Star Crossed Musing

Seems that way to me, at least. And I've got so much to post about! I've had a semester, and went to New Orleans, and worked on Chill, and had my kids out for spring break, and and and.... whew. No wonder I feel like I just rode a whirlwind. I'll get it all sorted and post something more meaningful about all of it soon, however. For today, I want to talk about this: Stuff for Girls. So, Chuck Wendig wrote a great piece here , like he does. And in doing so, he points out (without getting all about the menz) how gender divisions can run the risk of reinforcing stereotypes for men even with the best intentions. He gets why having something called out in specific invitation of girls is important, but at the same time, it has the possibility of "ghetto"-izing an intended audience and the material designed for it, rendering it "off-limits" to the mainstream, and hence keeping it from both being normalized and educating those who need to see what it's l...

In other words, I'm in New Orleans at the Popular Culture/American Culture Associations' national conference. It should be noted that early April is apparently a lovely time to visit, as it's warm but not hot, and the air is humid, but doesn't feel like you're trying to breathe honey. It's day two of the conference (I presented morning of day one) and I've seen a lot of really insightful game studies and gothic panels, as well as one that was possibly the most valuable to me, on using Native American cultures and literature respectfully and usefully in the classroom. Although the conference is ongoing today, I am spending it in my room, away from all the lovely panels and the book dealers. This is because today I hit the "like hell" wall, by which I mean my body, without checking with me first, decided it was done with the people and the noise and the weird chairs and pretty much any dairy whatsoever. I was retaining a lot of water and my blood p...