I have had so much delicious food this weekend. And I still have most of a banoffee pie in the fridge! #omnomnom #
2 hours ago

RT @nexcastellan: Origami Star Wars! Wow! t.co/dM6YXFqS #
2012/02/10

@Jillus Done! It's in my calendar. :) #
2012/02/08

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Linkspam: Feminism & Pop Culture

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Remember that time long, long ago when I started posting weekly linkspams? Y’know, that time before my already busy schedule leapt to new heights of insanity?

It may not be weekly, but it is linkspam.

Feminism & Women

• The good people at Overthinking It created this fantastic Female Character Flowchart that captures a whole lot of pop culture female character cliches in one fell swoop. It’s massive in both size and awesome.
• For the two hundredth and forty-second time, females and males have equal math skills before stereotyping. I don’t know how many more ways scientists can come up with to tell the rest of the world it isn’t that girls are bad at math, it’s that we keep telling and treating them as if they are bad at math.
• Do accusations of sexism spur greater awareness of sexist language? This study thinks so. I had a conversation with a couple of male friends about this not too long ago.
• Nice write up about what we’re really talking about when we measure pop culture with the Bechdel Test. It’s not about that women shouldn’t talk to or about men, it’s about how women presented in pop culture regularly only talk to or about men when they’re even there at all. It’s about the absence of women in our stories as anything other than romantic partners or two-dimensional tokens.
• Linked to from the above, Pixiepalace has won me over with her explanation of the Reverse Jane Austen Principle: “It is a truth universally acknowledged by the entertainment industry that a female character in possession of a name and a ringless left hand must be in want of a boyfriend.” I think this often comes from a belief by the entertainment industry that women won’t want to watch female characters that aren’t somehow involved/tangled in romance, as if it’s central to our enjoyment. This is one of several reasons I love Emily Prentiss and Elle Greenaway from Criminal Minds, two fine female characters without romantic subplots.

Pop Culture

• Another great post from Overthinking It, this time about Fixing Season 5 of Doctor Who. It’s a long post that only the most dedicated meta readers are likely to finish, but it covers most of my problems with the plot and themes of the latest incarnation of Doctor Who. I’m not sure I necessarily agree with all the proposed fixes, but I do mostly agree with the general through-line here. Season Five of Who left me firmly in a “meh” space, and this post articulates some of the reasons why.

Photoshopping & Body Image on SheThought.com

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

SheThought, a blog for, by and about women and critical thinking, is fast becoming one of my most favourite places on the Internet. The contributors include a variety of people from different backgrounds from science to arts and varying exposure to the online or offline feminist movement. The one thing they all share is a desire to think rationally, to be thoughtful about issues and ideas, and to embrace open discussion and civil, constructive conversation.

Recently, contributor Ben Radford had some thoughts on the reactions to a poll on girls and what they think about Photoshop and fashion photography. I had time to participate and ask questions in comments — which is not something I usually do — and though I haven’t had the opportunity yet to look up some of the studies he pointed me to, it’s on my To-Do list.

The idea that being surrounded by images of unrealistic female bodies has impacted the female gender’s collective cultural body image is one of those things that everybody “knows” in the same way that everybody “knows” images — especially fashion and celebrity photos — are heavily altered and Photoshopped, but where did these ideas come from? Is there valid data to support these “known” facts? This is a legitimate question I hadn’t spent much time thinking about: I assumed somewhere, someone had done the legwork and filed it away as fact before disseminating it to the masses. As I become increasingly interested in the skeptical movement I’m discovering this isn’t always true. I’m still learning what differentiates a good, scientific study from a less solid one so I can be better equipped to spot faulty methodologies that lead to incorrect assumptions. The last thing women need is to put our efforts into fighting the wrong battles, and if this is potentially one of them I think it’s valid to look critically at.

Having said that, I still think there is value for everyone in our culture in seeing a broader representation of body type and beauty in all media, from fashion magazine to movies to television. I have no studies of my own to back up that thought, only the anecdotal knowledge that TV characters like Criminal Minds’ Penelope Garcia who illustrate happiness in life and love isn’t dependant on your waist size can be important cultural role models that we can use more of. And while I’ve always thought the fashion industry gets too much blame when it comes to body image issues, I also believe there’s no downside in people of all shapes, sizes and colours seeing themselves represented there more often. If fashion is art, then the bodies that wear it are canvases, so why stick to a one-size mentality? Wall art comes in sizes that vary from hand-held to house-sized, so why can’t haute couture?

I definitely recommend adding SheThought to your reading list: there hasn’t been a post yet I haven’t found interesting, and while I have focused here on a feminism-related article, I love that this is a place for women to speak and be heard on topics that aren’t necessarily “women’s issues”. It’s a place for and about women, but it’s not all “about women”. Women think and have opinions about everything from science to politics to comedy, and not all of our online spaces have to be about the experience of being a woman all the time.

