- Trying to do it mostly right most of the time: The Border House‘s rho interviews Failbetter Games’s Alexis Kennedy, primary writer for Echo Bazaar, about the game’s approach to diversity, sexism and racism in a setting that was historically sexist and racist.
- Feminomics: calculating the value of ‘women’s work’: an interview with Marilyn Waring, author of If Women Counted.
But how will we know [about women's unpaid work] in the future? This past summer, the Conservatives, in rewriting the long-form census, eliminated only the section on unpaid work. That means that, in the future, StatsCan won’t be able to tell us with any certainty that men perform an average of 2.5 hours of unpaid work per day while women do 4.3 hours, like they did in 2005.
- I’m Right Here: Rudy Simone on Life as an “Aspergirlâ€:
Aspergirls is partly a personal memoir and partly a book of advice and support for women on the spectrum and their parents and friends. Simone has asked a chorus of Aspie women to speak through its pages, and this personal testimony is deeply moving.
- British student invents a solar-powered refrigerator:
[Emily Cummins] is a graduate of Leeds University, and was once refused a place on an engineering course because “she didn’t have the correct qualificationsâ€. She qualified now?
- “Renewable Girls†Peddlar Responds:
Earlier this week, I critiqued the sale of a cheesecake calendar to help promote and sell solar panels, and asked readers to write to its purveyor, a dude called John B.
- Stephen Fry, how could you? asks Laurie Penny.
Unfortunately, everyone’s favourite gay uncle really has proposed that women only ever have sex for money, or to manipulate a man into a relationship.
(oursin responds with to Penny: No, really, say after me ‘It’s always more complicated’)
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.
Apparently, the quote that was picked up by the Guardian (as well as a number of other papers) is misquote of Stephen Fry’s words http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/52729228.html
And knowing the verbosity of Stephen Fry’s sentences, it doesn’t even sound like him (but that is just my opinion)
Laurie Penny’s linked article is already based on the updates, she wrote:
(ETA: I haven’t myself followed links through to all the source material, so whether Penny is right I don’t know, but she does appear to be taking Fry’s position that he was misquoted into account.)
Stephen Fry has bipolar disorder and he has said in a documentary that when he gets into his manic state, he will often do some wild things to stir up trouble just for the sake of it. This may be a possible cause of the incident, rather than a reflection of his real opinions. Only Stephen Fry can tell us whether that is the case or not.
Stephen Fry posted a response on his blog:
http://www.stephenfry.com/2010/11/04/silliness/single-page/
I wanted to pass this along yesterday.
Chris Metzen had a presentation at Blizzcon where he describes what it means to be a geek. http://laughingsquid.com/chris-metzen-of-blizzard-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-geek/
I found the presentation interesting and charming at points but also really one sided and androcentric. It comes across as much more exclusionary than I think the self-labelling of geek is.
http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/76.01.ForgetCinderella
A couple of interesting posts on gender and technology:
1. Gender And Technology at IgniteSydney
2. Designing a better drop-down menu for gender
… both via some dA fail.
Sorry – I should note that the first link is actually mostly a link to a pair of videos, and there isn’t an obvious transcript.
Someone wanted to donate money to a group that influences politics in a feminist but geek direction, using social media and the Internet. Some female bloggers at Questioning Transphobia need money for food, antibiotics, hormones, and Internet, and are asking for donations.
Remember that there is general employment discrimination against trans people, and it is not against the law to discriminate based on gender identity in most (all?) countries.