Sunday Linkfest!

[jhameia]

So! It's been a very sort-of eventful week for me! So I haven't really been doing as much reading / writing as I would have liked. I will be cutting my hair next weekend! And I shopped a little yesterday.

Some Acting Out Editions:
My Father's Day tribute to my dad. Read if you want to know more about him. I should post a picture someday to show you.
Some more steampunking, this time with ruminations on Oscar Wilde. Yes, I am so irrecoverably nerdy.
My tribute to David Eddings. It's not as clean as I would like it to be, and it's not everything I would like to have said, but I was kinda carried away with nostalgia.
I wonder about the stereotypes about Chinese (or rather, Asians) being money-minded.
I didn't like Immanuel Kant then, and I think I still don't like him now.
OK, you know how sometimes people say, "this is just a fantasy story in a scifi setting" or vice versa? That really got me thinking. Admittedly, it's not that hard to get me started on that.
A review of Tariq Ali's Islam Quintet. If you're looking for good summer reading of believably human characters, this is The Series.


At Shakesville:

Congratulations, twice_immigrant, on becoming a full-time contributor to Shakesville!
Melissa on the phenomenon that "one woman is bad, but women are awful", exploring the whole idea that women can't ever be just friends, but always frenemies. I don't think my girl friends are frenemies, do you think yours are?
Nice stuff about Antonio Banderas.
Memo: Abortion does not cause cancer. Just in case you haven't gotten it yet.

At Racialicious:
If you haven't read my essay on the Intersection of Race and Steampunk yet, you might want to to see what's been eating my attention for the past week. Thanks, dmp for the beta-reading!
Shaun Majumder will host a new show: "The Ethnic Comedy Show", which should sound awesome (to be fair, it's Shaun Majumder, so it probably is), but the word "ethnic" being thrown around like this is kinda weird.
If you've been watching CNN news (which I haven't), you'd know about Neda Agha Soltani, a young Iranian woman who was gunned down during political protests in Tehran. Tami writes about how her death is portrayed, rather... questionably, in Western media.
Open thread on Chris Brown, Rihanna, and DV In case you're interested, the affadavit for the case was also leaked. And it looks horrible =(
Nicolas Sarkozy is banning the hijab in France. Why this is problematic.
Something closer to home for Malaysians! (And our neighbours) - the phenomenon of Barbie doll pink stuff for tween Muslimahs!

From Feministe:
Awesome link, awesome response. Basically, Swedish parents are keeping the gender of their 2-year-old a secret. They're basically letting their child decide! Isn't that so awesome?! I feel the same way: children shouldn't be forced into a specific gender role, forced gender cues on them just due to their biological sex; they should just grow up without any of these expectations.
Child support - not for women, but for the children. FFS. Women can't win: we can't get support if we choose abortion, we can't get support if we don't.
Discussion on women who marry for money in order to... I dunno, be on par with the men they compete with in their careers?

At Tiger Beatdown, Sady reminds us that we shouldn't forget it when celebrities were douchebags, even as we remember their brilliant artistry.

Hoyden about Town's Lauredhel on people who think proponents of breastfeeding are going too far and demonising formula feeders in due process.

Speaking of dmp helping me with my essay, you should totally read hers, Colonialism in Steampunk, which isn't so race-specific, which probably makes it a more interesting and relevant read for most steampunks out there.

There is nothing funny about outing transpeople. Also contains a helpful glossary of how to refer to transpeople. I never realized I was using stupid terminology myself.

Finally, because I haven't been reading that much (I tried for some Pandagon links, but I just... hadn't read much Pandagon this week), here's Tim Wise talking about the history of white privilege:

Comments

[eiko82.livejournal.com]

Nicolas Sarkozy is banning the hijab in France. Why this is problematic.

"His real hidden agenda relates to protecting the French, and further, European identity, in the wake of rapid immigration from former European colonies."


THIS. That right there is one of the main beefs that I have with Europe. It pisses me off to no end how people are using the headscarf issue to basically hide their own fear of foreigners.

I wouldn't deny that some Muslim women are forced to wear a headscarf. But not all of them are. I'm sure that the majortity of Muslim women in Europe choose to wear one. We should respect their choice just like I expect them to respect my choice not to wear one.

The issue of 'Women wearing a head scarf' has recently hit the Belgian headlines again when a school in Antwerp said that as of next schoolyear, it would no longer allow Muslim students and teachers to wear a head scarf. It said that it was doing so to protect students from being pressured into wearing a headscarf by male students.

I don't see how a heaf scarf ban will solve the problem really. Tackle the problem of group pressure but don't punish every single headscarf-wearing student for the actions of some. Quite frankly, the only results this will have is that it'll push away more female Muslim students from getting an education. The students were only told of this decision NOW when enrollment for schools has practically ended. So they only have 2 months to find a new school if they want to continue wearing their head scarf.
This will result in either girls not getting the education that they want or schools with an overlarge majority of Muslim students which wouldn't improve their chances of integrating into society.
So IMO banning head scarves isn't gonna improve women's rights.

[bijouxdejais.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Tim Wise clip; I think every white person needs to hear this man speak, even if one doesn't agree with him completely.

[dmp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the shout-out and the thank yous. ^_^ Will dive into your links, but in the meantime, I thought you'd appreciate this pic of a interracial lesbian couple and their baby I took while at Dykemarch yesterday. This is what they had on the carriage--