The Lady Garden

Things we liked, or didn’t like, from around the internet this week.

Explaining privilege in words that might get heard and understood: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is. (You should know that the number of Lady Gardeners who logged in to add this link is greater than one.)

Talking to your kids about pornography.

They may wonder what is wrong with their child or if what the child has seen will forever traumatize him or her. Neither assumption is correct, she said. The greater potential harm — and shame — can come from a parent’s reaction.

Girl on the Net, On Men, and how they’re only after one thing:

If you fancy a shag, all you need to do is walk down the street, find the nearest available man, and invite him back to your house. He will leap at the opportunity, drop all his current plans, and run over to hump you senseless before you can say “hooray for sexual stereotypes!”

Some philosophical thinking, or non-thinking, mostly interesting for the responses it has provoked. The first set is not so controversial: Shelly Kagan has argued that death really isn’t so bad for the person who experiences it, because she or he isn’t there to mourn their own loss, or the future denied. But annejjacobson at Feminist Philosophers has a different opinion: women are often deeply distressed by impending death, because of the impact on children and other family members.

And David Benatar has argued that, oh noes, it’s teh menz who are discriminated against, in The Second Sexism. Ophelia Benson dismisses the case very quickly in A neglected form of sexism, and Suzanne Moore nails it: The Second Sexism is just victim envy.

Over at The Hand Mirror, LudditeJourno writes about the silent B in pink shirt day.

This Pink Shirt Day I’m going to share some link love for bi people, and those interested in challenging biphobia and biphobic bullying. I’m not including generic queer groups as too often those groups have a silent B (and T, let alone I) when it comes to LGBTI issues and communities.

From Annanonymous, who writes at The End is Naenae, two great pieces: a nuanced and thoughtful discussion of fetal alcohol syndrome, and why just telling women not to drink won’t solve anything; and a bit of support for the beer-drinking bride.

Worth a look. Re-imagining great nudes in art, in 21st century form. ‘Though as a woman who has been on the skinny side for most of my life (Deb), albeit not since going past 40, I’m not quite sure what reaction we are supposed to have. Yes, the re-imagined nudes look all wrong, but does that mean that my body is wrong? Even so… the meta-story is that no matter what, women’s bodies are wrong.

Via Hoyden about Town, a link to a great new Tumblr: Is this feminist? A sample…

This woman is doing science. IS THIS FEMINIST?

“Science,” as a narrative of knowledge, prizes a phallocentric adherence to logic and mastery, breaking things down into discrete parts and seeking to name and control their interactions, rather than viewing them as an intuitively connected, interdisciplinary, feminine whole. This woman is adopting and reinforcing a masculine-supremacist view of intelligence which encourages women to rely on externally defined “facts” and academic credentials, rather than heeding their own inner wisdom. A true feminist simply knows the cure for Alzheimer’s disease, possibly because it’s yoga. PROBLEMATIC.

Something pretty: Go feast your eyes over at Friend of Marilyn, written by friend of TLG Cat Pausé. Cat also has a review of True South: a poly fabulous fatshion show on her blog.

And something else pretty: my (Deb) new, and first ever, red shoes. I shall be slutwalking in them.

Red Shoes

Feel free to add your own links in comments, and to treat this as an open thread.