Items of interest come across recently in my feed-reader. What did I miss? Leave your own interesting links in comments. Shameless self-promotion entirely welcome!
n.b. Comments threads have not necessarily been read. Some may be NSFW or triggering, so please report back any problems you encounter so the post can be marked.

• Things that are not like rape *Trigger warning*

– “There are two main issues with using the word rape to describe things that are not rape. The first is that it devalues the word and desensitises us to what it means. If someone has just been facebook raped, it might not mean that much to them if their friend is actually raped. Not if, over time, rape is consistently used to mean price rises, annoying pranks, loud noises and blog posts reprinted without permission. It takes the impact out of the word, when the crime of rape can have an unbelievably significant impact on a person’s life.”

• Where has all the news gone?

– There’s a tax summit going on in Canberra to discuss the structure of our tax system and identify opportunities for fine tuning and maybe even reform. You wouldn’t know this from the news.

• Life with Racism & Kids

– "Let’s talk about what it means to be 12 & 5 and children of color. Remember I mentioned that my youngest has communication issues? He’s in special ed for part of the day. Sometimes when he’s really upset he can’t articulate why he’s upset. Fortunately his teachers are excellent & they know just how to handle those moments. But if they didn’t? He might wind up in handcuffs. Now let’s talk about my 12 year old. He’s a smart ass with a penchant for doodling when he’s bored in class. His teachers have been known to make him help clean the desks when his markers stray from the page. Fortunately he’s never been arrested for it."

• If They Come, It Might Get Built

– “Most disquieting, I sensed that there is still no firm sense of limits and limitations. This persistence of triumphalism may doom the effort: if we launch starships, whether of exploration or settlement, they won’t be conquerors; they will be worse off than the Polynesians on their catamarans, the losses will be heavy and their state at planetfall won’t resemble anything depicted in Hollywood SF. Joanna Russ showed this well in We Who Are About To… So did Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in Dead in Irons. But neither story got the fame it deserves.”

• Testosterone Damages Verbal Skill. Yet We Have Shakespeare

– “If scientists had found that estrogen, and not testosterone, damaged verbal ability, we’d all hear that this is why we have no “women Shakespeares.””

• Call for Submissions: Fat Positive Anthology

– “Virgie says: I’m seeking personal essays of 1500-3000 words for a fat positive anthology to be released in 2012. I’m seeking essays that either (1) focus on a specific event/experience that was truly flabulous or (2) tell the story of how you became a fierce fatty.”

• Heroes, bumblers, abandoners, and patriarchs: Fatherhood on Doctor Who

– Great piece from Arwyn

• New York Times Shifts its Framing of the Arrests at Occupy Wall Street

– “A blogger named Aluation caught the New York Times changing the first line of a story about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The change subtly shifted the blame for the mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge from the police to the protesters.”

• Funny for a girl: interview with Ava Vidal

– “There is a problem in the comedy industry. Many, many women want to do stand up and are present at the open spot level. And there are problems before you even get to the level of Mock the Week. If you go to a professional comedy night there will rarely ever be more than one woman on the bill. Some promoters just refuse point blank to book more than one at once.”

• Someday, maybe social media will apply their rules consistently

– “But Facebook has gone the other way. They are regulating what people are allowed to say, and they are creating a culture in which a bare breast is obscene and disgusting, while violent sexual assault is considered amusing”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: Read-ems