sorry, this ended up being longer than intended, so I broke it down

the appearance of women

‚Ä¢ I personally flip flop between long, flowing and very short (it’s easier, but colder). The closest I came to actually shaving my head was when I traveled to Africa. One of my sisters flip flops between mid-shoulder length and waist-length. When she gets it cut, she sends it to Locks of Love. She once told me that “hair is the crown of a woman”, which caused my office mate to remark that, if she didn’t know better, she’d think my sisters were Muslim. In short, I respect the women noted in this article for shaving their heads. I’ve been close to it but never actually pulled it off. I think their choices underscore the women-as-ornaments mentality of much of society.

• Singing the Body Politic

‚Ä¢ As someone who hopes to rise to a high-powered position and likes equally the rocking of the miniskirt and of the powersuit looks, I’m with all the people who declare that we should stop talking about high-profile women in terms of what they recently wore.

‚Ä¢ forgetting for the moment that even the worst dressed look better than I do when I’m at my best, I must point out that only two man counted as “best” dressed (and from what I could tell, they wore what most of the other men wore…), why did it only occur to me that the Sexist Man to Ever Portray Truman Capote looked like he hadn’t seen this side of a mirror in over three days?

Comparative Gender Studies

same Oscar links as above, because it belongs in both categories

• More folks against pink.

‚Ä¢ a recent study, 6e3k v. chiX0r [pdf link] concludes that, “overall men and women do not differ significantly in their abilities to find various types of information online. However, we do find that women are much more likely to shortchange themselves when it comes to self-perception of their online skills. The gender effects appear to be significant with respect to self-perceived skill levels.” Which can be translated into “for the love of her future, teach your daughter how to type and surf!” if not to code.

• The imbalance of care-giving roles within families. An excerpt:

The word ‘choice’ has been used…as a euphemism for unpaid labor, with no job security, no health or vacation benefits and no retirement plans. No wonder men are not clamoring for this ‘choice.’ Many jobs in the workplace also involve drudgery, but do not leave one financially dependent on another person.

• scrota and vaginas

‚Ä¢ would this have been a headline if she’d been his son? Incidentally, kudos to him for imposing the same restrictions on his son, but you don’t find that out until the end of the article.

family

‚Ä¢ Jana’s post on Sunstone about passing on misogyny.

• My husband and I are committed to having this role in the world. If anyone with children wants us to be such for their kids, just let us know I had a crazy aunt, and still love her. Some of my best memories are of minigolf and bumperboats (best thing, ever) with her. Which reminds me, I should take my neph out for laser tag, muahaha.

abortion

• A good argument for abortion rights redefining moral neutrality.

• Changing science, changing law.

religion & politics

it’s really distressing to me that that’s one category…

• the UK watches US republicans talk their way back into the hearts of the far right.

‚Ä¢ Alert the Vatican! “Guilt” is now classified as emotional harm. Oh, the money I could make on a suit…

• In defense of fundamentalist atheism.

• About time someone said it. BTW, can anyone explain to me why Israel is untouchable?

• Then and now at Get Religion.

• Spreading the love for Ann Telnaes

songs

• I love this song, personally, so I shall subject you to its video. Lyrics can be toggled: We are free-roving bovine. We run free, today.

• am I a bad person for liking Bobby Brown by Frank Zappa? [explicit lyrics]