I'm reading Ben Bova's "The Alien Within", Book 2 in the Voyagers series, and it's been years since I read the first one. Bova writes interesting complex characters*, with layers upon layers of deception, sometimes including self-deception as well. His women however are always described in terms of their sexuality - their appearances are ( Read more... )

Is it a common stale sci-fi trope to have a supposedly sentient alien race actually have only males be sentient and females are bestial breeding stock, or is it only Orson Scott Card (the Piggies in Speaker for the Dead) and Larry Niven (Kzin and Puppeteers in the Ringworld/Man-Kzin Wars universe) who are guilty of it? This sort of things is ( Read more... )

I sympathize with those of you talking about Racefail and other instances of racial minorities in SF fandom. My own issue along these lines is women/girls in gaming, especially as it has many parallels to women in science ( Read more... )

Found via hrafn, the URL says it all ( Read more... )

( From LJ Support )

Edit: I have received a response, and it seems good.

LJ is now requiring new users to specify "male" or "female" on new account creation. If you don't like this,

1. Edit your profile and select Unspecified for your gender option.
2. Give feedback to LJ about this, see sample below.
3. Send an email to Anjelika, GM of US operations, anjelika@ ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

In line with my fear of housewivery, it's nice to see that some dads are attempting to work from home - even if they do decide they can't cut it.

I warn you, this post could be trigger-y for some people ( Read more... )

Memeage:

To all those who think Homophobia is wrong and want to fight for a better future for our gay and lesbian friends, please repost this ( Read more... )