Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Good, the Bad, and the Curious (Links)

Things I've read recently that made me happy, sad, and intrigued--I'm going to mix it up and put the Good last this week so I can end on a high note.

The Bad


Shanel Cooper-Sykes, author of Stilettos in the Kitchen, has some advice for women on how to have good relationships with men. Some highlights? "Being submissive in your relationship is where your power lies." "The traditional roles of womanhood are taking care of home, cooking, taking care of your children, nurturing, teaching, loving, and uplifting and taking care of our men. That is what we do as women."


So, get back in the kitchen and submit to our men? What novel advice! I've never heard that one before!

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with a woman (or a man!) being comfortable with and embracing caregiving, cooking, housekeeping, etc. But there is something very wrong with telling women that those qualities are essential to "womanhood" or "what we do as women." It may be what you do, but that doesn't mean that you get to take those qualities and project them onto me by dismissing me as not fulfilling my "womanhood" when I don't ascribe to your narrow definition.

Olympia Snowe announces that she's so sick of partisan politics that she'd rather take her ball and go home. Since I tend to vote Democrat, I guess her open seat makes it more likely that my party will keep control of the Senate, but I still mourn the loss of a moderate voice of reason. I'd rather she stay. (And here's some interesting commentary on her decision from NPR). 

The Curious

A new study published in Pediatrics suggests that active video games aren't a magic bullet for getting kids to be more active. 

Andrew Ti takes a look at some of the racism at the Oscars, particularly Billy Crystal's blackface performance. 

Sociological Images has a post on privilege and mom bloggers, revealing that Babble's 100 top mom blogs of 2011 show that mom blogging has a pretty narrow perspective. 

The Good

Young readers at NPR sent in pictures of people and things they love. 

Check out these cameras! Lytro cameras point to some cool new technology for photography. 

I'm a little light on the Good this week, so here's a video of Erykah Badu performing "Cleva"


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