Today's post is long and somewhat roughly stitched.
After the jump, you will find a delightful StarTrek poster, more gushing about galactic suburbia and some lamentation about the perennial feminism 101 discussions to which we circle back.
Just after complaining that I don't commute enough, there I was today, driving down this state's crazy, reckless freeways, listening to my favorite podcast, when I saw this:
I nearly pulled over and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was really seeing this and not receiving secret messages from a wayward freeway billboard. But, of course, when you're trying to stay alive despite teenagers who don't know the traffic rules and old men who won't follow them, slowing down - or rubbing one's eyes - is highly inadvisable. Ergo, I kept on keeping on till I got home and to the Internetz which has all the answers. Apparently, this campaign is aimed at encouraging "baby boomers to do more of their paperwork online" (the story and image are from here)
If you have ever had any doubts about the weirdness of seeing a science fiction-y poster while listening to Galactic Suburbia, put them out of your mind rightaway. It's bloody weird.
More Gushing About the Galactic Suburbia Podcast
I love the format of the podcast and the dynamic between the three gorgeous women. Their discussions make me think about my own position as a female SF/F reader. The podcast has made me think about women writers that I read (and about including more) and about the ways in which I respond to male and female characters in books and on television. I love the challenges that they prompt (reading female authors for a year / reading minority authors for a year).
Listening to an Australian genre podcast also makes me increasingly conscious of being South-Asian-in-a-non-Asian-world. I keep thinking of how out of touch I am with South Asian SF/F (in the sense that I've read so little and that I have almost no idea of what's going on in that space in South Asia). I get a bit from reading Aishwarya S. but that's hardly enough, init?*
I also absolutely dig their "Culture We've Consumed" section. Although it's made my to-do list infinitely longer, I've come to treat each of their personal lists as super-awesome, crunchy recommendations for my reading / viewing list. Some of these will show up on my Booklist for 2012 - but at this point, a shout-out also to Twelfth Planet Press whose Above/Below (Stephanie Campisi / Ben Peek) is still on my reading list**
Ooh, vocab - two new words I've added thanks to GS: "crunchy" and "spoilerific" - such useful terms.
To actually hear these words in a sentence, or simply to listen to wonderful, wonderful conversation - go listen to Galactic Suburbia. (The good news is that you only have to wait a fortnight between podcasts - and this, I love.)
Feminism 101 - The pain of circling back to these discussions
A couple of months ago, I said to a friend, "Blah, blah....you know this, you're a feminist... blah blah".
He grinned and said "wait, is that a compliment?"
"Hells yeah, it is" I said and we spoke at length about how often the word feminist is quickly and dismissively equated with man-hating-bitch.
I start here because I'm constantly appalled by how much of women's rights / women's concerns / women's issues stuff is basic, really basic, stuff about Equality.
First, I might have said this before but, if you find yourself saying: "I'm not a feminist, I just believe that men and women should have equal rights" - know that that is bullshit. If you really believe*** that men and women have the right to equal rights, you are a fucking feminist. Stop with the dismissive dissociation.
(Okay yes, I'm collapsing a lot of racial, geographical, economic variations into one thing when I say feminisim. But, even all that included, the point I'm trying to make remains valid, I think.)
Second, this section of my post is, atleast in part, triggered by simbly bored's last two posts: one, on wanting a male child and the other on the demands made on a woman in a good-but-traditional Indian household. My first thought is: "Are we back at this again? Really?" I'm not trying to trivialize the seriousness of the issue at hand - but all I'm saying is that I'm appalled by how often we come back to these questions.
I'm a woman. I have a woman's experiences. I've fought the fight about clothes, about gender roles, about marriage. And I'm saying this with that authority - Women have the right to choice. Women have the right to basic dignity. And Women have the same right as men to live.
All I'm saying is that we have to move beyond the question of the validity of these claims to the question of affecting change. But, how?
(Yes, biological differences etc. But that's Derailing - go read http://derailingfordummies.com/)
This merits a larger post, which shall be up soon.