Linkspam: Feminism, Privilege & Menswear Squee

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

I am officially switching linkspam day from Monday to Tuesday. I hardly have time to eat on Mondays never mind blog, so I’m not sure what I was thinking when I picked that day. So, technically, that means I’m not actually late. *wink*

Feminism & Women

• Feministe asks why, when asked to cover Reshma Saujani’s New York Congressional campaign, the reporter chose to write, not about issues, but about shoes. This is a long-standing debate about the way things should be and the way things are, and how and when females do or should respond in which way. A female Congressional candidate shouldn’t have to worry about the message her shoes are sending any more than a male Congressional candidate worries about his. The reality, however, is that women in politics will be judged on their appearance and fashion choices in the current cultural climate and have to deal with it and all its maddening mixed messages if they want their opinions heard. Fair is not always synonymous with reality is the point I think Susan Dominus was trying to make in the origina New York Times article, though in a roundabout, meandering sort of way. In the end, the article seemed to be more about the shoes than it was about anything else, which is probably a pretty good example of exactly what we’re talking about here.
• On Livejournal, Karnythia talks about the challenges of being pretty. Society does privilege attractive people, but as a woman and a person of colour the intersections of misogyny still cause problems, some of which can be exacerbated by being pretty. More opportunity, but also more grabbie hands (and sometimes actual hands, because being female means your body is public property to some people).
• In news about women being just as bad as men when it comes to sexism, Caster Semenya’s competitors are still flailing about her gender. Outstanding talent and ability in athletes — male and female — should be praised, not vilified. Regardless of whether or not this issue should have ever even been an issue (much less a public one) it has been officially settled. Calling her a “man” at this point is a cheap shot. How can women ever expect men to treat us better if we don’t treat each other better?

Privilege

• This post is called The Myth of White Male Geek Rationality but it’s valid reading for everyone. This is about the realities of implicit bias, of unconscious -isms, of invisible discrimination and naïvety. The tricky thing about -isms is how subconscious they are, how they set into our brains without our knowing it and create rules we don’t consciously know about. Think you’re “colourblind”? Think you don’t treat women differently than men? You’re not and you do. This isn’t something we should feel guilty about, but it is something we must awknowledge in order to change. We are all biased: no one is exempt. Some people are just more aware of our biases than others, and actively try to catch and correct them.

Clothing & Costuming

• A fantastic primer on menswear, with special emphasis on suit styles and cuts. I cannot begin to express my glee at this. I love menswear, and wish more of my male friends would let me go clothing shopping with them. As much as I didn’t enjoy the cut-through culture of working at Tip Top Tailors years ago, I do miss the deep satisfaction of matching men with just the right suit, shirt and tie. This tutorial may appear to the uninformed to be comprehensive, but menswear lovers will know this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Linkspam: Feminism, Science & Usability

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Even during crazy weeks when I’m up to my eyeballs in work, Fringe shows and social appointments, I still manage to read piles of stuff on the Internet. Here is a sampling of the most interesting things I’ve stumbled upon this week.

Feminism & Women

• What does the word “sexualization” mean, how is it being used, and how is it affecting girls and teenagers? I think this is an entirely valid commentary on how slut shaming has become an integral part of our culture. “‘Sexualization’ is a troubling piece of cultural shorthand. It suggests that sexuality is something that is done to young women, rather than something that they can own and control: that they can never be sexual, only sexualised.” It’s easier to take girls and women to task for dressing provacatively than to address rape culture and violence at its core. This is a word with cultural nuance that both makes females the victim and simultaneously blames them for it.
• I asked the wonderful Heidi Anderson for some sex positive links on Twitter, and she responded by creating this fabulous sex positive link roundup! Includes dozens of sites and blogs, with clear indication of which includes SFW and NSFW content. So far I’ve only had the time to go through a few of these, but what I have is excellent. Thanks Heidi!
• There’s been a lot of response to this comic from Penny Arcade, including a post on the Geek Feminism Blog about Classic Conditioning and how it affects rape culture on why this comic is problematic. While I grant the point, I tend to agree more with this article on Pandagon that takes greater offense on the follow up non-apology apology comic which absolutely does makes light of rape.
• Feminism helps everyone, not just the women, and men are affected by patriarchal ideas too.
• What does a “real” feminist act like? The idea that all feminists are the same, think the same and act the same makes being a feminist all the more frustrating sometimes. We don’t all agree — in fact, some of the biggest feminist battles are being fought between women who identify as feminists. Look. You can’t pick us out of a line up. We don’t dress a certain way or act a certain way or believe in the same things. We are, as all people, individuals first and our individual experiences make up who we are, including our feminist perspective. Also? In my experience there is a direct correlation between people who use words like “feminazi” to describe feminism and the lack of knowledge they actually have about feminism, its history, and the myriad of different opinions and degrees of opinions it manifests.

