It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
I don’t have much new to say, because the focus of this blog has always been 101 topics, and the fundamentals of Feminism 101 remain the same as they were when this blog began, and there are many other sites where one can find readings to guide one’s feminist journey further.
People still keep contacting me however, and not just the ubiquitous guest-post-spammers who claim to have been reading this blog forever and then within a few sentences reveal that claim as a great big lie. Some of you really want to see more action here again. But I’m just not sure that I have anything new to say within the constraints of what this blog was always meant to focus on.
I’ve decided therefore that I’ll experiment with monthly Open Threads for a while and see what you all come up with. Ideally I’d like to see:
- links to recent posts/articles that relate to topics covered by the FAQs here (and the best links might even be added to the Further Reading Lists on some of those FAQs);
- mentions of current events that illustrate examples relevant to the FAQs here;
- links to posts/articles covering beyond-101 topics, as matters of general feminist/womanist interest;
- recommendations on people/hashtags to follow on Twitter etc;
- shameless self promotion of events, new blogs, new projects etc but keep it on-topic – feminist/womanist/intersectional and progressive;
- let me know about any dead links on the older posts, and I’ll see if I can find a cached/archived version and update the link.
As a courtesy to other readers, please include content notes for any NSFW content or content that would be rated PG+ if it was part of a movie or would be prefaced with a “may be distressing for some viewers” disclaimer on the TV news. This is so that others may make an informed choice on an appropriate time and place for reading such content.
All comments will go to the moderation queue, and the queue will be attended to in chunks in two or three modding sessions daily rather than dealt with as items arrive. So please have patience – so long as you abide by the comments policy your comment will eventually appear. If you don’t abide by the comments policy your comment may still appear in a redacted form, with all redactions noted as such for transparency.
Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog 
BTW, I just released a few comments and backtracks that had been hanging in moderation for months. My apologies to those affected, there must have been some breakdown in the notification system. I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Shameless self-promotion:
I started a blog a few months ago because I was really tired of how bro-dominated most discussions of speculative fiction seem to be; how alienating the science fiction/fantasy section of bookstores often are for ladies; how much more marketing support male authors tend to receive for their books; etc. Not to mention how often I hear people say that they don’t read women authors because women just don’t write SF/F…
And being a ladygeek that reads predominantly female authors, I’d been looking for a resource like this for ages, so I created one. I review SF/F novels written by women, discuss intersectional feminism within genre fiction, talk diversity in speculative fiction — both diversity of authors, e.g. LGBT and PoC writers, and diversity within the text, such as diversity in characters and settings.
Folks who aren’t SF/F fans probably wouldn’t find much of interest here, but for anyone who’s interested in a feminist speculative fiction blog:
manicpixiedreamworlds.wordpress.com/
Talking women who write SF, this was a great post from N K Jemisin: Confirmation bias, epic fantasy, and you
Chime!
I’m a nice guy that can’t get a date because I’m too fat.
well that sucks. i’m a sometimes nice lady that can’t get a date for a variety of reasons. it sucks.
Some recommended reading:
John Scalzi lays out the 101 on why the defensive “but not all P are Qists” argument functions as just another silencing tactic whether one means it that way or not, and notes how falling back on it blocks one’s ethical self-examination of how one benefits from the status quo: The Four Levels of Discrimination (and You) (and Me, Too).
Soraya Chemaly’s post at Role/Reboot on 10 major everyday sexisms that many people don’t even notice is a great introduction to ambient sexism.
P.S. Both are discussing some of the issues I raised back in 2009 with On unexamined privileges and unconscious behaviours, where I reference Peggy McIntosh: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack and Andrea Rubenstein (tekanji): “Check my what?” On privilege and what we can do about it. This is not a new set of thoughts by any means, but it’s a good discussion to keep on having, because if we don’t, those lurking ambient/unconscious/unexamined/everyday attitudes keep festering away unchecked.