Five years ago today, Dr. George Tiller was murdered. In my family’s church in Wichita, the church we’d been members of since…’92? Something like that. Before they moved into the newly built church at 13th and Rock, back when it was a smaller building on Kellogg next to Hooter’s. My […]
Read MoreWhy #WeNeedDiverseBooks
Or, why good storytelling requires good representation: When the story doesn’t contain the “why,” the audience looks to the author. Let me back up. Writers are often advised to “write what you know.” That’s good advice, because you can’t write believably about what you don’t know. However, authors who took […]
Read MoreHow to be the creepiest nerd at the beach
Saw this in my email newsletter from Think Geek this morning, and…I had thoughts: Main thought: This is creepy The thing that creeped me out about it most is that it suggests that Princess Leia is wearing a bikini on purpose because she wants to lie on the beach and […]
Read MoreRambling diatribe about atheism, politics, and the word “secular”
I don’t know American Atheists president David Silverman, but he strikes me as kind of a brash guy. The kind of person who thinks that atheist activism means pissing off religious people, and if you haven’t succeeded in that then you’re doing it wrong. But apparently he’s now trying to […]
Read MoreTropey criticisms of Tropes vs. Women
I am a blogger but not a vlogger, and the video below might be a good reason why. I decided to make a video reply to Ashley Paramore aka healthyaddict on Youtube regarding her criticisms of Anita Sarkeesian’s video series Tropes vs. Women (sexism in video games, yanno). Ashley’s video […]
Read MorePrude vs. Feminist: A field guide
Obligatory disclaimer: This is a comic. It includes generalizations. Obviously there is significant variation among both prudes and feminists, and occasionally overlap between them. I have, though, quite frequently seen the two confused. And I decided that “sex positive” and “sex negative” don’t do enough to describe the difference between […]
Read MoreFeminism and male rape
Last night I made the worst decision ever about what to read right before bed: an article in the Guardian entitled The rape of men, on the practice of male-on-male rape as a weapon of war in Uganda. I think you should read it. I think everyone should read it, […]
Read MoreThe Revenge of the Nerds trope
Pictured: Nerd revenge First, a disclaimer: I’ve not seen a single episode of Big Bang Theory. I did, however, read an article about it entitled Why Geek Girls Are Tired of ‘Big Bang’ Bullshit, and contains a lot of complaints about sexism on the show. One of them in particular […]
Read MoreCanon fodder
The cocktail waitresses of Star Trek (2009) So I was watching the 2009 film Star Trek, which annoyingly has no subtitle. No Nemesis, no Insurrection, no Into Darkness, no Into the Woods, nothing. So it will forever be known, to me at least, as “the 2009 Star Trek,” which is unfortunate […]
Read MoreThe miseducation of Katelyn Campbell
Katelyn Campbell Recently in West Virginia, a teenager objected to a particularly obviously problematic form of abstinence-only education. Wait, let me rephrase that– “Lying, slut-shaming diatribe” would be a better name for it. And the teenager in question, Katelyn Campbell, knew that’s what it was. She even used the word “slut-shaming,” […]
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