LOLpatriarchy

Funny thing I noticed today:

When my biology textbook needs a photo of a person doing something for an example, they include people of various genders and races.

But when they need a drawn diagram with a generic symbol for human-ness, they use a white male.

(This is not entirely fair. I was flipping through the book just now, I found the later chapters about human organ systems featured diagram-people of all colors and even a few ladies. However, these chapters aren't covered in my class, and for all the chapters on genetics and evolution our diagram-people were exclusively white men. I am now kind of curious as to why the diversity of life they keep talking about doesn't show up until Unit Six. However, I am pleased to know I will be less annoyed by the diagrams in Human Biology next semester.)

Rambling Musings on YA Books

Did you ever read any of Tamora Pierce's wonderful young adult fantasy books?

They were among my favorite in middle school - I mean, nothing could top Harry Potter, of course, but if Song of the Lioness had gotten all the fun fandom it would easily have tied Rowling's books. When I made my best friend read them in high school and she told me they were awful books, I almost thought we couldn't be friends anymore. Alanna the Lioness, Kel (from Protector of the Small) and Aly of Pirate's Swoop were girls my age and a little bit older who were smart and strong and did things like become knights and beat up bullies, and to 12-year-old me nothing could be more awesome than a lady knight. The first time I fenced, my mom thought I didn't like it because I looked so intense; I was imagining myself as Alanna, practicing longsword drills in a castle courtyard.

So when these books came up over dinner today, I got really excited, because they were excellent books. But what I remembered most, enough that I mentioned it, was: "I love how her books have, like, feminist and gay characters, and they can just be there and it's not a big deal."

And then I proceeded to blush, because haha, of course the lesbian would like the book with gay characters. Lol, silly Spiffy and her girls making out.

But seriously. One of the more recent Tamora Pierce books I read, in high school, was called The Will of the Empress, and in it one of the main female characters starts having a relationship with another woman. And everyone is totally chill with this - it is explained once, casually, that yes, Daja is into other women, and the relationship moves on the same as it would have were it with a man. It's later hinted that two other women in the series, adults who act as parent figures to the young heroes, are also in a lesbian relationship, and nowhere is it suggested that they're corrupting the children or something.

I don't think I had realized I liked women yet when I first read it, but when I went back and re-read it later, it hit me hard how utterly normal the lesbian characters in the book were. I'd never read any of the YA fiction specifically targeted at gay youth - I've heard some good book reviews, but it would have never occurred to me to seek out a book just because it has a gay character, and even then it's not like the gay characters are normal. You buy books aimed at GLBT youth specifically FOR the GLBT - it has to be its own category. To find gay characters casually thrown in a book I would have read and enjoyed anyway, readily accepted as if there was no reason why it would be an issue, was (and continues to be) mind-boggling for a teenager who lives in a culture saturated by romance books and songs and movies in which girl meets boy, or else gay ones which are very pointedly targeted at a gay audience.

Does that make any sense? I'm kind of rambling. But I thought it was kind of interesting that, when they were brought up, that was what I remembered about the books - that they made being a lesbian seem okay. I loved them for many, many other reasons, but just casually making a main character gay made them stick with me so much more. I find things like that more often now that I read books aimed at adults, but it's not nearly as powerful now as it was then. Teenagers need it more. If I ever write YA fiction, I'll know to keep that in mind, because it means a lot.

Gone Novelin', BRB

It's National Novel Writing Month! Blogging will be slim to none for the rest of November while I crank out 50,000 words.

In Which My Day Is Made

Best headline ever:

World's Tallest Treehouse Built from Reclaimed Wood

Though really they could have stopped at World's Tallest Treehouse and they'd have had my attention.



Ten floors, all donated/recycled wood, super enormously awesome. Can I build one in our backyard, Dad?

In Which Print Media Is Not Yet Dead

I know newspapers are dying and all, but my school still gives us the New York Times for free, so here's what I was reading today!

There's a depressing article about the increase in youth homelessness because of the recession. The article said that "at least 1.6 million juveniles run away or are thrown out of their homes annually," and while the article didn't mention it, 20-40% of them are GLBT, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Obviously homeless youth is tragic problem no matter what sexual orientation the kid is, and foreclosure and similar issues are major contributing factors... but the fact that 26 percent of gay teens who came out to their parents/guardians were told they must leave home (according to one study) is also part of the problem.

Meanwhile, there was a column about the gay marriage lawsuit in California, filed by Theodore Olsen and David Boies, suggesting that Prop 8 violated the federal Constitution. It had some fun stories about arguments against gay marriage crumbling on top of themselves, but nothing particularly new.

Judge Vaughn R. Walker asked him: What would be the harm of permitting gay men and lesbians to marry?

“Your honor, my answer is: I don’t know,” Mr. Cooper said. “I don’t know.”

His argument that it's all about the baby-makin' fell apart in a similar way. Good to know the obvious things that everyone's been saying for ages are finally being treated as such.

Call and Response

So the US Conference of Catholic Bishops just released a letter on marriage.

Some choice quotes:

One of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposition redefines the nature of marriage and the family, and as a result harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society. ...

The legal recognition of same-sex marriage poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society ... not only at the fundamental levels of the good of spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.

Reading that made me throw kind of a theological hissy fit, but that's beside the point.

It also says birth control is intrinsically evil. As I was reading that line, my cell phone alarm reminding me to take mine went off. I found this amusing.

Meanwhile, Episcopal Bishop Spong (who I gather is something of a thing? I'd never heard of him, but apparently he's pretty popular) released a manifesto about how he's so over this arguing about gay people bullshit.

I make these statements because it is time to move on. The battle is over. The victory has been won. There is no reasonable doubt as to what the final outcome of this struggle will be. Homosexual people will be accepted as equal, full human beings, who have a legitimate claim on every right that both church and society have to offer any of us. Homosexual marriages will become legal, recognized by the state and pronounced holy by the church. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dismantled as the policy of our armed forces. We will and we must learn that equality of citizenship is not something that should ever be submitted to a referendum.

While I really wish I could take a page out of Bishop Spong's book and just not dignify the Conference of Catholic Bishops with a response, they're kind of influential... that bullshit about gay marriage undermining the inherent dignity of every person is going to be official doctrine, to be read and preached and provided as an answer to difficult theological questions.

We may know how the battle is going to end, but I think there's still some fighting left to do.

Quote of the Day: Idiot Edition

From the Louisiana justice of the peace who is refusing to marry interracial couples:

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

...Excuse me? Can someone explain to me on what planet that isn't racist?

Via Shakesville.