Sidetracks - November 24, 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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➝ LoneStarCon is offering a discount on Worldcon Attending memberships, which is useful if you're planning to travel to San Antonio next year (like I am tentatively planning to do if working to pay for it doesn't kill me first). If not, perhaps you will consider a Supporting membership and nominate/vote for some ladies in 2013? >.>

➝ Okay, this is more relevant for We Want It! but I can't resist plugging that this show is available for pre-order. My Drunk Kitchen Season 1!

➝ Uhhh so I was alerted to this song...recently...we're not going to talk about my play counts, okay? I turned off scrobbling in last.fm. >.> Although the best part of the video starts at 3:02.

➝ Some thoughts about musings about making things for the web.

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➝ We're all scared: wise words from Hank Green. (And more here.)

➝ Marina Warner on The Bloody Chamber (via Susan):

Angela Carter made an inspired, marvelous move, for which so many other writers as well as readers will always be indebted to her: she refused to join in rejecting or denouncing fairy tales, but instead embraced the whole stigmatized genre, its stock characters and well-known plots, and with wonderful verve and invention, perverse grace and wicked fun, soaked them in a new fiery liquor that brought them leaping back to life.

♥


➝ Josie Leavitt asks, "if adults won't read across gender lines, how are we supposed to get kids to?"

So, here's what I want folks to think about during the holidays as they buy books. Get one person, be it a kid or an adult, a book that is not a book thought of for their gender. Because here's the thing: a good book is a good book. My brother loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle as much as I did, and I loved The Great Brain just as much as he did. And if my mom had steered us away from those books, we both would have missed out.

➝ What's that you were saying about the Internet being too nice, random dude? Um.

➝ This is awesome and so useful. I have a feeling I'll be linking to it a lot in the future.

➝ Deborah Cameron reviews Deep Secrets and "considers the harm that our current constructions of masculinity do to men" (via Clare):

Way's lack of clarity on this point reflects a general problem with the strand of feminist gender critique to which Deep Secrets belongs. The analysis focuses on the harm that our current constructions of masculinity do to men and, on that basis, it is argued or implied that the feminist project of dismantling patriarchy and reconstructing gender is as much in men's interests as in women's. It is an idea many liberals find appealing, since it suggests that we are all on the same side: in the struggle for gender justice there will be no losers, but only winners.

I wish I could believe that, but in fact I think it is naive. Undoubtedly, as Way comments, "manhood comes with serious costs" and she does an excellent job of showing how high a price her adolescent subjects pay for it. But what she fails to consider is that it also comes with benefits: the power and privilege that men derive from their position of dominance over women. If we accept her point that there is resistance to the cultural codes of masculinity among younger teenage boys, then we must surely also allow that when they ultimately embrace those codes (as Way finds that most do, with whatever degree of ambivalence), this is not just a passive surrender to the inevitable, but must also at some level reflect their recognition that manhood has its rewards.

This is a really good point. While I do think that men will in many ways benefit from a more fluid understanding of masculinity and know many individual men who are all for it, the loss of privilege that comes with challenging the current status quo is very much real, and we need to keep this in mind if we want to understand why feminism finds so much resistance. Last year I wrote about this briefly for the Feminist Classics blog, and look and behold how the comments illustrated my point. (PS: Have I mentioned lately that I love Deborah Cameron?)

➝ The music blog I am Fuel, You Are Friends celebrates its seventh anniversary, and Heather Browne reflects on how the experience of blogging has changed her relationship with music. I found it fascinating to compare and contrast this post with what those of us who write about other media (mainly books in our case) have experienced.

➝ I love this piece by Sarah McCarry (aka The Rejectionist) on Elizabeth Hand.

➝ Finally, in Things I'm Thinking About, Liz B considered the recent LA Review of Books "YA Fiction and the End of Boys" article in a far more measured way than I was able to. I'm not linking to it because it quotes from our own Gender Balance in YA Award Winners piece, but because it raises some very interesting questions about the way YA is expected to provide "role models" in a way adult fiction isn't. For more on this, see Jason's excellent post.

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➝ 'Please Stop Telling Me This Story' is Amy's much less expletively titled reply to my recent post, '5 things I would like to get the hell out of my media'. I love posts that form a dialogue, so I'm super excited that she took the time to explain which story trope is bugging her right now.

➝ The Church of England narrowly voted against allowing women to become bishops. And oh, by the way:

If you think the CofE's decision to have no women bishops doesn't affect you, don't forget that 26 bishops get seats in the House of Lords.— James Wallis (@JamesWallis) November 20, 2012

Ok, did not know that! That seems kind of messed up tbh.

➝ Maureen Johnson explains the plot of 'Taken 2'. *snort* I enjoyed 'Taken' (there's a fight scene on a boat - cool) but oh my life, this sequel is more unnecessary than that 'Huntsman' thing that is apparently still happening.

➝ Malinda Lo has '10 thoughts on 'Breaking Dawn: Part Two', which I whole-heartedly agree with, especially:

'Anyway a lot of the reviews I've read of the Twilight movies criticize Stewart for her wooden, unexpressive acting. I must not be watching the same movies, because for some reason I've never felt her acting was wooden or unexpressive.'

I seriously think Stewart's style of acting is perfectly suited to Bella's character and that she is different in that role than she is in other films. She also put some serious personality into a role that could easily have been lifeless (yeah, book Bella is not my favourite character).

➝ Lydia pony is perfect. I love Lizzie and Jane, but Lydia has crept up to become my favourite Bennet sister in 'The Lizzie Bennet Diaries'. And why did no one tell me there was a whole tumblr dedicated to celebrity ponies?

➝ And finishing with a Spike gif that hit me right in the feels. It may hurt even if you're not a Spike fan.

Comments

[nymeth]

The 3.15am panel on The Oatmeal comic = MY LIFE. Like, the other day I couldn't sleep and wrote like 3 entire posts in my head. And they were good! Or my sleep-deprived brain thought so, anyway. I FINALLY started getting sleepy at around the time I was contemplating getting up, turning the computer on, and actually writing them down :|

[bookgazing]

Yeah expect thoughts on the updating schedule bit of that comic to appear in my LB goals thing.

[renay]

This comic gave everyone so many feels!

[renay]

This is what I use my smartphone for now. Have idea, type into Note, save. Although it's a crapshoot as to whether or not what I type makes any logical sense when I read it later.

[bookgazing]

I really like the logical fallacy resource :)