Added a few links recently, chiefly to the new FWD blog collective that was linked at Shapely Prose (and many other places besides) and some German feminist blogs I read and/or have recently been introduced to.

Of particular merit is mo jour, who is not only marvelously astute but also wickedly funny. (Sorry this is only of use to those of you who might know a good bit of German, but who knows? This might be more people than I think.)

Have a look at these two articles, and see if you can spot the difference:

Man loses testicle after strange young woman on street kicks him

Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Police in Langley, B.C., are investigating after a woman kicked a man in the groin so hard he lost a testicle — the latest in a series of similar assaults. “I just want to know what her problem is,” victim Anthony Clark, 22, said this week. Mr. Clark was walking in Langley in early September when he passed his assailant on the sidewalk. “I was looking down and then I took a passing glance and saw her walk up to me,” he said. That is when the young woman inexplicably kicked him in the groin hard enough to send one of his testicles into his abdomen. Mr. Clark said he was not aware of the severity of his injury until later that night when he “noticed something was missing.” The force of the assault caused his testicle to rupture. It had to be removed and will be replaced by a prosthetic before Christmas. Constables have told him there have been three or four similar assaults on other men, Mr. Clark said.

And this:

10-Year-Old Boys Arrested Over Alleged Rape in U.K.

SkyNews (Emma Rowley, Sky News Online)
Thursday, October 29, 2009

Two 10-year-old boys in the U.K. have been arrested over a claim of rape, according to Sky News.

The alleged victim is an 8-year-old girl who was out playing with the boys on Tuesday.

She went with them to a park where she says she was sexually assaulted, Sky News reported.

The allegation was reported to police on the same day and is being investigated by police.

Not so much on ice as on The Ice.

I can hardly believe it, but someone just bought one of my Jayne hats, and is planning to take it to Antarctica with him in January.

ANTARCTICA.

Gerald and Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences.

Said purchaser has been kind enough to promise photographs and blogging privileges.

It’s not the same as going, but it’s just close enough that I’m *still* excited about it, and I found out more than 24 hours ago.

Life = Blog Neglect. While you (my ones of readers) ponder this great truth, enjoy this:

I am happy to say I can now officially update my numbers re: the demographics of the United States government: Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court Saturday.

The numbers again:

Supreme Court:

• 5 women, 4 men
• at least one per racial group**
  • White, non-Hispanic
  • Black/African-American
  • Hispanic/Latin@
  • Asian
  • Native American/Alaskan Native
  • Native Hawai’ian/Pacific Islander
  • Other***
• One justice would have a disability
• At least once justice would be LGB, and preferably another be T/I

Current gender demographics: 1 woman, 8 men 2 women, 7 men
Current racial demographics: 1 African-American (a man), 8 white non-Hispanic 1 Hispanic/Latin@ (a woman), 7 non-Hispanic whites.

I just have to say: you all look GOOD.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

**Warning: some slight Doctor Who spoilers, up to the end of Season Three.**

It’s only taken about four years, but I’m finally catching up with Doctor Who. In (very) general terms, the newest iteration of the classic sci-fi series is really making me happy: fast-paced, witty dialogue cavorting along, effortlessly charming the viewer into following, especially in the David Tennant years. I’m now at the end of Season 3, and in spite of some minor details, I am actually quite pleased with the treatment of gender in the show. Both Rose and Martha are intelligent individuals with quite different personalities (not just a cookie-cutter “here’s your female companion”); both are a joy to watch, in spite of the occasionally typical infatuation story lines. Riffs on Captain Jack’s ‘pansexuality’ are entertaining, well-timed, and are treated at times with just enough gravity that the humor in it turns on humanity, rather than some caricature of homosexuality.

But seriously, people. Time Lords are supposed to be* the most intelligent beings in the multiverse, with impressive talents and access to advanced technology. So why is it, in all the possibilities in all the possible worlds, that ALL of the Time Lords are white men?

The easy answer is: we live in a society in which white + male is seen as the default. One could go so far as to say they are the only people who are consistently treated as full human beings. But seriously, O Writers of Science Fiction: How is it that in imagining myriad variety to existence, this old trope keeps popping up?

The Doctor is, in many ways, the embodiment of Male Privilege. He walks into situations with absolute confidence in his ability to fix it, even when he does not know how he’ll do it, or even what the situation is. He does not identify himself to the satisfaction of those who question his authority. He completely ignores many challenges to that authority. He speaks; everyone else (eventually) listens. In one episode, The Doctor must make himself human to escape his adversary, including suppressing all consciousness of ever being a Time Lord. His character is still the same embodiment of privilege, if in a slightly more day-dreaming, less self-confident package. His human persona is a professor at a boys’ school, a position of authority over lesser (in this case, younger) beings. His position has not changed much at all, even if his species has. All his behavior is, of course, treated as Right and Good, as though we silly humans should know our betters when we see them, and when we don’t, we’re chuckled at for the buffoons we are.

Members of the Time Lords’ species have the ability to regenerate their bodies when those bodies are damaged, and those bodies are ostensibly have completely different skeletons (“new teeth”) and muscular systems (“new voice”). Everything about each regenerated Time Lord is new, except his gender and skin color. If his entire body changes, why in the world wouldn’t his skin color change too? There is likely some theoretical* reason why biological sex (and, by extension, gender) is immutable in a Time Lord, but if The Doctor is going to be consistently male and functionally heterosexual (as evidenced by the constant line of female companions), then Time Lords are clearly not unilaterally asexual or non-gendered beings. Biological sex exists; gender presentation does too. So why lack the creativity to play around with those very basic human traits? Why insist on every Doctor (and Master, don’t forget!) being Male and White?

The good Doctor has only one regeneration left, if Wikipedia is to be believed. How about something slightly different for a change? The role requires a British actor; Britain isn’t just made up of the native Gauls and Norman French anymore. How about letting the next person to play The Doctor to be of Indian or Pakistani descent, or descended from immigrants from anywhere else in the world? How about letting the Doctor be a woman for once? The Voice of Authority is virtually always the old (white) man in western social reality. Why does some of our most creative fiction have to fixate on that too?

==x-posted at Gender Goggles==

*Read: bullshit

Normally I don’t cheer for anything Twilight, ever. But the justice.

It’s getting closer to what I’d call summer, at least if I were still in Arkansas. It’s definitely spring here; there’s still that freshness of new blossoms and cool evenings. I was inspired to cook dinner tonight, something simple, crisp and evocative of spring, and there’s nothing better for that than asparagus.

But to start: Vidalia onion and minced garlic in butter and olive oil:

Snipped up chicken, juice of a lemon and more butter:

Local asparagus steaming lightly on top:

Onto the pasta, finished with parmesan and sea salt.

Fin.

Seriously.

If you have 80 minutes to waste, go for it. I don’t know who did this, but they definitely proved a point: these games are not as hard or need to be as complicated as they’re made out to be. (Of course, I wonder seriously if whoever recorded this had a cheat. It defies my memories of the game to think you can get through it and defeat all of the main enemies with a single Fighter.)