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Ulitmate Reading Rec List
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( my fan fic )

mystickeeper is hosting a carnival for WisCon panel generation!

So far my favorite idea is this one:
Teamwork: Feminism is more than just a belief that men an women should be treated equally. At its core, it requests a change in power dynamics that allows all people to be equal.
How do characters work together or separately in SF/fantasy?

Are the characters we admire most ones who are solitary warriors, or are they constantly helping/teaching/learning?


Go check it out and suggest ideas!

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Trying to Explain a Drop in Infant Mortality
By Erik Eckholm

Full article with pictures and links at NY Times

MADISON, Wis. — Seven and a half months into Ta-Shai Pendleton’s first pregnancy, her child was stillborn. Then in early 2008, she bore a daughter prematurely.

Soon after, Ms. Pendleton moved from a community in Racine that was thick with poverty to a better neighborhood in Madison. Here, for the first time, she had a full-term pregnancy.

As she cradled her 2-month-old daughter recently, she described the fear and isolation she had experienced during her first two pregnancies, and the more embracing help she found 100 miles away with her third. In Madison, county nurses made frequent home visits, and she got more help from her new church.

The lives and pregnancies of black mothers like Ms. Pendleton, 21, are now the subject of intense study as researchers confront one of the country’s most intractable health problems: the large racial gap in infant deaths, primarily due to a higher incidence among blacks of very premature births.
( Read more... )

Blogs that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. Today I am not feeling so hot so I had some more time for blogs.

1. FWD: Feminists with Disabilities for a Way Forward

This is a high-output blog, so I recommend using the tags. Lately I have appreciated these articles in particular:

On Language, Again which is basically an ableist-language bingo card, with explanations for each of the counter-arguments

Disabled Sexuality and Disempowerment through fetishization

2. The Fat Nutrionist

I just started reading this blog, and I love it already.

3. Geek Feminism Blog

Have rec'd before, will rec again.

---

A blog that I am skeptical of is Bitch Magazine's new Sapphic Salon, about "queer women's representation in pop culture". I feel that my fannish friends list does a better job at analyis on this topic-- really about representation of marginalized groups in general-- than Bitch Magazine is doing, based on the one article linked above (about Adam Lambert's AMA performance and double standards). Seriously. Why are they quoting the View, instead of quoting various queer women? The women of the View already have a platform. Why don't they do any deconstruction or analysis of those arguments? I am spoiled by these other blogs, and by the journals that I read on LJ and Dreamwidth. (also, frankly, I find their blog navigation confusing.)

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"pimping" a show, book, or fandom

I suppose an argument could be made that we're reclaiming this word, but it still seems suspect to me. Thoughts? Is there another word we could use instead? "Tipping" someone into a fandom?

Using "teenage girl" as an insult

There are two elements to this, one is ageism (young people are undeserving of respect), the other is misogyny (young women are *especially*) undeserving of respect.

The moment that sealed it for me was a couple of lines from a fanfic called Ordinary Life by Cesperanza and shalott:

( excerpt below the cut )

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In linkspamming "The Special Disability (Fail) Episode" of Glee, I saw several people say, "I wonder if any people in wheelchairs tried out for the role of Artie?"

The producers claim that they did have wheelchair users audition, but that none were as talented as the able-bodied actor who was cast.

I'd like to point out that there is a different way to frame the question. Did the producers actively recruit wheelchair users for this role? Did they go out of their way to create an accessible and welcoming environment? Is there a reason that a wheelchair using actor might stay away from such an audition? Oh, like maybe discrimination and oppression?

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Or, hey look I wrote something!

Guest Ableist Word Profile: Crutch at FWD/Feminists with Disabilities

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"...los seres humanos no nacen para siempre el dia en que sus madres los alumbran, sino que la vida los obliga otra vez y muchas veces a parirse a si mismos."

"...human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."

--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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My laptop is having power problems, which is a particular curse of mine. Since this is the 2nd power cord for this laptop, I begin to suspect the problem is in the laptop, not the cord.

I will take suggestions if you have them. I have an Acer Aspire 4730Z that I just got in the Spring, so it's not old.

Did I mention I have work to do, actual paid work that's been gathering dust? Also an important article I want to write? And lots of other important things to do that I rely on my laptop for?

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I am trying out using an alt image tag, I hope it works...

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haddayr posted this a while back.

Cantus - 23rd Psalm (dedicated to my mother) The gender designation is changed so that God is "She".



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I want to talk a bit about barriers to speaking and writing. I'm not particularly fond of the term "writer's block" because what does that really mean? It's not very descriptive. I'm going to talk about things that might prevent us from writing and speaking, from expressing ourselves with words. I consider this emotional work, and emotional work can be very difficult and challenging, so I'm putting it under a cut.

( Read more... )

I think that challenges, prompts, team writing, community support, conversation, all are ways of encouraging people to use their voices. But, if words aren't working out so well, I think that art, icons, vids, dance, singing, cooking, exercise, photos, stitching, crafting, and costuming are wonderful forms of self-expression.

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I thought of a job title for the work I have been doing for the past year, for the kind of work a lot of us do that spend a lot of time on the internet and in fandom and in various communities.

