Sidetracks - November 17, 2012

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag.

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➝ Ze's most recent video, Crushing Words, is both great and gutting.

➝ United Nations Declares Access To Contraception A 'Universal Human Right'

➝ I used to follow BodyRock (feel free to look it up) but when I injured myself last year I stopped. When I tried to go back, I discovered that the host had been replaced with a new person, the vibe was really different, and there was a lot more equipment way out of my price range. However, I'm super happy to say some Googling lead me to the former host's new channel, ZuzkaLight. Something about Zuzana and the way she talks about health and fitness and living is really motivational to me and I am glad I found her again. :)

➝ Via lifeofkj: Strategy lesson: voter suppression loses to data crunching:

Like the film industry, the Republican party must evolve or get replaced with something more suited to our times. We need two strong parties — nations benefit from having both conservative and progressive elements to balance and check each other. But "conservative" does not mean "regressive." Conservative means not moving forward before you’ve analyzed the data to make the best choices. The Republicans are so far away from any real definition of conservativism that they can be of no further use to the United States — unless they evolve."

➝ Reading Iris's essay, How blogging sometimes makes me hesitant to read... made me wonder if Iris has been stealing my brain while I'm sleeping...

I have noticed over the past months that I am often hesitant to pick up books that I know will make me think (not that any of the books I have read recently haven’t made me think), and that I will probably love, because I feel insecure about the thought that subsequent to reading said book, I will have to formulate an opinion about it. What bothers me even more is the fact that these are usually books on the very subjects I find so important.

➝ Someone on tumblr linked this song and I have been obsessed for days. Ahhh, dance music and Missy Elliott. :D

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➝ I kind of desperately wish these books were real so I could read them all.

➝ What's not to love about A Buffy episode guide in limerick form?

➝ Barry Deutsch, author of the lovely Hereville, looks at Tony Harris sideways and says, "I'm not with him!"

➝ Racialicious has a long and thoughtful piece on Junot Díaz, race and gender that is well worth reading, particularly in the context of all the recent talks about intersectionality.

➝ And speaking of intersectionality, The F Word explains why the recent tragic case of Savita Halappanavar illustrates why dismissing the concept is a dangerous thing.

➝ YA Fiction and the Many Possibilities of Manhood: in which Malinda Lo is extremely smart and awesome.

I know that many people find the idea of a world in which gender is flexible to be frightening. It does indeed destabilize a lot of things that we may have been taught when we grew up. In a world with so much change going on — environmentally, politically, culturally — I’m not surprised that many people might be nostalgic for a vanished past of strong men who became honorable leaders. I just hope that people can remember that this vanished past was largely mythical, and it was firmly based on inequality.

Race and class have not been erased today, but they are more fluid than they were in the nineteenth century. That means that manhood, too, is more fluid today, and I believe that is far from frightening. It’s liberating.

➝ This post on museum artefeacts and locations associated with children's book really made me want to go on a literary pilgramage. Are you game, Ana? :D

➝ Nick Harkaway (who I really need to read) on WW1 and freedom of speech.

➝ Finally, John Green's Crash Course English Literature is here! I'm so ridiculously excited about this :D

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➝ From an interview at the DailyDot 'Dad Cracks Zelda Game, Turns Daughter into Hero':

'I'm a white man myself. And let me tell you: It is amazing. No joke. And if I shave and put on a suit? You would not believe it.'

The whole interview is so nice.

Comments

[goodbyebird]

Thanks for the Malinda Lo link :)

[nymeth]

You're welcome :D

[nymeth]

Hoye's comment reminds me of something pretty similar Mathie once said after going out in business-y clothes, which he doesn't normally wear, to go to an interview. It's interesting to think that even when being a white male remains a constant, there are such palpable differences in how seriously people take you as a human being depending on their perception of your class status/level of wealth. I hate repeating myself, but... and to think people say intersectionality doesn't matter.

[bookgazing]

I think it's fascinating how easily white men can make themselves be taken seriously. I could easily spend an hour + getting ready for a professional occassion only to end up 'presentable'. Dude puts on a suit and shaves (oh men, masculine culture is so keen to emphasise the importance of shaving in becoming a man, but really compared to women they have no idea what shaving even is)bam made a serious effort and probably considered a gentleman to boot.

Tangent: I find it interesting that male office attire (the suit) is totally a mark of sexiness outside the office. While women's formal office wear may be considered attractive, we're not really encouraged to make it our every day pulling gear. This though was brought to you by #conspiracybrain.

[nymeth]

Also interesting: how even though the importance of shaving is emphasised, a stubble is widely perceived as sexy, whereas most things women do that transgress the rules of good presentation are... not. #hasconspiracybrainalso :P