Thursday, May 31st 2012
Link love: Parenting, SCIENCE, Boobs and Other Objects
I’ve accumulated a number of interesting readings over the last few weeks, most related in at least some way to ladybusiness, and I thought I would give my readers a chance to procrastinate too.
Parenting
- PhD in Parenting: 4 Ways Parents Can Help Break Down Society’s Gender Assumptions. This is the fourth in a four-part series on society, gender and kids. Annie does a great job being thoughtful about where parents can intervene, and how to have a healthy perspective on what we can and cannot do about kids’ need to conform. As a parent to a four year old girl, I’ve got a bit of a post related to these topics brewing myself.
- Geek Mom: Mayim Bialik, You Disappoint Me. Marziah explains what it means to be a role model, and the difference between passive, personal beliefs and pushing them on others. A post I hope Bialik reads before continuing to promote not vaccinating her children.
Delight in science
- The Science and Entertainment Exchange: How I Learned to Stop Worrying (About Science Accuracy) and Learned to Love the Story. Phil Plait shares the moment he realized he was getting too focused on picking on science accuracy, and forgot the great ways that science in movies can inspire.
- Cross-Check: What Thomas Kuhn Really Thought About Scientific “Truth.” John Horgan revives and edits a 1996 interview piece on Thomas Kuhn. As someone who only struggled through part of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions before giving up, this was an interesting read.
- The Mermaid’s Tale: You, scientist, we want you to get ahead… but not too FAR ahead! Ken Weiss writes on a recent piece in BioEssays on the pitfalls in science around trying to have transformative ideas. The comment thread is also great.
- Open Culture: Neil deGrasse Tyson Delivers the Greatest Science Sermon Ever. A great speech by one of my biggest science-crushes.
Boobs
- Big Think Blog: “Breast” Behavior: A Q&A with Katie Hinde. Kayt Sukel interviews brilliant lactation biologist Katie Hinde (I can say this because she is a friend and book co-editor, and also because it is true). Katie shares her perspective on the current breastfeeding Mommy Warz.
- The Primate Diaries: Out of the Mouth of Babes. Eric Michael Johnson also covers this current topic, providing some comparative depth by looking at some of our primate relatives and their breastfeeding practices. Nathaniel Gold also made the fantastic chimpanzee Time cover.
Don’t look away (for two very different reasons)
- Wine & Bowties: Where Children Sleep. Provocative, often jarring images of the conditions in which children across the world sleep.
- Io9: The mouth of a child is a terrifying thing to behold. Am I weird that I found this picture fascinating? I can’t wait to show this to my kid, because she is really interested in teeth right now. Oh, before you click, I should tell you it’s the skull of a small child with part of the jaw cut away so you can see the adult teeth sitting on top of the baby teeth, ready to descend.
Feminism
- Think Progress Alyssa: Study: Women are Objects, Men are People. Alyssa Rosenberg (who I think I taught when I was a grad student at Yale) breaks down a recent study showing that a sample of people processed images of women as objects and images of men as people.
- The Nation. Year of the (Young) Woman. A great piece by Jessica Valenti (if I have a science-crush on Tyson, I have a feminist-crush on Valenti) engaging with current events around reproductive justice, and the way young women have been at the forefront of these discussions.
- Hell Yeah Scarleteen: 60 Percent Of Young Adults Misinformed About Birth Control As Abstinence-Only Education Flourishes: Study. The folks at Scarleteen report on a recent study. And if you don’t know who they are, well, you need to find out.
- Whatever: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. John Scalzi writes something only a straight white male can safely write, and does it brilliantly.
