So, the report for the Fifty-second Session of the UN Commision on the Status of Women has just been released.

Here’s an excerpt from the ‘It Is Time For The World To Make Women A Priority’ press release:

“It is time for the world to make women a priority,” said Safiye Cagar, Director of Information, Executive Board and Resource Mobilization Division, United Nations Population Fund, who stressed that “everything possible” must be done to reduce the feminization of poverty and unleash the full potential of half the human race to advance peace, development and human rights. She was among the nearly 55 delegations taking the floor today who discussed action plans to promote women’s advancement, or called on Governments to increase emphasis on the gender dimensions of development.

She recalled that, at the 2005 World Summit, world leaders had agreed to key policy actions to advance women’s empowerment, including increased investments in universal education to close the gender gap in schools by 2015, and promoting women’s rights to own and inherit property and have access to resources such as land, credit and technology. To accelerate action, those leaders had also agreed to increase the representation of women in Government decision-making. Real investment in women could create ripples that brought about waves of positive change, and such change was urgently needed and long overdue, she said, calling on Governments to stand by their commitments.

Hat-tip: Feminist Allies.

So, as I’m sure you all have noticed the sidebar has gotten even uglier and harder to read than when I updated to WP 2.2. This is because whatever changes were made to the database, the hack that I was using to get the sidebar to display as I wanted it to ceased working. Thanks, WordPress!

In anycase, there are a few other problems with the layout, so please bear with me while I rework the theme into a newer, better model.

This post marks the end of the “My Voodoo” series. Why? Because, after less than two years, my laptop is dead. And not just in the “died peacefully in its sleep” way, oh no, in the “I’m going to screw Andrea over as much as possible before I go” way. I haven’t been happy with this laptop (except for its awesome pink-ness) since the beginning, so in some ways I’m glad that the saga is finally over. But, then I think about how much money I blew on this piece of crap that didn’t even make it to half the current lifespan of my (still working!) Toshiba Portege and I just get angry again.

Read the rest…

Or, more accurately, I’ll blog the day before and set it to automatically post on July 19 in the Pacific Timezone. So, yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. I am now old enough to legally rent a car in all of North America.

Apparently I make people think, as I have been tagged by no less than three sites for the Thinking Blogger Awards. Thanks Jenn, Revena, and Mighty Ponygirl for forcing me to participate in this meme honoring me with a spot in your list of blogs that make you think.

Here’s how it works:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

So, who makes me think?

5 Geeky Feminist Bloggers

New Game Plus, which always seems to have some great insights on games and gaming culture.

One Hundred Little Dolls, which (among other things) has done some great critiques of games that have made me sit back and go, “Hmm.”

Feminist SF - The Blog! is where I go for thought-provoking critiques of SF.

Sara Speaking, who often pops out with refreshing insight into topics I take for granted.

Written World, which (in between fannish rantings and ravings about Green Lantern) is a pretty steady source for thought-provoking critique of comics and the industry.

5 Anti-Racist Bloggers

The Angry Black Woman always has some food for thought on oppression and its many intersections.

Ally Work has been a staple resource in my own journey to becoming an anti-racist ally, and is something that every white person should read if they are ready for their white privilege to be challenged.

The Silence of Our Friends is a blog I don’t visit as often as I should, but when I do I always find something that makes me think about issues I haven’t given much thought to before.

Token Minorities, which brings together two of my favourite subjects to think about: games and anti-oppression work.

Rachel’s Tavern is chalk full of thought-provoking posts on racism in politics and culture.

3 Blogs on Sexuality

let them eat pro-sm feminist safe spaces is a relatively new blog with a great collection of blog posts that challenge preconceived notions about seuxality and gender.

Laurelin in the Rain, which challenges on a regular basis the notion that a little objectification isn’t a bad thing.

Being Amber Rhea may be on the other side of the spectrum from Laurelin, but her approach to sex and sexuality is every bit as challenging to harmful ideas of what sexuality is.

If you didn’t make it in, it’s not because you don’t make me think. It’s because I’m too lazy to go through all of the blogs I read and properly categorize and link them. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the bloggers on my blogroll — throughout the two years this site has been up and running, all of you have challenged and delighted me, introduced me to a whole range of topics I would otherwise not be exposed to, broadened my way of thinking, and helped me to become a better anti-oppression activist.