Science & Technology

• Melinda Wenner Moyer talks about how women aren’t properly represented in many scientific studies and how that endangers women and limits our scientific knowledge.
• Science is showing that differences in male and female ability is more to do with socialisation and social expectation instead of genetics. I have long suspected our highly gendered culture makes up most of the difference: if we are surrounded by a culture that teaches us explicitly and implicitly from birth that boys have better spatial skills and girls are more emotionally intuitive, it isn’t a wonder expertise in those skills tend to break down by gender. We learn who we are by living in the world and taking cues from the culture around us, and mostly we do what we’re taught we’re supposed to be good at.
• The plural of anecdote is not data, and good science often isn’t sexy. Great article in the Edmonton Journal on how anecdotes make lazy research and aren’t often a good basis from which to make important decisions.
• Interesting article on how Star Trek: The Next Generation imagined the iPad 23 years ago. It’s fun to think that choices made by a television props department largely on the basis of cost have inspired actual technology, from the flip phone to the iPad.

Politics

• The Canadian federal government is getting rid of the compulsory long-form part of the Canadian census. I have not done as much reading on this issue as I would like. I also don’t know what specific questions the long form covers that the short does not and where those questions have been useful in the past. Hmm….

Usability

• Here’s a great and informative article about designing websites to be friendly for colourblind users that includes a little of the science behind what being colourblind is and isn’t. Informative and helpful.

Linkspam: Women, Skepticism and SEO

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I read and get linked to a ton of interesting blog posts every week, and as much as I would like to post commentary about most of them there just isn’t enough time in the day. I often share some of these links on Twitter and Facebook, but I’m going to start posting a list of my most interesting recent reads here on Mondays as a way of sharing online articles with a little more context.

Feminism & Women:

• Elain Nelson posts a reaction to Joe Clark’s mansplaining post on women in tech. Elain very helpfully points out that some accommodations that need to be made for female employees — in and out of the tech sphere — aren’t related to skills or choice as much as they’re related to cultural pressures and expectations, such as that women will be the primary child caregiver. She also disputes the idea that “programming savants” who spent “virtually unlimited time” on their programming are the best people for all (or even any) computer job. Certainly usability would suffer across the board if these were the only kinds of programmers employed. Joe Clark also has some major fail going on when he addresses harassment in tech workplaces, which Nelson calls him on.
• Jessica Valenti talks about character assassination, slut-shaming and misogyny used as traffic bait in blogs and reminds us of the personal and professional risks of being a feminist online. This kind of stuff? Sadly not unusual on women’s blogs, especially women who blog about feminist, LGBT and sex issues.
• Apparently the big debate on legal blogs right now is about whether peep-toe shoes are appropriate in the court room. I feel like this conversation about whether or not a woman’s toes are inherently “too sexy” belongs in Victorian times. I find “appropriate clothing” debates inane and exasperating at the best of times because they’re more about sexualizing or desexualizing different body types than they are about what’s appropriate in the workplace, but this one strikes me as overly ridiculous.
• Elena Kagan has been confirmed to the Supreme Court!
• Over at the Geek Feminism Blog there’s a really excellent (though long) post on Sexism in World of Warcraft that is worthwhile reading. It covers gameplay, armour, storyline and character concerns. I don’t play World of Warcraft, but I have played some Guild Wars in my time, and I can definitely identify with many of her comments about the way women are portrayed in gaming.
• And, on the other hand, we have a female gamer praising the diversity of female physical and body representation in World of Warcraft with lots of illustrations.

Science & Skepticism:

• Coca-Cola is being sued because their vitamin water products make unwarranted health claims, but the best bit is their defense, which is to say that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitamin water was a healthy beverage”. Basically their defense boils down to “yes we said it was healthy, but everyone knows that’s not true so we’re fine”. Um… *headdesk*
• Myths about the “love hormone” oxytocin and the way conservatives are twisting slective bits of science to shore up abstinence-only sex education, slut shaming, monogamy and a lack of family planning. This is a link-rich resource that I have read through but haven’t clicked-through yet. It seems well-researched and comprehensive, and the article itself is very interesting.

SEO:

• When Good SEO Becomes Bad Information Architecture. This post is a great reminder from Search Engine Land that good SEO does not translate into a good UI. User testing is hugely important: the way someone will search for content on a search engine is not necessarily the way they will seek it out in a website’s category hierarchy.