This is stuff regular readers likely already know, but it’s nice to have links to stuff for others. Two recent op-eds from the NYT discuss how decision makers in a wide range of gatekeeper roles are more likely to make discretionary accommodations for some people than others while not noticing that this is what they’re doing:
A female author notes how schools keep deciding that boys won’t want to hear her speak about writing, while also deciding that whenever a male author visits the same school that girls will be just as interested in that author as the boys.
I spoke to a guy in a long coffee queue to point out there was another, unused machine 3 feet away, and even bearing news of speedy caffeine, and wearing a bright red dress, I was apparently invisible.
A woman at a tech event, unaccompanied by any men, is just too unlikely to be believed.
Two women who have been the subject of floods of contemptuous and dismissive abuse as part of their public life write about their experiences and point out that their experience is the cultural norm, not any outlier experience.
Watching the white supremacists try to derail the conversation with the #AsianPrivilege hashtag and by coopting the Shoah has been infuriating.
This video was sourced from amazing geek girls around the world, as well as from some awesome Geeks – you can submit your own sign at the tumblr.
Does setting out to dress modestly for nine months give you any special insights into someone else’s culture?
This 2009 quote from Harriet Jay’s remarkable blog Fugitivus came up in a ManBoobz thread. I wanted to highlight it firstly because it’s marvellous, and secondly to link back to the original post to make it easier for others to cite it.
Stereotypes exist pretty clearly to benefit the current social order, and when somebody enacts the stereotype perfectly, it becomes evidence for the stereotype, and when somebody acts in the complete opposite of the stereotype, they are exceptions and also fall into other very convenient stereotypes …
In time for International Women’s Day in Australia the first of Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs. Women in Video Games has been released. This one is the Damsel in Distress trope.
Slacker Mums: Lets come up with a scenario and then add bits to see where we end up.
Hoyden About Town 