On the Birds and the Bees

This is a cute article about how Hollywood gets it wrong yet again. This time with the world of insects and how, well, the social ones are really all female. I mean, must we anthropomorphize even our sexist gender assumptions?
via Feministing

Legacy, by Kerrigan Valentine

Hello world!

Kerrigan is having her first book published! Hooray! Publication date is May 18, 2007. You can get more info at the following links: Creatrix Books and Kerrigan’s new website!
(much credit and kudos to Chris as creator and webmaster of aforementioned new website!)

Real Beauty

It is true that the “women” you see in fashion magazines don’t truly exist. Even Cindy Crawford has said “even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.” Now you can watch the evolution from reality to fantasy. I had to watch it twice.

First Female Space Tourist Blasts Off

From AOL News:
An Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur took off Monday on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, achieving her dream of becoming the the world’s first paying female space tourist.
Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari paid a reported $20 million to become the fourth private astronaut to take a trip on a Russian spacecraft [...]

Giving Weight to Childhood Baggage

Families Weight Comments May Harm Girls for Years is the title of the article. This may seem obvious, but I sure wish someone had pointed that out to my parents. You know, diet programs at age eleven are 1) never a very good idea and 2) really hard on one’s self esteem, [...]

seeing the world from both sides

This article from the San Jose Mercury News, Seeing the World from Both Sides, is worth a read:
When a Stanford University neurobiologist made a case this week that discrimination, not genetics, keeps women out of science, his comments carried more weight than usual.
Ben A. Barres spent most of his life — and his career as [...]

Sex is essential, kids aren’t - Los Angeles Times

I just read a wonderful opinion piece in the LA Times called Sex is essential, kids aren’t:
When it comes to human behavior, there are actually very few genetic dictates. Our hearts insist on beating, our lungs breathing, our kidneys filtering and so forth, but these internal-organ functions are hardly “behavior” in a meaningful sense. As [...]

now you can use they, and they can use you too

I was just listening to A Way With Words, and I heard something that caught me completely off guard.  I’ve been complaining about gender-neutral singular pronouns for years, hoping that something like ‘ve’ would replace the awkward ‘he or she’ or the patently evil ’s/he’.  Greg Egan aside, nothing ever took off.  It turns out [...]

Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Religion

My ordination sister, Kila, just founded The Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Religion. This foundation will offer scholarships, sponsorships and project funding for women who are working on religious issues (hint, hint Deana!). They are currently looking for members to join the organization to help get it off the ground. [...]