And, also, thank you to all the commenters who have given their time and effort to creating discussions about the posts here. Your thoughts are always read and appreciated, even if I don’t have the time to respond.

I only hope that this blog will continue to inspire others to think critically for years to come.

The July 2007 issue is out! The theme is “Inclusive Game Design”, and we have some great articles that look at what can be done to make games more inclusive.

We’re currently looking for submissions for our August issue. Here’s the call for submissions:

Submission deadline: July 20, 2007
Theme: The Social Gamer

Women gamers are often dismissed as “casual” or “just social” gamers, regardless of the hours they put into play or the attitude with which they approach their games. Of course, the reality is that the vast majority of games are social, in one way or another. Many require social interaction of some kind in order to be played at all, and even games which are designed exclusively for single players have their social components ? bragging about high scores, anyone?

What are some of the social communities and structures that surround games, both online and off, and how do they intersect and interact? What role do they play in the gaming experience? Is it important to have membership in more than one community? Are “special interest” communities necessary? How does one go about finding or creating a community for oneself? And where does the media specter of the “antisocial,” dangerous gamer fit in? If you’re fascinated by these questions, and others pertaining to the social aspects of games, this is the issue you’ve been waiting for.

From “But sexism is normal in RPGs!” on The Heroine Next Door:

huh, funny how all the settings have sexually-harrassing women and treating women as second-class citizens as the norm. I haven’t played in an rpg yet in which women weren’t as a default considered lesser than men in the society in the setting (that’s not to say there aren’t any out there, but that the big, popular ones all have a little bit of sexism in them). I’ll bet if I wrote an rpg in which men were abused and treated like objects I’d be called a “man hater”, no one would read it (much less buy it), and everyone would tell me the setting had too much of an agenda. oh, so if I do something sexist towards men, it’s bad, but being sexist towards women is just normal? Yikes.

Via Jade Reporting.

Due to some technical difficulties involving me not upgrading WP as fast as I should have, Shrub was down for an undetermined amount of time (I was sleeping) and is now operating under the default theme.

When I get a chance I will get everything working again, but the important stuff is back and I’m late for school.

ETA: Okay, the theme seems to be mostly working. The major changes to the database that came with the upgrade seriously broke my layout. Which I knew it would, which is why I put off upgrading. Anyway, the links are currently ugly, but they work so I’m going to leave off until the weekend before I start digging through WP code on how to fix that. If you find any problems in the meantime, drop me a note here.

I’m off to WisCon for the week! I’ll be back May 29, but until then moderation will probably be much delayed, especially for borderline cases. Sorry, but, the conference calls!

For those of you going, I’m presenting on idealized bodies in World of Warcraft, so be sure to look me up. I’ll let everyone know how it went when I get back.

Bye!

Starting at 12:01AM PDT on Sunday May 13th 2007 this site is expected to be down for approximately 5 hours. I apologize for this inconvenience.

Note: I don’t want to write about this on my blog because I want to hear from race-discussing people, my blog is so quiet you can hear the crickets chirping. I don’t want to write about it on the Daily Kos, even though I’d get traffic, because I’d get hostility and dismissal of white responsibility for reversing racism as a serious issue. Thank you, Andrea, for letting me guest post on Shrub–I’m using the privilege to write a rather “newbie” essay in this safe space.

Today I thought I was accusing “the city,” or some other general system, of having a racist blind eye. Turns out I was accusing my conversation partner of having a racist blind eye. I know from Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting In The Cafeteria?, Maxjulian’s blog, and Shrub that this is as important for me to do as, say, for men to point out each other’s sexism, but when I did it rudely, did I do more harm or more good in the world?

Read the rest…

[Happy one two year birthday to the Official Shrub.com Blog! I’m very grateful that Andrea gave me the opportunity to join her site, and I’m glad she’s here doing all the work that she does. Here’s to many more years.]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently took a class on racism and white privilege. My professor was unflinching in his recognition that some things about anti-oppression work are “impossible.” And while this sounds like a pessimistic view of things, I think it was very important that he acknowledged this concept and repeatedly brought it to our attention.

