feminist blogs

Facebook is on a roll today. Reader Adrienne alerted us to an ad for a crisis pregnancy center on Facebook, so I decided to do a little more research on the site’s advertisements.

Sure, there’s a range from shoe brands to social justice organizations, but pretty offensive weight loss ads are more common. And then we find the ad for “A Woman’s Concern,” a center that, according to their website, provides a variety of services including “pregnancy testing, ultrasound testing, information on abortion procedures, mentoring…” You can guess what the "information" on abortion is.

Another ad I found was a pitch to recruit egg donors. Not to say that egg donation is necessarily a bad thing, but the egg business has become one of many ethical and political questions. The Center for Genetic and Society, Choice USA and the Pro-Choice Public Education Project have been conducting research on egg donation and reproductive justice, make sure to check it out.

These should serve as a reminder that we need to pay attention to what's being marketed to young women online. In the meantime, Facebook may not strictly moderate their ads, but you can; report an ad you think is offensive. And as a first step, let’s get deceptive CPC advertising off of Facebook.

(And join our Feministing group!)

That’s right, I said scrubbing. Scrubbing sweat off of underage boys in a locker room. It’s central part of a new game for the Nintendo DS called Duel Love, in which you play a female transfer student who ends up as the personal trainer for a secret “Fight Club” at her new high school. That’s right, the companies that brought you Pac-Man, Tekken, Power Rangers, Tamagotchi and many more now bring you… scrubbing down sweaty boys and giving them massages!

Romance comics for girls, often featuring delicate, beautiful boys who fall in love with the plucky or cipher-like heroine — or, just as often, fall in love with each other — are nothing new in Japan. It used to be that you could pretend this was just another Or in the United States; check the Manga section of your local Barnes & Noble. Dating games based in similar scenarios (often called otome, the Japanese word for maiden) are nothing new either, but they’re getting to be bigger and bigger-budget projects. And utilizing new technology as well… as you can see in the trailer below, you have to actually scrub back and forth with the Nintendo DS styles, and here’s a picture instructing the player to blow into the microphone to clear away the steamed-up shower stalls. Why, whatever on earth for?

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Amanda’s right: I think we can all agree on this feminist icon.

And I hope that someday, someone describes me as “A strong female protagonist unafraid to eat constantly, kick ass and look good.”

The New York Times had an article yesterday about the rise of teen girl bloggers, which is great news. But it doesn't come without some predictable stereotyping.

According to a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 20 percent of boys blog, compared to 35 percent of girls aged 12 to 17. Plus that doubled increase in blogging activity from 2004 to 2006 by teens was mostly attributed to female bloggers. Awesome, right?

Yet the article focuses on the lack of girls and women interested in computer science and technology, and seems to argue that girls' interest in blogging is purely to express their own "girly" selves, and that they probably won't contribute much of an increase to the current 27 percent of women in computer and mathematical occupations:

It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.

'Girls are trained to make stories about themselves,' said Pat Gill, the interim director for the Institute for Communications Research and an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

From a young age they learn that they are objects, Professor Gill said, so they learn how to describe themselves. Historically, girls and women have been expected to be social, communal and skilled in decorative arts.

'This would be called the feminization of the Internet,' she said. (Emphasis mine)

And so this build-up continues with the cattiness between blogs by teen girls (equating hotlinking with showing up at a party with the same dress on), or that their content includes mother's day cooking recipes. Of course they happen to leave out that the same site is currently featuring a post on sexual harassment.

Am I saying there's something wrong with the trend of glitter graphics or a primarily pink website for girls? Absolutely not. But saying girls are dominant in blogging because of "cultural expectations" and assuming that the only reason girls like blogs is because they're naturally more "creative" and want to express their feelings seems to moot the amazing fact that not only are teen girls possibly becoming more blog-savvy than boys, but also that they're creating far-reaching online communities. In other words, why should the "why" matter?

Either way, it's awesome to see female teen bloggers kicking ass. Link to your own in comments!

You’ve gotta hand it to the assholes over at Hot Air — just when they couldn’t get any more trite, racist and misogynist, they do.

Thanks to Matt for the link.

According to a recent survey, the wage gap between men and women in the tech industry is growing.

Men are making more money than women in technology jobs, about 12% more than they did last year, according to a salary survey by career site Dice.com.

