Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Your Scooter Means You’re Poor

– “What is most interesting to me, are the ways in which my class position has been consistently understood since having an obvious manifestation of my disability. No longer do people assume the possibility that I may be lower to middle class, now it is assumed by most that I interact with, that I am poor. It is assumed by all that I am incapable of doing anything meaningful.”

• Could "New Moon" be a feminist triumph?

– “In the books, at least — far more than in the first movie — heroine Bella is spineless and infantilized, while dreamboat vamp Edward is stalky and emotionally abusive. The thought of the effect those characterizations might have on young girls who see it as a depiction of “true love” pained me. But Silverstein makes a great point: What about the effect the “Twilight” saga’s success might have on Hollywood’s confidence in female-oriented films?”

• Fatherhood isn't in the genes

– “As vexing as this case is, though, we hardly want courts to devalue the unbreakable bond that can develop even in relationships without genetic ties. At some point, DNA can become rather irrelevant.”

• Quote of the Day:

– from Vanessa Feltz – I am surprised

• Letters: Girls can aspire to be high-flyers | Life and style | The Guardian

– Women scientists, researchers and educators respond to an article in the Guardian telling girls to be “realistic” about career ambitions

• Relationships don't matter for boys

– “Apart from the real need to stop bullying, there is also a need to understand how we are socialising our kids to deal with it here and now – after all it’s affecting most of us. Boys are taught to be tough and ignore it, girls are taught to – I don’t know, what are girls taught to do? The messages I keep seeing are just that if affects them badly. So I guess they are taught to fall apart. So we raise boys who distance themselves from everyone so that the bullying doesn’t hurt so much, and girls who are taught that they are nothing without other people.”

• On imagining flexible work

– Penguin unearthed talks of flexible work patterns in the team she manages

• The Problem Of The Oblivious White Male Skeptic? A Response To Pharyngula And SkeptiFem

– Skepticism and atheism are not the same thing, plus men overlooking anti-feminism yet again

• Gender-blurring Gen Y & Gen Z Making Headlines

– talk about mixed messages

• Eek! Keep Those Scary Bra-Burners Away From My Sexy Feminine Self! : Thus Spake Zuska

– “You want to wear your pretty clothes and not be sexually harassed and take advantage of all the advances the “bra burners” gained for women in science. But you don’t want anyone associating you with those women. You want all the rights and privileges and opportunities and protections and choices that feminists have fought long and hard to gain for all women, but you don’t want anyone calling you a feminist. You want other feminist women to do the dirty work for your benefit, but please keep far, far away from you in public.”

• ABC Radio Australia News:Stories:Asia's women hit hard by financial crisis hears summit

– “Joanne Sandler, deputy director general of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNFEM), says the global downturn has had far reaching effects on women that went well beyond job losses.”

• When you get punished for defending yourself, you don’t even want to fight any more

– “The one thing that I’ve noticed as I have surfed stories about Laing today is that although the racism of apartheid is mentioned and acknowledge, the sexism of apartheid is not. I wonder what would’ve happened to a black boy born to white parents–and then I see that Laing’s brother actually was obviously mixed race–and had a much different life than Laing did. If that was because he chose not to reject his white status as his sister did or if it was because he was a boy or maybe a bit of both, I don’t know…but I think it’s important to point out that Laing’s mother and Laing herself were the ones who’s truthfulness and identities were consistently challenged throughout the years.”

• But Accessibility is too Expensive

– “By building an arena that is inaccessible, they chose to purposefully exclude the differently abled. This is how we are erased. Each time I stand through a game, pushing myself to the very limit, I am enforcing the super crip mythology.Rise above comes at a cost and only the differently abled must pay the fee.”

• 60th Disability Blog Carnival: Intersectionality

– Lots of great reading

• “Bad Cripple”

– “I’m going to confess something to you: According to the way a lot of people define “Bad Cripples”, Don and I are really Bad Cripples.”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: blogging, Read-ems