I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about tropes and issues of gender and race in various forms of entertainment. Hopefully, I will find the time and energy to write some of my thoughts at length. In the mean time, here are a couple of links on those topics that I found interesting.

From io9, When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like ( Read more... )

khedron pointed out a link to an article debunking a study that shows girls prefer pink. Here is The Economist's take on the same study.

And in completely unrelated news, via the SJ Games website: The Trouble with Tribbles a la Edward Gorey, by Shaenon Garrity.

People talk the most amazing amount of twaddle when it comes to the behavior of boys and girls. "Boys are easier than girls." "Girls are easier than boys." "Girls are easier than boys until high school, then it's the other way around." Since most of these people have only two or three children, they are basing their opinions on a rather small ( Read more... )

Today I was at Babies 'R' Us, and saw a rack of those unfortunate shirts for little girls that say things like "Drama Queen," "High Maintenance," "Hottie," etc. Then I noticed that there were shirts for boy babies, too. And I was repulsed, yet strangely fascinated, by the shirt that said "Chick Magnet." This is not what we mean when we say equality ( Read more... )

At Gillian's school the other day, I overheard a conversation between two parents discussing ear piercing. The father of a little girl was saying that she didn't cry when she got hers done at Claire's over the weekend. The other parent asked if he would do the same thing for his son. The father replied, "No way. He'll have to do his with a potato ( Read more... )

Gillian had to have some vaccinations recently because I have to register her for Kindergarten (eep!) soon. As a treat for putting up with the needles, I gave her a DVD of Disney's version of Peter Pan. I hadn't seen that movie for a long time, and as usual I watched it with her so I could guide her viewing experience ( Read more... )

desdenova replied to my last post by describing the gender inequalities in the science world. Since she is a Scientist!, she knows whereof she speaks. I did my time in the world of science, but mostly at a women's college, and in biology, so I can't speak to the gender issues there. However, my time in The Theatre School sure taught me a thing or two about ( Read more... )

rt_hon_rackman and I were in one of the stores in Downtown Disney on Sunday, helping a friend get discounts on some christmas shopping. While she looked around, I watched my daughter and hers entertain themselves by coloring some pictures of princesses. I have my opinions about the Disney Princesses (TM), which I will get around to detailing in this journal at ( Read more... )