Linkspam hangover (4th January, 2010)
- Language Log explores gender bias in the order of English binomial expressions through statistical analysis of four text corpus sources
- Ceci n’est pas une excuse: Mel looks at privilege as a game with unfair weightings, and how people would respond to being forced to play that game.
- What makes “feminine” handwriting?: Andrea James talks about the popularity of her handwriting and gender cues guide for transgender women.
- Are women “too smart†for a career in the game industry?: Deirdra responds to the Slashdot story arguing that gender imbalance in the tech industry is down to women being too smart to enter it, noting that she’s plenty smart and also that critique of the women-friendliness of a field is a good way to transform its culture for the benefit of everyone in it.
- Top Ten [Male] Tweets of 2009: The Women’s Media Center discusses the predominance of men in “top 10″ lists of microbloggers, despite the site’s gender ratio skewing to women. They link to the June Harvard Business Review finding that of a large sample of Twitter users, men have more followers and everyone is more likely to follow men.
- Beyond Rockett and Purple Moon: Gender, Gaming, and Stereotypes: Latoya Peterson responds critically to the Brenda Laurel TED talk video that we posted in our last linkspam (the video, although posted on Sociological Images recently, is about ten years old).
- Is she hardcore? Well, you could try asking…: Blake critiques the methodology of the "women are more hardcore Everquest players" study.
- Don’t forget to get your Feminist Carnival submissions in, this fortnight the host is especially looking for non-US posts.
If you have links of interest, please share them in comments here, or if you’re a delicious user, tag them “geekfeminism†to bring them to our attention. Please note that we tend to stick to publishing recent links (from the last month or so).
Thanks to everyone who suggested links in comments and on delicious.
Restructure!:
January 4th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
For the record, although I tagged that Brenda Laurel TED talk video with ‘geekfeminism’, it made me cringe too. I tagged it because it was on topic, she made a strong claim, and I thought her claims should be taken seriously, but I hoped that somebody would debunk it. Latoya Peterson is awesome.
There is another video that I don’t agree with. It’s a Google TechTalk: On Girls, Boys, and IT Careers (2006). Basically, instead of “male versus female” or “masculine versus feminine”, she makes a “butch versus femme” distinction in how types of people (butch or femme) relate to technology. I thought it was gender essentialist, even when gender is described as performed gender.
Carla Schroder:
January 5th, 2010 at 8:05 am
I thought this was an absolutely gorgeous, eloquent, and right-on article:
The Terrible Bargain We Have Regretfully Struck
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/08/terrible-bargain-we-have-regretfully.html
“No, I don’t hate men.
“It would, however, be fair to say that I don’t easily trust them.”