Friday, September 26, 2014

Weekend Links: The Let's Do What the Baboons Did Edition

I have not had the most productive day. My main accomplishment was creating the Crappy Things I Made to Stop the Whining tumblr, because Zenmoo told me to. I am delighted that I now have an internet home for pictures of the crappy things I make for my kids to play with. It has open submissions, so feel free to add your own crappy things, too. If you don't have a tumblr account and don't want one, you can always email me the submissions or tweet them at me.

I also sent emails to the kind people who have offered to review Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess, with links so that they can access a review copy. I still have room for a couple more reviewers if you're interested.

In other book news, Badmomgoodmom posted a really nice review of Navigating the Path to Industry, complete with a video on underwater basketweaving. Check it out!

And now, on to my links:

C.V. Harquail has a nice post about the problem w/CEO Daddy Feminism.

Although, maybe if this guy had a daughter he wouldn't have put his foot so firmly in his mouth about how women are great to hire because they're cheaper.

He was so close, and yet so far.  Maybe he should review what the commander of his country's army has to say about accepting sexism. (Yeah, I know I've linked to that one before. But I love it sooo much.)

These two articles appeared literally right after each other in both my Wandering Scientist twitter feed and my real name feed:

There is a shortage of talent for biotech boards.

Companies whose boards have women on them outperform those who don't.

Hmmm. Whatever can we do about the shortage of talent? I shouldn't make light of this. You can't just pluck random women off the street and put them on the boards of biotech companies. You want to find women with leadership experience in biotech or pharma, and there aren't that many women in that pool. But still, the juxtaposition of the two articles made me chortle.

Speaking of industries without that many women... the games industry continues to be caught up with this ridiculous GamerGate thing. The women in games have my heartfelt sympathy and support... but I've mostly stopped following this story, since I neither play nor develop games. However, this article on Cracked names the ex-boyfriend who started the whole GamerGate mess, and since Zoe Quinn's name has been dragged through the mud, it seems only fair that we know his name, too. It is Eron Gjoni, and seriously, if you're still single, don't date him.

Speaking of men you don't want to date... HA HA HA HA HA. Scalzi nails it.

This study about the prevalence and cost of domestic violence blew my mind and makes me so sad.

But hey, if baboons can change their culture, so can we, right?
(This would be a great premise for a sci-fi story- some sort of disease preferentially spreads among the most aggressive jerks, leaving a new human population that is just... nicer.)

The graphic in this tweet may make you want to scream.

But let's end with a fun tweet:


3 comments:

  1. Zenmoo1:02 AM

    You can look forward to some crappy submissions from me - I did some nifty work with string yesterday.

    Also I watched a really interesting interview with lt Gen David Morrison on One Plus One. I'm not sure if it would be geo blocked for the US or available some other way. But here's a link anyway: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-19/one-plus-one-lt-gen-david-morrison/5757410

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  2. Anonymous9:01 PM

    Have you read The Gate To Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper? I don't want to spoil it if you haven't, but it's a sci-fi novel whose premise is related to your idea.

    If you're still looking for reviewers for Petunia, I'd be happy to review it for you by reading it to my 3.5 year old and seeing what she thinks of it. I'll disclaim upfront that I don't think there's a widespread problem of young girls feeling pressured to only be princesses. I do think femmephobia exists, but it's something that impacts women professionally. I think the larger issue that girls face is the soft pressure of culture to be a princess above all else (i.e. they can be a brilliant scholar AND a princess or a warrior AND a princess or a mathematician AND a princess. There are precious few contemporary cultural depictions of girls simply being in stories)

    -- Miriam

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    Replies
    1. Well, Petunia never becomes a princess in the book, and is quite happy that way. I certainly don't intend to imply that every little girl should be a princess. Quite the opposite. I think we should stop caring one way or the other about whether girls are interested in princesses and sparkle and the like.

      The problem that I was reacting to that brought the story to my mind was that people tend to "write off" girls who into princesses, and assume that they won't also like cars or LEGO or whatnot. That's BS, and I think it is directly related to the way that women who are into feminine things get belittled in the work place.

      So, the book has Petunia who isn't a princess and never becomes one... but discovers that she likes to dance. And Penelope who is a princess but is also into climbing trees, racing cars, building towers, etc.

      I'll probably write more about my thinking on this closer to the release date, but if you think you'd like to give the book a try I'm happy to send you a review copy. Just email me.

      Delete

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