Tough as an old linkspam (8th December, 2011)

• Not the thought police:
  • How to be a fan of problematic things: Liking problematic things doesn’t make you an asshole. In fact, you can like really problematic things and still be not only a good person, but a good social justice activist (TM)!
  • Does Pop Culture Have Social Responsibility?: …pop culture in general does not actually have an obligation to be socially responsible. But, it often positions itself in a way that suggests it is making an important social commentary, is contributing to ethical discussion, is attempting to cultivate responsibility among viewers. When creators of pop culture do this, it leaves them wide open to criticism…
• The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face: Susan Kare designed much of what is best-known about the Mac interface.
• The 8th volume of Transformative Works and Cultures is available, a double guest-edited issue: Race and Ethnicity in Fandom and Textual Echoes.
• Letting my black-girl-geek flag fly: All I knew was that my unintentional eccentricity played a role in making me a target, and not in the general you’re-a-dork way but the you’re-a-dork-and-you’re-too-white way.
• Stranger In A Strange Land OR Being A Woman In Tech: I had breakfast with a young woman who is an associate at a very well-known firm. She is the only woman investor. On the down-low she asked me if I think about wearing glasses or contacts to be taken more seriously (Yes, I have thought about that) and did I have any strategies for making my voice heard in a room full of men (Yes I do).
• Mary Wollstonecraft’s image is beamed onto Palace of Westminster: She has been called the mother of British feminism, so it is perhaps fitting that her image was blasted onto the building known in some parts as the mother of all parliaments.
• Changing the Culture of Ocean Science: a DSN core value: Glamour magazine, where the HELL are female scientists in your annual women of the year awards?

You can suggest links for future linkspams in comments here, or by using the “geekfeminism” tag on delicious or pinboard.in or the “#geekfeminism” tag on Twitter. Please note that we tend to stick to publishing recent links (from the last month or so).

Thanks to everyone who suggested links.