Here’s a bunch of links to things I’ve been reading. Feel free to use the comments to talk about these links, or to provide links of your own (either to your own stuff, or to anything else you think is interesting), or to talk about whatever you’d like.
Bush Defense Department Refuses To Implement Anti-Human Trafficking Policy More fun/horrifying before-and-after photo retouching. Graduate Student’s Nightmare A really neat idea: Introducing Doodle Blog. For Some, Transsexuality is a Choice, and That’s Just Fine Forgotten Holiday TV Specials What You See Is What You Get Women’s Rights Are Good Economics Top Ten Myths About Iraq In 2005 One Less Reason To Move To Spain French Woman Meets Online Romance In Person – And It’s Her Son. Ewwww! More On Radfem-Only Threads At “Alas”
“Hold the snide remarks about not backing up your thesis, and consider the true horror of this. Your thesis is gone. Gone. Gone.”
Contribute your doodles!
Some of these really cracked me up, particularly “A Muppet Christmas with Zbigniew Brzezinski” and “Christmas with David Cronenberg.” Via Hit and Run.
I’m not sure what language it’s in, but this video clip of a magic trick is super-cool-dandytastic.
An interesting article in Foreign Affairs argues that “Backing women’s rights in developing countries isn’t just good ethics; it’s also sound economics. Growth and living standards get a dramatic boost when women are given just a bit more education, political clout, and economic opportunity.”
Read this Juan Cole post – one of the best posts I’ve seen about Iraq in quite a while. Although his comment-writers make a persuasive case that myth #3 may not belong on the list. And I think another myth – the myth that invading Iraq has brought about an improvement in women’s rights – belongs on the list.
Spanish civil servants will no longer be allowed the traditional two-or-three hour siesta, instead having to take just one hour for lunch. Very disappointing.
Actually, I’ve decided to experiment with “feminist and pro-feminist only” threads, which aren’t limited to radical feminists or to women, but which do exclude folks who don’t approve of feminism. But meanwhile, here are two blogs commenting on Heart’s proposal for radfem-women-only threads: Egotistical Whining and The Debate Link.
It is inevitable that people will detransition – no medical treatment has a 100% satisfaction rate. But 94% of trans…
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Not relelvant to the links, but I was thinking – what books would people suggest for people interested in reading more about the different issues and brands of feminism? And what books would people suggest about transgendered issues?
I’m not sure if this is something you’ve addressed before, but I recently became aware of dowry murder in India; it was listed in an Economist article as one of the many horrors around the world faced by women, and I had to search the web to find out what was meant by the term. When a young wife’s family is unable to pay her inlaws’ demands for more dowry, she becomes the victim of violence, and many women are doused in kerosene and burned to death, while the husband’s family claims it was an accidental kitchen fire or suicide.
Hey, Amp. I dare you to add Encrasez l’Infame: Deconstructing the Democrats to your blogroll.
You’ll have to finally creat a “To Alas’ Left Category,” but it’s past time for that anyway. :D
Just helping out a fellow blogger who happens to have the same taste in shoes!
Daily Dose of Queer, will be holding the Carnival of Bent Attractions. If you want to enter one of your blog writings or host the next Carnival, be sure to visit DDoQ and submit your entry by January 2.
And please do help a fellow feminist blogger get the word out about her carnival on January 10.
Thank you!
I wasn’t aware of it either until now, but it’s not really surprising that it happens in a society where women are considered to have essentially negative value, to the point where you have to pay someone to take your daughters off your hands (if you didn’t kill them at birth).
What is surprising is that neither of us was aware of this until recently; I thought I at least superficially aware of most feminist concerns. A Google search for ‘ “dowry killing” OR “dowry murder” ‘ turns up 9320 results, compared to, say ‘ “honor killing” OR “honor murder” ‘ which turns up 161,000 hits with 132,000 for the alternate spelling “honour”. Although these two numbers can’t just be added, (since they may refer to the same pages), it’s clear that dowry murder has received far less attention than perhaps it ought to have.
thanks for the opportunity, which i’ll selfishly take to tout my latest thoughts on my blog about why, exactly, i have such a visceral reaction to george w. bush. it’s not about feminism, but it is about leftist, thinking politics.
of course he’s wrong and stubborn, and all that, but the utterly disgusted reaction of so many thinking people made me think there was an emotional component to it, too, which is what i wrote about. i hope some of you will read it, and i hope it’s not too off-topic.
thanks.
Kristjan,
here are some books I’ve read or have on my lists to do so:
Normal, by Amy Bloom. very short, introductory, sometimes not quite right.. but a decent intro.
Invisible Lives, by Viviane K. Namaste. more scholarly. about the issues and politics transgendered individuals face in different institutions and cultures.
Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism, by Pat Califia. A US political history.
Transgender Warriors, by Leslie Feinberg. A history.
I liked Read My Lips, by Riki Wilchins. And if you’re going to read Sex Changes–which I had some problems with, but mostly thought was excellent–check out Gender Outlaw, by Kate Bornstein. You can finish it in an afternoon, and Califia critiques it in Sex Changes. There’s also From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation from FTM to Beyond, by Morty Diamond, which is ft? specific. Also, Becoming a Visible Man, by Jamison Green. The Phallus Palace, by Dean Kotula, is two-thirds wtf, but there are some interesting interviews with transguys. Are you interested in online resources, too? There’s a lot of stuff online.
Thanks for the suggestions, and yes, I would love online sources as well.
forgot about Gender Outlaw, definite on the list!
there are a LOT of online resources… just type ‘transgender’ in google and the first dozen or so will give you months of reading ;)
I’m actually surprised that there are people who don’t know about dowry murders. >>
I’d seen an article a few years ago, I think. And the situation you describe–extortion over a period of months or years–is what I remember. Thanks for the links.
