I forgive everyone involved in RaceFail 09 . Perhaps that should be the whole of this post, but I'm not that kind of writer. So: I had thought I was done with RaceFail, but it keeps coming up, and several recent events especially have made me realize that I need to forgive so I can set this burden down and perhaps so others can, too. The realization began with netmouse , who did not deserve...

coffeeandink posted a number of links , which I'm working my way through. One is a talk given by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie . At about minute-two (of a nearly twenty-minute talk) she says: "Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books, by their very nature, had to have foreigners in them. And had to be about things with...

Balls to chronology! Here’re the Aug/Sept reviews I’m done with, and I’ll post the other ones when I finish ‘em. A subset of things I read during August and September: August Maile Meloy – “ Travis, B ” (8/7, short story) Someone linked this. coffeeandink , maybe? It’s good. It feels… old fashioned, somehow. Like something everyone decided was good a long time ago. Steve...

Four random things make a post: 1) At a restaurant there was dish that said it had cucumber with crispy powder. Is that even possible in my idiolect? I am not sure. I think powder can be crunchy. But crispy? I don't know. 2) I lost track of where on my LJ readinglist I saw this delightful video (safe for work unless you are prone to loud bursts of giggling or laughing): 3 cats 1 steak . 3) ...

Tagged by kessie First: If you've been Tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question. Second: Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you. Tagging: lady_ganesh , redshoeson , shes_unreal , veleda_k , wesleysgirl , wolfpilot06 , ...

#22: Cindy Pon, Silver Phoenix Ai Ling is supposed to be getting married, as a good daughter should. But at the dinner that's meant to seal her betrothal, her prospective mother-in-law publicly rejects her, ruining her chances for a good marriage. In order to escape a bad one, Ai Ling journeys to the Emperor's court at the Palace of Fragrant Dreams to seek her father. Along the way, she meets Chen...

You know I'm always promoting the dissolution of most gender roles and differences? Well, that hasn't happened yet, so now I'm going to talk about the world in which we live, in which the female experience varies from the male experience - to different degrees based on numerous factors. In this world, the female experience is lacking a voice in history, art, the media, politics and academia. Women...

(1) repost of Elizabeth Mendez Berry essay "Beyond Gossip, Good and Evil" on domestic violence (and undercutting macho posturing in gangs) (2) cereta 's post "On rape and men (Oh yes, I'm going there)" . There's lots of good stuff in the comments -- including how insulting it is to men is the cultural idea that they "can't control themselves" (e.g., if a woman is "acting slutty" or whatever...

oyceter posted: 2nd Asian Women Carnival: Intra/inter/transnationalities *** The Willow posted about the impending The Princess & The Frog movie and etc. *** gloss linked to something The Willow had said complaining about white people posting with RaceFail or Racism in the Subject Line but then going on to merely navel-gaze and self-congratulate . mona commented : Uh...

(x-posted by request) I just came across Cereta's excellent post on men and rape by way of Coffeeandink's links and post . The first rule of abuse is that we don't name it. And when we have to deal with it, we rename it, we call it something else, point the finger at someone else, or anything else than call it what it is. The abuser renames things because it serves to hide what is being done....