confcodeofconduct
There are many legitimate cases for the use of sexual language and imagery in talks, workshops, etc.
Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media.
Being inclusive and progressive does not mean that we must exclude communication of a sexual nature. Indeed, doing so puts us into the same boat as the puritanical zealots many of us find so deplorable. I understand that what you're trying to avoid is cases like CouchDB's infamous "Perform like a Pornstar" presentation from years ago, but the language you've chosen here would also silence presentations and posts about technology subjects like:
- Sexual health and its intersection with technology
- Abuse of technology by sexual predators
- Use of technology in tracking or protecting sex workers
- The entire porn industry
- The intersection of child pornography laws vs. the fact that 17 year olds are sexting with other 17 year olds.
- The online spying debate as it relates to people discovering their sexuality through online communities.
- This Github issue.
This list is non-exhaustive, but as this code of conduct is being used and re-used everywhere, I think it's worth considering the implications of far-sweeping language in this case. Frankly, if you were to remove this sentence from the quick version entirely, the remaining language in the long version would be just fine.
@cloudenv Sexual health is a rather large umbrella term that covers pretty much all forms of sexual interaction: sex with a partner, by yourself, with lots of friends etc. Throughout this area, technology is regularly applied. A common example would be in the form of sex toys and/or apparatus, but also in things like apps that track frequency & quality of sexual encounters, or distribute information about best practise, hygiene, and safety.
A conference talk by a sex therapist on how her clients use technology would absolutely be excluded by this language. As would a submission covering how a sex club might use tech to facilitate events. Developers of informational apps like the one mentioned above would not be able to present without pretending that their software didn't actually talk about sex.
I feel like this would be handled by the wording change in #58: should not use sexualised images → should not use off-topic sexual images (diff).
That's certainly better, though it's still rather sex-negative to single out sexual images, off-topic or otherwise. It just stinks of a puritanism that should have died a century ago.
But it's better, and the perfect is the enemy of the good.