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.
- Why James Chartrand Wears Women's Underpants | Copyblogger
- Australia accused of cooking carbon books – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- How much is that linkspam in the window? (13th December, 2009)
- Quick hit: nominate recent fantasy and scifi for awards
- Prejudice vs. biology – testosterone makes people more selfish, but only if they think it does
- Full of win
– Just read it.
– “By ignoring a massive rise in polluting gases from the agricultural and forestry industries, Australia has managed to make its overall emissions seem much lower than they actually are.”
– Geekfeminism’s linkspam posts are always good, this one especially so
– “If you love scifi and fantasy, especially works that “assert one’s right to be in the world, even if one is not One Standard Unit Straight White Man”, consider recommending your favorite recent works for awards.”
– Fascinating. Read it.
– “I clicked through to the article about training bar staff to intervene to reduce the risk of rape, thinking, “No doubt it will all be all about telling women to stay safe.”
I was wrong.”
Categories: linkfest
The 109th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up! 
The 105th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up! 
Hoyden About Town 
This Just In: Sex Isn’t Going to Destroy You! Yes, I’ve already been accused of trying to promote casual sex (uh, so what?) and trying to get kids to just go out and do it like bunnies. Bad me!
What Pictures Can’t Tell You (Image possibly NSFW) A picture can’t tell you a lot about a person, for instance, if they are bi-racial, and perhaps not meeting your ideals of what a certain race should represent as.
.-= OuyangDan´s last blog ..When Words Fail… =-.
Has anyone else read solo sailor Jessica Watson’s blog? All of the handwringing before she set off seems really misplaced.
Thanks for the link, Tigtog. It’s such a positive campaign. In addition to that, on the same day in the same newspaper there was an article about a new sex education programme: Teen sex lessons change the rules.
Kate Harding in Salon Broadsheet on James Chartrand and male pseudonyms.
Mamapundit is calling shenanigans on the James Chartrand pseudonym narrative.
From Meanjin’s Spike, James Bradley on:
Why are all the Best Bloggers Women?
http://meanjin.com.au/spike-the-meanjin-blog/post/why-are-all-the-best-bloggers-women/
Mamapundit’s a successful writer, and therefore systematic gender bias doesn’t exist? And this is like a fake rape accusation? Wow.
Yes, it raised my eyebrows more than a little bit, that’s for sure.
As for all these people saying “oh, the clients must have known because they’d want to talk on the phone” (a) how many of them write virtually entirely online and (b) don’t they know that there’s a simple pitch-changer for the phone that’s marketed as a security aid to women living alone? If I were in Jamie’s situation, it’s one of the first things I’d buy with the proceeds of my work.
I actually find the extreme macho styling of Mens with Pens supports Jamie’s narrative. It’s almost parodically Hemingwayesque. Having discovered that she got more clients and those clients were easier to deal with as a supposed man, she must have decided to go the full hog. Mind you, I wonder how many potential women clients found that site styling offputting?
I don’t know if I’m the last person on the Internet to find out about this, but just in case
http://www.miscpress.com.au/submissions/
Go forth and submit, Hoydens!!
Amanda Hess also has a post, although not a sympathetic one, on the extreme masculine styling of Men With Pens.
That’s a great link, Mary. I wasn’t aware of the various posts by “James” that gleefully reinforced the gender binary with misogynist stereotypes. I’m sure that will be presented just as some sort of “inside joke”, but y’know? Fuck that noise.
This example of male-pseudonyming raises a lot of questions about gender perceptions and stereotypes, which is good for the general feminist discussion, but I wonder about just how much of the real story we are getting – the question now becomes “how do we know whether she really has children?” and “how do we know whether any of this is true – could just be a bloke pulling our leg?”.
Speaking of which, is anybody else smelling “book deal”?
I can’t remember where I read the comment now, but someone brought up the issue of trans people transitioning and how differently they were treated once they had established their new identity (sorry I’m not sure how to word this, I don’t mean to cause offence). In particular in science careers trans men were surprised to find that now their views were accepted without criticism, while trans women suddenly found everything they said/wrote was questioned. If I can remember where the comment was I will link to it.
Mindy: The neuroscientist Ben Barres has written about his experiences before and after transitioning. The classic comment overheard after a seminar was “his work is so much better than his sister’s”. I don’t know of any scientist “going the other way” who has spoken out so vividly, but would be interested.