* The South Asian
** I've had the book(s) since last May, but haven't gotten around to the books yet.
*** And think carefully about what you're saying when you say this
After the jump, you will find a delightful StarTrek poster, more gushing about galactic suburbia and some lamentation about the perennial feminism 101 discussions to which we circle back.
Just after complaining that I don't commute enough, there I was today, driving down this state's crazy, reckless freeways, listening to my favorite podcast, when I saw this:
I nearly pulled over and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was really seeing this and not receiving secret messages from a wayward freeway billboard. But, of course, when you're trying to stay alive despite teenagers who don't know the traffic rules and old men who won't follow them, slowing down - or rubbing one's eyes - is highly inadvisable. Ergo, I kept on keeping on till I got home and to the Internetz which has all the answers. Apparently, this campaign is aimed at encouraging "baby boomers to do more of their paperwork online" (the story and image are from here)
If you have ever had any doubts about the weirdness of seeing a science fiction-y poster while listening to Galactic Suburbia, put them out of your mind rightaway. It's bloody weird.
More Gushing About the Galactic Suburbia Podcast
I love the format of the podcast and the dynamic between the three gorgeous women. Their discussions make me think about my own position as a female SF/F reader. The podcast has made me think about women writers that I read (and about including more) and about the ways in which I respond to male and female characters in books and on television. I love the challenges that they prompt (reading female authors for a year / reading minority authors for a year).
Listening to an Australian genre podcast also makes me increasingly conscious of being South-Asian-in-a-non-Asian-world. I keep thinking of how out of touch I am with South Asian SF/F (in the sense that I've read so little and that I have almost no idea of what's going on in that space in South Asia). I get a bit from reading Aishwarya S. but that's hardly enough, init?*
I also absolutely dig their "Culture We've Consumed" section. Although it's made my to-do list infinitely longer, I've come to treat each of their personal lists as super-awesome, crunchy recommendations for my reading / viewing list. Some of these will show up on my Booklist for 2012 - but at this point, a shout-out also to Twelfth Planet Press whose Above/Below (Stephanie Campisi / Ben Peek) is still on my reading list**
Ooh, vocab - two new words I've added thanks to GS: "crunchy" and "spoilerific" - such useful terms.
To actually hear these words in a sentence, or simply to listen to wonderful, wonderful conversation - go listen to Galactic Suburbia. (The good news is that you only have to wait a fortnight between podcasts - and this, I love.)
Feminism 101 - The pain of circling back to these discussions
A couple of months ago, I said to a friend, "Blah, blah....you know this, you're a feminist... blah blah".
He grinned and said "wait, is that a compliment?"
"Hells yeah, it is" I said and we spoke at length about how often the word feminist is quickly and dismissively equated with man-hating-bitch.
I start here because I'm constantly appalled by how much of women's rights / women's concerns / women's issues stuff is basic, really basic, stuff about Equality.
First, I might have said this before but, if you find yourself saying: "I'm not a feminist, I just believe that men and women should have equal rights" - know that that is bullshit. If you really believe*** that men and women have the right to equal rights, you are a fucking feminist. Stop with the dismissive dissociation.
(Okay yes, I'm collapsing a lot of racial, geographical, economic variations into one thing when I say feminisim. But, even all that included, the point I'm trying to make remains valid, I think.)
Second, this section of my post is, atleast in part, triggered by simbly bored's last two posts: one, on wanting a male child and the other on the demands made on a woman in a good-but-traditional Indian household. My first thought is: "Are we back at this again? Really?" I'm not trying to trivialize the seriousness of the issue at hand - but all I'm saying is that I'm appalled by how often we come back to these questions.
I'm a woman. I have a woman's experiences. I've fought the fight about clothes, about gender roles, about marriage. And I'm saying this with that authority - Women have the right to choice. Women have the right to basic dignity. And Women have the same right as men to live.
All I'm saying is that we have to move beyond the question of the validity of these claims to the question of affecting change. But, how?
(Yes, biological differences etc. But that's Derailing - go read http://derailingfordummies.com/)
This merits a larger post, which shall be up soon.
* The South Asian
** I've had the book(s) since last May, but haven't gotten around to the books yet.
*** And think carefully about what you're saying when you say this
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