User:MoltenuniverseSL/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1:
Article title: Loren Cameron

Article Evaluation

The article on Loren Cameron includes a significant amount of information that is relevant to Cameron's photography and life. However, the content, specifically the photography category, should be further split into sub categories such as methods and approaches, and reactions/controversy related to his work.

The language used within the article is neutral, and any sort of emotion or feeling about his work is included in quotations from individuals reflecting upon it. The language flows well, and is concise like many well-read and frequented Wikipedia pages.

One of the big issues related to the article is the frequency of needed citations within the text. Editors included several claims that went uncited, and work needs to be done to elaborate further on those points. It appears that some writings have been done on his work, and since his passing, it is likely that academics may have written further on his work and those sources have not been located by Wikipedia editors.

In addition to this, as Cameron is a photographer, it is unusual that there is no photo of him included in the page, nor is there any images of his work. It could be possible that they are hard to get under particular use for Wikipedia, and that is why they are difficult to access. It is also possible that, because of the content of his work, some of his photographs may not be appropriate to upload to Wikipedia. However, not all of his work was centered around nude photography, so it is possible for a photo to be used if one has the proper permissions. This is worth looking into, as the article's talk page (Talk:Loren Cameron) discusses it briefly but not much work has been done on it since 2018.

As well, Cameron's book, Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits published in 1996 is not described much within Cameron's article beyond a description of the book and the success of the book. There is not much research it appears onto his possible influence and the importance of the book, as the rest of the information in the article discusses how he lectured at universities and discussed his work in academic settings. This is another element of the article that is worth exploring.

The citations featured in this article are mainly newspaper articles about Cameron's work, as well as information related to his death. There is not much academic literature included in the references, which could mean that either there is not much out there, or that editors just have not found more relevant sources. These need to be looked into further.

The article is apart of the WIkiprojects for LGBT Studies as well as Biographies, and is considered "Start class" meaning that a lot of work has to be done with the article. I agree with this assessment, and research into Cameron's work would be a worthwhile endeavour.

Possible Sources:

Hoenes, Josch. "»You're the Best of Both Worlds« - »You Don't Belong Here«. Loren Cameron's Distortions of Heteronormative Gender Dualism." Mehr(wert) Queer - Queer Added (Value) 11, no. 5 (2015): pp. 59-70. Accessed September 23, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central.

(three other sources were found, but they would not be appropriate for Wikipedia based on database access restrictions and they were removed)

(NOTE: I have no idea how to remove this section break in the settings, it popped up randomly and I cannot remove it now.)

Option 2

Article title: Transsexual News Telegraph

Article Evaluation:

This article on the Transsexual News Telegraph is concise and does not stray from important content about the topic itself. Although the information about the magazine's bindings is not absolutely integral to the article's notability, it helps understand a minute detail about magazine production that may possibly be important for some sort of research.

The article's language is concise and is worded neutrally, in what little text is available on the subject. However, the text lacks a significant amount of citations, and will require significant further research to back up the claims made in the article. One citation is a primary source from the magazine itself, another simply says "Archives of The LGBT Historical Society" with no attachment to a source or any information. The closest that I could find is the GLBT Historical Society, which has copies of the magazine, but not available for online access. The third source that is in the references section is a supposedly "notable article" from the magazine. How these articles are notable is not described at all whatsoever in the article, and is definitely important in reaffirming the idea that this article is notable. Without content from the magazine to argue this, it makes the magazine seem not as significant as it is made out to be, especially with the lack of sources.

The article specifically speaks to transgender experience within an art form, which is not written about significantly on Wikipedia it appears. Giving voice to primary sources such as this from the period will help a possible reader see the varying ideas and views shared by transgender people in the 1990s. The article is also apart of two WikiProjects, Magazines, and LGBT Studies.

The talk section of the article is worth bringing up, as someone claiming to be Anne Ogborn, the magazine's first editor, edited the page itself. Whether or not this person is Ogborn or not, this perspective is important to consider.

Possible Sources:

https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/archival_objects/1221935 Yale's library has issues 4, 7, and 9 of the Transsexual News Telegraph in their physical archives, but require a phone call requesting a reproduction of the sources in order to access them. Whether or not this includes a digital reproduction is unclear without contacting them directly.

It appears that accessing and finding sources for this article, including digitized versions of the actual magazine itself, proves to be a very difficult task.

Option 3:

Article title: John Patrick Spiegel

Article Evaluation:

This article, albeit very short, is straight to the point and includes important information about Spiegel's significance and notability. The language is concise and neutral. Most of the claims within the article are cited, with the exception of the Biography section, where none of the information about Spiegel's education and job experience includes citations whatsoever.

The main issue with this article in terms of its citations is that all of the included references are news articles from New York Times, NPR, This American Life, and the Chicago Tribune. As Wikipedia requires academic, trustworthy, and appropriate sources, finding alternate sources of information for this WIkipedia article is a necessity.

In addition to this, the article claims that Spiegel played a significant role gay history in relation to the medical field with his role as the President of the American Psychiatric Association. This being dismissed and not discussed further beyond one single sentence is a problem, and further sources on this are important. How was he successful in helping change the DSM? Who else was involved? Who opposed this or supported it? Was this a controversial move? What was the historical context of this move? These questions are all relevant and are not at all answered within the Wikipedia article.