The survey found that salaries for men increased by 2.4% in 2007 but stayed flat for women. The average salary last year for men was $76,582, and for women, it was $67,507, according to Dice. The gap widened last year: In 2006, the difference between salaries paid to men and women was 9.7%.

The gap was highest for workers in retail, mail order and e-commerce industries - where men make 15 percent more than women. Yikes.

Anyone in the tech industry want to weigh in?

“Drummer girls are hot.” It should almost be cliche now, or one would hope. There have been quite a few female drummer role models around for years now: Kate Shellenbach, Meg White, Claudia Gonson and the 9-year old Rachel Trachtenburg all spring to mind, not to mention the classic heartthrob that made me gasp “whoa…. she is sooooo coool” when I was 11:

I’d like to assume that the macho rock days are mostly gone, but it wasn’t too long ago that a percussion-pounding lady I used to date would constantly get stopped at the door because bouncers on the Lower East Side didn’t believe she was the drummer in a band with four guys. Sadly, I’m sure those attitudes still persist in some circles. So… I actually don’t have any exciting media links to share with you about women being stereotyped as bass players or otherwise dismissed in the music industry. I mostly wanted to talk about Rock Band, the fantasy make-believe land where I’ve been playing a lot of drums lately, and generally pretending to be Watts. (I looked it up, and Watts has no first name! Nice.)
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w00t! Wait a second… the Merriam-Webster word of the year is w00t?

Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to ”w00t.”

”W00t,” a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher’s online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.

Right. OK, so I play a lot of online games–and have since the early 90s, which is when I remember first seeing people type “w00t!” after something good happened in the game. And I realize this whole “word of the year” thing is not much more a press-release opportunity anyway, based on an online poll; last year’s word was Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a whole bunch of gamers mobilized to vote for “w00t.” But as frivolous as it is, the news coverage kind of makes me cringe. It’s halfway to suggesting that “w00t” should actually be in the dictionary, which would make me bury my face in my hands.

I mean… I really love the fact that languages are living, evolving entities that change over time. I even wrote papers on diachronic linguistics and online language patterns when I was in school, and I’m one of those rare people who doesn’t think “ebonics” is a ridiculous or morally bankrupt idea at all. I’ve never been part of the William Safire school of thought that we ought to turn up our nose at incorrect usage and raise an eyebrow in a genteel manner at new words that might not stick around.

Still, though… w00t? Come on. I’ve said it myself any number of times, but it’s not even that great of a slang term. I suppose I wouldn’t have put pfft in the dictionary either, and apparently that’s in there. (Well… I would have defined it as “2. An interjection used to express disdain or dismissal.”) Maybe I’m just getting all twitchy at the thought of l33t speak words, all mixed up numbers and letters and punctuation, finding their way into the dictionary? Maybe I’m just remembering all the annoying gamer dudes yelling that while greedily scooping up their latest helm or gauntlets or gigantic sword or whatever. And maybe I’m just getting old and boring!

I did find this very amusing post on the origins of w00t–the comments are especially entertaining. (If you are a huge nerd.) For the record, I’m definitely with the people arguing that the current usage originated in hacker culture, spread via UNIX and early text-based online games (of which there are few if any written records), and then maybe gained wider currency and broader meanings after “Whoot! There It Is” became a popular refrain.

Feministing has always been a leader for the feminist blogs, and they seem to have out-done themselves again: They’re turning into a community site with diaries, blogs, personal profiles, and much more. If you have some extra cash to spare, you may want to consider throwing it their way, as these upgrades don’t come cheap.

Big congrats to the Feministing ladies for these new developments. And as always, thanks for paving the way!

Tiara included!

We should be excited that there's a new book coming out specifically reaching out to young female gamers, but not with this cover and pitch:

Do you want to take on the boy's at their own game and beat them every single time? You want to prove that games AREN'T just for the guys anymore! Are you, your daughter, your niece or your best friend a Nintendo DS or DS Lite girl gamer? Tired of other gaming publications ignoring all your favourite games in favour of the latest big boy's toys? So you want all the latest gaming gossip and the hottest hints and tips especially written for you? So do we, and its about time. The Girl's Guide To Gaming! is the must have accessory for all Nintendo DS and DS Lite gaming girls, just like you. (Emphasis mine.)

It doesn't get much worse than this.