In Rosemary's Kerstein's Steerswoman's Road, Rowan wanders the world, talks to people, explores. She is an educated woman, a mapmaker and illustrator and diarist, but she has few firmly defined job duties. Her main charter is to tell the truth to any who asks it, and in return they must tell her the truth if she asks it of them. There are some provisions for personal privacy, tact, and taboo. She seeks mysteries, problems, information; she seeks puzzles and puzzle pieces. She follows her interests and instincts. She has basic freedom of movement and respect among the people of her world. Her basic survival needs are generally assured. Her enemies are wizards: people who withhold information, protect and control it possessively. There is a very open-source ethic to this book.

The book unfolds very slowly, and the pace can be off-putting to some. As a reader we can see more puzzle pieces than Rowan herself can: we have a wider perspective. Rowan is slowly working out the puzzles of her world. She has no assurances that she will ever be able to figure out the answers. It may take more than one lifetime, so she keeps notes to pass onto the next generations of steerswomen. But if or when she assembles those pieces, it can turn the whole world around.

So, we who wander the internet and speak the truth to one another, we are Steerswomen and Steersmen and Steerers.

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It's been called to my attention that certain language I've been using related to eating is disturbing and possibly triggering. I will stop using it. I apologize. In addition, it's always de-friending amnesty day at this journal; and if you want to be taken off filters amnesty applies there as well.

This entry was originally posted at sasha-feather.dreamwidth.org. If you choose, comment there using OpenID.

Jonah Lehrer talks about the science of making decisions. If you use your intellect alone, you will dither forever between the Wheaties and the Cheerios. People use intuition and instinct; their back brains, to help in decision making. He talks about the role of dopamine-- if there is a dopamine imbalance; people may exhibit addictive behaviors. If people (or animals) are under great stress; the mind will shut down.

Michael Pollan writes and talks about the "rise of nutritionism" as a kind of false expertise, a false doctrine that leads to bad decision making about what to eat. He advocates using older received wisdom to help in the decision making process. "What would your great great grandmother consider to be food?" That is womens' knowledge.

The Gift of Fear attempts to teach women to listen to their instincts to help protect themselves in dangerous situations. Even listening to your instincts is gendered: women are told to suppress this knowledge, to "be nice" to strangers, to give others our attention, not to be a bitch.

There is an element of "Geek Boy" culture in which men will say something along the lines of, "I'll tell you little lady, what movies you should be watching/which music is better/why my show is better than your show". The man attempts to prove his coolness and knowledge by providing facts and expertise. This denies the power of intuition, emotion, and the knowledge of the body. It privileges a certain kind of intellect above all other kinds of intelligence. Does he know your tastes better than you do? Why is he exhibiting this behavior?

ETA!
It also fits in with this tendency of doctors to deny the patient's pain or experience (link to eruthros). The doctor has expertise, after all! And the patient only has the experience of the body! And the cultural expectation is to defer to expertise.

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As much as I love the references to the patriarchy, I wonder if I should be saying kyriarchy. I'm not even sure how to pronounce that word.

A note on inclusive language:

"Those of us with disabilities."

"The queer community is our community. It is us."

Meditate on that one.

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Via handyhunter



"The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue; it is that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

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Does anyone have ANY advice for me regarding my Open Office problem with spreadsheets? I could simply redo all the work, but I'm quite aversive to work atm (especially sit-still-and-concentrate work), which is why I am putting it off and putting it off, and I feel bad for the person wanting the data. I need to put my own identity-crisis needs first however!

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If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, these would be fan vids. Go to the link, RightClickSaveAs, then watch them using something such as the VLC media player. Some of them also have streaming options (meaning you don't have to download). You don't need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy these vids.

Just A Girl (SG-1, Vala) by kuwdora

I didn't even watch late series SG-1 but dang, Vala, dang. You go.

Vogue (300) by luminosity

This was one of the first vids I feel like I "got"-- I understand its political message just from reading reviews of 300 and watching the vid. It's intensely beautiful and well-made. I watch it a lot.

Forever Fuzz (Hot Fuzz) by jescaflowne

HAPPY PLACE.

Seven Nation Army (multifandom) by charmax

I read this described as "the rainbow coalition vs. the robots". I love it.

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"...when women speak truly they speak subversively--they can't help it: if you're underneath, if you're kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That's what I want--to hear you erupting. You young Mount St. Helenses who don't know the power in you--I want to hear you."

--From the 1986 Bryn Mawr Commencement Address

"There wasn’t any aha! moment about feminism for me. I just kept reading stuff and thinking. My mind works slowly and obscurely, and I mostly find out what I’m doing by looking at what I’m doing or have done. Mostly I don’t even do that. But when what I do isn’t getting done very well, when it seems to be stuck or going wrong, that induces me to look at it. ‘What am I doing? Why isn’t it behaving?’ This happened in the middle of The Eye of the Heron, when Lev insisted on getting himself killed in the middle of the story, leaving my book without a hero, and me wondering what the hell? It took a good deal of backing up and pondering over what I had written to realize that Luz had been the hero all along, that Luz was the one who would lead her people into the wilderness. I can identify that as the moment when I consciously shifted from a male protagonist to a female protagonist, when the male was marginalized and the woman became the center."

--From the Interview with Guernica

There are a link roundups of birthday wishes going at altariel's journal, at Geek Feminism Blog, and The WisCon LJ Comm.

The Pain of House

Other things I've been meaning to link to, while I'm at it:

How to Squander Your Life

Geek Feminism Blog (my other fav right now)

How to F*ck up and Apologize

Best (Worst) Fantasy Covers. LOLtastic!