for iOS 11: a pure white hand may be understood as a symbol for white Caucasians, and be indicative for a lack of inclusive thinking in regards to cultural and racial diversity. The pointing nature of the hand gesture might be seen as an authoritative gesture. Removal is advised. Multiple instances of white hands on this page ought to be removed to prevent further potential misunderstanding.

1 partly visible young attractive female at Super accurate selections: might be construed again as a sexist image. Replacing with an attractive male could be seen as taking advantage of a sexist male image. Replacing with unattractive looking people might stir up negative connotations in other sub-culture groups. Call for removal.

1 attractive caucasian male face partly visible at Dedicated RAW studio: might be construed as a male sexist image. Remove.

 

Affinity Designer landing page

1 depiction of a female snake: suffice to say that this illustration cannot be used safely without hurting the feelings of certain sub-culture groups.

A very limited and small range of female and male depictions in the graphics used on this page. For example, a stylized group of humans with ochre red skins might be seen as inappropriate cultural appropriation of certain sub-culture groups of indigenous people. For the sake of inclusive thinking, it would be preferable to remove such imagery. 

 

Tentative Conclusions

In short, in favour of gender-neutrality and cultural/religious (sub-)culture diversity and inclusion, we (that is, an all-inclusive group of humans with no reference or preference to any gender-biased, cultural, racial, or religious (sub-)culture grouping) recommend the removal of all human forms and shapes from all landing pages. This is to ensure all humans and human members of biological and/or imagined sub-cultures, be it from political, religious, cultural points of view and who may feel excluded and/or misappropriated, abused, or genuinely uncomfortable in the most general and/or personal sense are respected and in no way whatsoever made to experience negative emotions on any personal level, not excluding individual personal subjective realities.

Furthermore, It would also be wise to refrain from portraying any animals on these pages, and, in effect, the most inclusive imagery would indeed be to include no imagery at all.

Thank you.

The Ministry of Human Inclusiveness and Diversity with the distinct understanding that this ministry identifies itself with no specific (sub-)cultural human groups based in any kind of racial, gender, cultural, biological, or religious thinking, opinions, philosophies, nor any personal subjective reality, including the Ministry of inclusiveness and Diversity itself.