If there is any further information on his sexuality as well as his academic work, this would be an integral addition as this article is apart of the Biography, Medicine, and Psychiatry WikiProjects. The article also not including any photos is a problem, as pointed out by the talk page Talk:John Patrick Spiegel.

One last further observation is that the Talk page for Spiegel has absolutely no discussion whatsoever. The last edit to the page was May 20, 2023 (as of September 23, 2023), but the last actual significant edit in terms of formatting or text was 2016. Even though the article is considered low importance, Spiegel's significance seems to be dismissed within it beyond some mentions that are not elaborated on further, such as his book on war trauma. This article needs a lot of work.

Sources:

Spiegel, John Patrick and Roy R. Grinker Sr. ''War Neuroses in North Africa: The Tunisian Campaign. January-May 1943.'' New York, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. 1943. HathiTrust.

Stoller, R.J., Marmor, J., Bieber, I., Gold, R., Socarides, C.W., Green, R., and Spitzer, R.L. "Should Homosexuality be in the APA Nomenclature?" American Journal of Psychiatry 130, no. 11 (Nov 1973): 1207-16. DOI: 10.1176/ajp.130.11.1207.

Option 4:
Article title: Der Eigene

Article Evaluation:

The article is quite short and needs a fair amount of work. For example, the main section of the article describes what the article is about with information on the journal and who made it, but this is not cited. There is also no quick sentences summarizing some of the information that would follow, related to the journal's role as a source of social criticism.

In addition to this, there are only three citations included within the article. The first citation cites the poem referenced in the sentence, but not information backing up the fact that the magazine won a lawsuit because of who wrote it. The second citation is a recreation of the contents of a German news article referring to what is mentioned in the sentence about Brand's house being raided, but not much else. Finally, the last citation simply refers to the digitization of the contents of the journal on a website and links said website. Only including three citations is not enough for an article to be significant, especially with the first one not including enough relevant information to all of the contents of the sentence.

The article definitely needs more citations, especially relating to all of the references to the contributors mentioned in the first section. If the journal is relevant enough that it includes publications from anarchist John Henry Mackay. it can definitely include some notable articles that made the journal significant aside from the controversial poem referenced above.

The article is considered low-importance despite being apart of the Germany, Magazines, and LGBT Studies WikiProjects. However, the article has relevance because of the journal's use as a critique of various figures in Germany during the twentieth century. The article is seemingly connected to the gay activism and movement in Germany in the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century based on the associated wikipedia articles and its connection to Mangus Hirschfeld, but there is no mention of this within the article itself.

The talk section of Der Eigene only includes one edit, which was from June 29th, 2023; there is no further information added within the page.

Sources:

Stewart, Andrew. "A Journal for Manly Culture: An Exploration of the World's First Gay Periodical." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 57 (2019): pp. 85-105. https://doi.org/10.33137/pbsc.v57i0.32971.

Option 5:
Article title: Kink (sexuality)

Article Evaluation:

This article is incredibly short, but well written in terms of its language. However, there are a lot of critiques to be made about this article, and the amount of work needed for it.

For example, this article needs separate categories and a lot more detail into the information given. The article refers to certain terminologies and connects various other Wikipedia articles within it, but does not go into detail much beyond this. The article also refers to the purpose of kink and vaguely alludes to controversies over beliefs about kink, but absolutely no information is given on this. Considering how kink is an important part of sexuality and has been classified and pathologized in many ways historically, none of this is mentioned or at least even given much detail within this article. A section on historical perspectives on kink, particularly through medical and legal lenses, would be important. In addition to this, even a link to existing articles on feminist perspectives on related topics may be important. Feminist views on pornography is very related to a feminist perspective on kink, for example. There are also most likely queer interpretations of it, conservative interpretations of it, religious interpretations, and so on. To summarize, there is a lot of nuance and intricacies to kink and how it has been practiced across culture and generations, but the article neglects to go into any sort of perspectives or history on the subject.

It could be argued that this kind of information would be under articles of sexual deviance or similar topics, but those are not linked here or referred to in case the reader is looking for a historical angle.

in terms of sources, some of the sources are academic, but some are seemingly unrelated. As well, the 'further reading' section seems to incorporate more social commentary on kink than any sort of historical or medical commentary on it. One of the sources that is cited/referred to the most frequently is a book specifically for Psychotherapists on BDSM and kink in order to help them understand perspectives on it within queer and trans spaces. This is interesting, but the book serves a particular purpose for a certain group, and that should be kept in mind.

This article is a stub-class article, and is considered mid-importance within the Sexology and sexuality WIkiproject. This means it requires a significant amount of work before it can be considered a decent article.

Sources:

Hodes, Rebecca. "Kink and the Colony: Sexual Deviance in the Medical History of South Africa, c. 1893-1939." Journal of Southern African Studies 41, no. 4 (2015): 715-33. JSTOR.

Wignall, Liam. Kinky in the Digital Age: Gay Men's Subcultures and Social Identities. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Oxford Academic.