I chose to write about this subject for the one two-year anniversary of the Official Shrub.com Blog because of that importance, despite the fact that it also sounds pretty dreary. I mean, it is a bit disheartening to commemorate the birth of an anti-oppression blog by talking about everything it can’t do.

But recognizing difficulties can always do two different things: it can bring you down, and it can also help you clarify your path to better accomplish your goals. As you can guess, I hope to do the latter.

Read the rest…

Ragnell has created a new group blog: First Woman.

In her own words:

Saturday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton officially announced her candidacy for President.

[…]

So, I’m finally starting a political blog, so I can follow the media coverage and the public reaction to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and examine the sexist attitudes that surface during the Democratic primaries (and beyond, should she get the nomination). I’ll also probably blog about how people regard other women in American Politics.

If no sexist attitudes surface, this should be the last post of the blog.

More likely, though, there will be way too much sexism for one person or one blog to analyze.

If you want to help out with the blog, she’s requested that you get in touch with her. More details here.

I’ve had it with Spam Karma. Because it bypasses the indigenous moderation settings, it’s causing certain comments to bypass moderation. The plugin I downloaded for it just doesn’t work properly, and because I’m no longer going to be around every day to catch these things that’s just simply not acceptable.

So, does anyone know of any other decent spam blockers that don’t interfere with WP’s moderation setting? I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know.

Also, if people are still having problems with their comments being marked as spam, please let me know. I think the cause is Akismet, but I need to know all the details I can so I can troubleshoot things.

[12.13 Please Note: Comments are not “being deleted” as many people are claiming. This blog is moderated and that means that all comments must go through the moderation queue first. Because of an issue with Spam Karma, sometimes comments get approved without going through first. When I see that, I automatically put them back into the queue without reading them first. That doesn’t mean they’re deleted, it just means that they haven’t been reviewed by a moderator yet. The bloggers here do not live online so be patient!]

Apparently a lot of people are having trouble getting comments through. I’m not sure if this is another Akismet problem (it was freaking out about a month ago) or a Spam Karma problem. If you try to comment, please save your text in another file before you submit it so you don’t lose anything if it screws up. Also, if you have any idea what plugin is giving the error, I would much appreciate being informed.

Half the time I’m not even being mailed the comments, and the other half I’m getting mailed comments but then they aren’t in the queue to approve. I’ll try to fix this as soon as possible, but since I don’t know what’s freaking out and why I don’t know how long it’ll take.

Blogging has ceased to be fun, so I’m going to take a break and enjoy playing FFXI. My co-bloggers will hold down the fort as well as their lives allow, so please play nice. Comments may take a while to get approved because they’re online a lot less than I am, so please be patient.

First of all, I’ve added a new section to the Discussion Rules about what to do if you’re told to check your privilege. Just a reminder, folks, this blog is an anti-oppression blog and while it’s okay to disagree with what’s said, if you’re told that your comment comes from a privileged POV saying “no it doesn’t!” (however politely) is not acceptable.

Also, comment threads are not the place to ask questions or comment about the Discussion Rules. Period. If you have a question, you can contact me with it. I may or may not answer. But if you try to argue the merits of the rules on the board, your comment will be deleted (hopefully before it gets posted… damn Spam Karma) and I will heavily consider banning you.

I’ve changed the way that blockquotes are formatted in an effort to make them more readable.

This is what the new blockquoting format looks like. Do you find it more readable? Less readable? Do you have suggestions for making it better?

Thanks!

Apparently I’ve had a batch of comments (I’m not sure how many) be marked as spam and therefore not published. I also found out that a group of comments that I approved somehow got unapproved and two of them ended up in the spam bin (which would have been deleted except that I checked because of the comment eating problem).

If you find that your comment doesn’t show up after a day, please at least e-mail me to let me know. I have no idea yet how widespread this issue is, or if it means I should seek another anti-spam tool besides Spam Karma.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Okay, this semester is completely brutal and I’m not sure when I’m going to have time to get back to blogging for more than a entry at a time. So, I’m putting out a call for guest bloggers starting in December.

Ideally I’m looking for people who have the time to post twice or three times a week. I want longtime readers who have a good sense of what the site is about so that their posts will mesh with what we’re about. If you have your own blog, you’re more than welcome to cross post.

If you’re interested, please get in touch with me here. Thanks!