Re: books concerning different issues and brands of feminism—I would have to recommend “Xen: Ancient English Edition” by D. J. Solomon. This is a riotous and raucous feminist’s answer to end xenophobia. I came across it when my son brought home an announcement from his high school inviting essays next semester for a scholarship contest. I read it while he was in school; we’ve discussed it for hours and it has allowed me to broach many subjects and concepts with him and my other teen children. It has been years since I have come across a book with this rich a vocabulary; my kids actually got out the dictionary (well…not exactly, they looked up words on line!)
That Forgotten Holiday Specials piece is by John Scalzi, who has a well-regarded blog called Whatever.
Thank you, Bean. It’s been less than a year since I’ve had what I would really call a feminist awareness, but when I looked for information on the particular issue of dowry murder, I wasn’t able to find much at first and I didn’t know how much attention had been given it in the past. And the fact that it seemed to be getting more, rather than less common, really raised some red flags for me. It seemed like something I should have heard about before, rather than had to dig up information…
But then, if the numbers are comparable to the occurrence of DV and murder in the US…that makes me shudder. I once felt that the situation of women in America, while imperfect, wasn’t worth making a big deal over, compared to the vast injustices faced by women in other parts of the world, and that our energies would be better spent righting those wrongs than on the few “minor” issues here. I’ve since come to see that things aren’t so rosy as I’d imagined, and feminism plays a much more vital role “at home” than I’d thought.
Thank you again for the info and links, Bean.
Some time ago, Scott McCloud pointed to Gurl.com’s comics section. Some (not only the one with a black cat named “Sambo”) are puzzling, some I find rather predictable, but it may be worth a look for people interested in feminist education.
A Sillynk: Mark Evanier’s game, There’s No Such Website.
Hell, dowry murders were on 60 Minutes two or three years ago. Where have you guys been. What I heard then was that the method of choice was immolation in a kitchen “accident”; apparently kerosene stoves are used a lot in rural villages in India.
trey, Google is a fantastic search engine, but it doesn’t make any qualitative evaluation of the content. So, I am always weary to depend on a google search for a subejct that is surrounded by controversy, especailly if I am new to the subject, as I might recognize the biases.
However, since you make that suggestion, I will now start googling away – or rather, I will try to start looking for online material tomorrow.
Link to something interesting i found today: How to bind books by hand
I don’t have television.
If you are or know of single moms whos blog, Crystal has started a Blog/Web Ring for Single Moms
She’s been trying to get the word out for awhile. So, if you can post about it on your blog or if you know places where she can make the annoucement, let her know.
Thanks!
Trey, Google is a fantastic search engine, but it doesn’t make any qualitative evaluation of the content. So, I am always weary to depend on a google search for a subejct that is surrounded by controversy, especailly if I am new to the subject, as I might recognize the biases.
That is definitly true. i don’t frequent the online stuff very much (and i should more, at least read and lurk for edification), but when I googled I found most of the top results were ones i recognized as ones my MTF friends and others have used… sorry, it was a lazy answer… but i personally don’t have a qualitative evaluation either on the online stuff :D
you know, i’ve actually found wikipedia pretty informative for the controversial stuff… especially if I read the discussion and history stuff. I can usually (not always) figure out where the real facts and info is and what the controversies might be. (and I like editing them when I find them off the mark :).
piny might have a better idea with the online stuff which is qualitatively better.
I’m pretty sure that most people here visit Feministe, but in case you don’t, check out this post – do yourself the favour of seeing the movieclip that Lauren links to, if you can. Ghada Jamshir is my new hero.
Here’s another link I had in mind, in connection to the recent discussions about race issues. It is the UMass Amherst’s on line W. E. B. Du Bois Exhibit. I guess Harvard’s President’s recommendation letter is a well-known document in America, but that’s where I first saw it:
In the 1950s, Du Bois was under FBI surveillance for his socialist and communist ties. This prompts me to remind that a large part of the Marxist corpus is available on line, translated in many different languages. For many years, my position on women’s issues was pretty much limited to those few paragraphs near the end of a famous book:
Of course, the fact that, apparently, Marx himself was very “bourgeois” in his conjugal behaviour (cheating, etc.) is rather ironic (I used to blind myself about those things, until I was forced to look around me).
I have changed, and although I still identify as a sowshalist (avoiding the spasm filter here), I am no longer under the illusion that social change will automatically bring gender equality and justice for women. I now think that the feminist movement should be seen as essential and necessary by anyone caring about humanity all over the world.
Oi, I was wary enough to change one “sowshalist” and I totally forgot the other. Unless it is a matter of quote length, in which case I apologise to Ampersand.
[Actually, you can say “socialist” without getting caught by the filters. However, anything with four or more links automatically requires approval, because many spammers use lots of links. No need to apologize for anything, though; unless you’re in a hurry to have your comment seen this very minute, there’s nothing wrong with using a lot of links and then having the post wait a little while before it appears. –Amp]
[I got it, Ampersand; thank you for the explanation.]
Given the conflicts between transsexuals and radical feminists which seem to be escalating on this blog (though I confess that I only started reading it a few days ago, and I’m basing that on Heart’s demand for “radical feminist, women-born-wowen only space”, this link is probably another good read.
“My Words to Victor Frankenstein”, by Susan Stryker
Thanks for mentioning Doodle Blog.
It’d be great to receive some contributions :o)
Oh yeah, and thanks for the link to my post on retouching. I have no way of keeping up with this, so sorry I was so late with the appreciation!