just links today

[sofiaviolet]

Links

• Designing a legacy: Celebrated African-American architectural team helped shape city

  Their designs are part of the fabric of Boston — they can be seen in the new police headquarters, the Ruggles T station, Roxbury Community College, the Southwest Corridor.
  
  But there is much more to the 40-year legacy of Donald Stull and David Lee, nationally praised and one of the first African-American architectural teams in the country.

• brownbetty: Black Canary icon used not without grim humour

  Most of my issues with my body and its meaning to me and society have to do with weight. ( The following may be triggering for those with EDs )

• Sociological Images: Not Thinking About Race: Accidentally Illustrating Evil With Skin Color

  I think this is likely a case in which the producers of the image did not think. And not thinking is one of the most insidious ways that racism and other bigotries get reproduced. People who don’t think about race are the most likely to endorse racial stereotypes. When people who think about race are distracted — with another task, or loud music, or some other intervening stimulus — they are more likely to think stereotypically than when they are not distracted. We can’t be colorblind. Our unconscious is steeped in racial meanings. Consciously fighting those associations is the only way to be less racist.

• pinesandmaples: Cover those ankles!

  It has occurred to me that I wear tights a lot, and I dabble in awesome tights so I have a lot of experience with tights. A lot more than most people, it would seem.

• A Modern Hypatia: Link post: August 27, 2010

  The search that brought this home to me was comparing the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia a couple of years ago (right around the time The Other Boleyn Girl movie came out) on the subject of Anne Boleyn – scarcely a minor figure. The Britannica version was 500 words, didn’t mention most of her family by name, didn’t give any background on a number of topics – her brother and sister, her interest in religion and philosophy, background issues and politics of the time.

• via azurelunatic: 20 Hilarious Google Voice Transcription Bloopers, Flubs, and Fails


• festivids


• Sociological Images: Guest Post: Racial Violence in the Aftermath of Katrina

  Please welcome Guest Blogger, Caroline Heldman, PhD. Heldman is an Associate Professor of Politics at Occidental College. The week after Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Helman drove to New Orleans to assist with rescue and relief efforts. She later co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter and continues to work on rebuilding efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward. Below is a post, excerpted from a much longer update on the Katrina tragedy, about the Agliers massacre.
  
  ———————————
  
  Trigger warning: racial violence and racist language.

• via shadesong: Repost: Reality Check

  Never let anyone tell you that you are not a real woman. NEVER. Not even another woman who seems wiser or more worldly or prouder or louder or prettier or sexier or stronger than you. No one can take your realness from you.

• viklikesfic: Kink Bingo: Copious

  kink_bingo prompt: bodily secretions
  Summary: Gaila's happy to serve as Nyota's sexual homework assignment.

Plans

Scissor Sisters concert with Ellie.

Comments

[dingsi]

Huh. That "REAL WOMEN" blog post seems awfully cis-centric. The sentence part that some women had their breasts augmented could be interpreted to include trans women, but the part about menstruation only mentions women who either just had their first period or are past menopause. I find the post beautiful in every other way, but this detail bugs me.

[sofiaviolet]

You're right about that. Certainly, the implied scope of the piece means that trans women should be included.

Which forces me to narrow my reading, from "this is a post about policing women" to "this is a post about policing women who face relatively little risk of being ejected from the Woman category," from "Who counts? Everyone!" to "Doing It Wrong? No, everyone* is Doing It Right!"

Cis women can pretty much count on being considered women, even if they are then judged to be Doing It Wrong. Trans women can't count on that; they'll face scrutiny of their identity first, and then, only if they pass that test, will they be judged as women.

* Where "everyone" means "cis women."

[dingsi]

*nods* Exactly. It's quite sad, because the post has such a healing impact for many (as evident in the comments) and trans women are, again, being cut off from that and denied empowerment.
(I just posted a comment and now I feel a bit startled by my own courage. I find commenting on blogs to be surprisingly difficult.)

[sofiaviolet]

Yeah. :(

I also don't like commenting on blogs - I think, because I grew up in journal culture, I am really attached to the conversation model arising from threaded comments.

[dingsi]

Yes! It's a small thing, but I find it somewhat disconcerting, switching from threaded to non-threaded comments isn't easy for me. (And even when they're threaded, like it's now possible on WordPress, the threading is cut off way earlier than on journaling sites.)
Also, for some reason blogs feel less private to me and as a result I feel more vulnerable outside DW. I'm not sure if that's because most blogs permit search engines to index the content (which in my experience journalers allow less often) or if it's just a matter of a different community and the lack of a flist/dwircle equivalent.

[sofiaviolet]

For me, it's more about the community thing than privacy. I can click on even an unfamiliar username and see a journal or profile page whose format will make some kind of sense to me; I'm not guaranteed that on a blog.

[pinesandmaples]

I'm pretty sure I was asleep when I wrote the intro to that post. But thank you for linking it! I love being a tights evangelist.

[sofiaviolet]

You're welcome! It was very useful to me, even if I did load up my cart at Sock Dreams only to realize I got a puny paycheck this week and anyway, I need to pay bills first.