feminism

Given my respect for the field and for its readers and writers, I understand the disappointment with the gender balance of the contents for Eclipse Two. The truth is that under the pressure of needing to deliver and of my other work, I overlooked gender balance as an issue in the closing couple months of preparing Eclipse Two for publication.

Women stop reading serious literature and turn to 'chick-lit' after having children, research suggests. Mothers were shown to swap novels and non- fiction for lighter reads including celebrity autobiographies by the likes of Victoria Beckham and Jordan.

When BPP listener Seth Bate went to his local bookstore to buy our latest selection, The God of Animals, the bookseller said she had enjoyed the book herself, but was surprised that a man would want to read it. We thought Seth's encounter with the bookseller raised some interesting questions and wanted to throw it open to you. Is there such a thing as a "woman's book?"

The results of this year’s Tiptree Award have been announced. The winner is The Carhullan Army (Daughters of the North in the U.S.) by Sarah Hall. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is given for for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender, and is intended to reward those women and men who are bold enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender.

I understand (second-hand, since I don't surf much) that there is some concern out there in InterNet Land that the Hugo ballot features only four women nominees this year (last year there was only one). As it happens, gender distribution of SF writers is something I keep track of.

In a 2007 op-ed for In These Times, media critic Susan J. Douglas noted that there’s “a robust tradition in the Times Book Review to stereotype feminists as single-minded, humorless ideologues who march daily to some shrine where we all genuflect before images of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.”

One for Modern Matriarch if your about, hope its usefull. :)

In Terror Dream Susan Faludi examines America’s response to 9/11, a response she says was a “retreat into a mythological framework that insists the only way for America to be safe is for men to be strong, and the only way for men to be strong is for women to be weak.” The book is bound to be controversial as it points out the failures of government and media post 9/11.

Six leading feminists recall the writing that first opened their eyes to the women's movement

Come on . . . join the social experiment!

Remember that either/or question “would you rather be pretty or smart?” The implication, of course, was that pretty girls where popular . . . smart girls where not.