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The Intersex Roadshow: The Phalloclitoris: Anatomy and Ideology

We need to change the language we use. Yes, sexual differentiation of bodies happens. The average person who was assigned male at birth has smaller nipples than the average person who was assigned female at birth. But we call the erectile tip of the areola a "nipple" whatever the sex of the person it adorns. A phalloclitoris is a phalloclitoris, erectile and sensitive--no matter if the person possessing it is deemed male, female, or intersex. In simple terms, some of us are more "outies" and some are more "innies" and some right in between--but we all share the same genital structures. You have a phalloclitoris, and so do I. We are all variations on the same bodily theme, and there is no need to react to intersex bodies with pity or horror.

otw_news: Subscriptions on the AO3! :D

So, we're totally jazzed to announce the alpha version of subscriptions - you can now subscribe to a user and be notified by email whenever they post a new work or chapter. In the future we'll be spiffing this up further - RSS feeds for particular tags are the next thing on our to-do list, and further down the line we hope to include more fine-grained personalisation and more features. But right now, we are EXCITED, because we can finally stop checking user pages obsessively and just lie back and let our favourite authors come to us. HURRAY!

commodorified: Getting Your Legs Out: Spring Deforestation Edition.

Disclaimer: Nobody should ever feel like they have to shave their legs! I don't have any opinions about your legs; I only have opinions about my legs. I've shaved, waxed, grown out, and even bleached my leg hair in my time and at various times liked them all of those ways. This post is not intended to convince you to shave your legs. It is intended to help you avoid shaving five layers of skin off your shins, which I think we can ALL agree is not a great look.

foxfirefey in

style_system: Upcoming style making class syllabus

Okay, folks, I am going to post the Class Intro next Monday; afterwards, class lessons will be posted on Fridays. This is the tentative syllabus and is subject to change--class mentors and potential students, please review and tell me what you think! I focused on giving everyone a lot of breathing room and a leisurely pace, so that people who aren't as familiar with web design have the time to learn and people who are trying to take their skills to the next level have time to explore.

dw_biz: 2010 Year End Update

In summary: 2010 was slower than we'd hoped due to three months of being unable to accept online payments and due to higher fees from the merchant processor we switched to in April of '10, but we came very near to breaking even for the year, and would probably have broken even if it weren't for the entire quarter of downtime. In the end, we only spent about $6,000 more than we took in (not counting taxes, which are paid by Dreamwidth).

jimhines: Fundraising for Rape Crisis Centers Support rape crisis centers and enter to win an advance copy of The Snow Queen’s Shadow, by Jim C. Hines.

A few statistics:

The Sexual Victimization of College Women, Page 10: “Over the course of a college career — which now lasts an average of 5 years — the percentage of completed or attempted rape victimization among women in higher educational institutions might climb to between one-fifth and one-quarter.”

World Health Organization report on Violence Against Women: “In a random sample of 420 women in Toronto, Canada, 40% reported at least one episode of forced sexual intercourse since the age of 16.”

Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, page 3: “1 of 6 U.S. women … experienced an attempted or completed rape.” (14.8% reported completed, 2.8% reported attempted only.)

Boston SlutWalk 2001

Join us on May 7th, 2011 in Boston, MA for the Boston SlutWalk! Starting at Government Centre, we will be walking through and ending at Boston Commons.

We will be affiliating ourselves with SlutWalk Toronto. Check out what they have been doing! http://www.slutwalktoronto.com

the_shoshanna: sex, and slash sex scenes

And then there was slash. Slash was the only genre of literature I had ever found that followed the characters into bed and back out of it; that investigated and demonstrated how the people they were outside of bed were connected to the people they were in bed; that modeled how to be with someone in everyday life, go to bed with them, and then wake up next to them and continue everyday life with them. In slash, "everyday life" wasn't differentiated from "sex life." Who people were outside of bed and during the day critically, obviously, demonstrably influenced how they behaved in bed with each other, and vice versa; but the characters never lost themselves or turned into different (wimpy wispy sappy) people because they had fucked. (Okay, sometimes they did, but those were the bad stories, the ones we mocked.) The two parts of life weren't disjunct; indeed, they were crucially connected, mutually influential, even indivisible. In fact, that indivisibility was often the whole point.