* From: Richard Stallman <rms gnu org> * To: foundation-list gnome org, gnome-women-list gnome org * Subject: For avoidance of misunderstandings * Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:22:47 -0500

Some of the people in the audience in my speech in the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit thought that my joke about the Virgin of Emacs was intended to make some kind of statement about women.

I was surprised by that reaction, since I had told the same joke dozens of times and this is the first report of interpreting it that way. In any case, it was a misunderstanding: the only intended meaning of the Cult of the Virgin of Emacs is to parody another Cult of the Virgin. The whole St IGNUius routine makes fun of me, the free software movement and religion, through parody.

To be abundantly clear, my views about women in connection with free software are simply that they deserve freedom in using computers, just as men do. Some women already appreciate this freedom and have become free software activists. We need more people, regardless of sex, to do this, so that someday all women, and all men, will enjoy the freedom that free software offers.

Misunderstanding is not a good outcome. To help avoid misunderstandings of this kind in the future, since August I have changed the joke so that the Virgin of Emacs can be of either sex.