There are American novelists, and then there are American women novelists – at least according to Wikipedia, where outrage has been building over the quiet categorisation of major names such as Harper Lee and Donna Tartt according to their gender.
Wikipedia has a category for “American novelists”, but it runs to so many names that the site has said “pages in this category should be moved to subcategories where applicable”. Yesterday, the authors – and females – Amanda Filipacchi and Elissa Schappell noticed that editors had begun moving women “one by one, alphabetically, from the ‘American novelists’ category to the ‘American women novelists’ subcategory”, wrote Filipacchi in the New York Times. “If you look back in the ‘history’ of these women’s pages, you can see that they used to appear in the category ‘American novelists’, but that they were recently bumped down. Male novelists on Wikipedia, however – no matter how small or obscure they are – all get to be in the category ‘American novelists’.”
There are currently 3,904 entries in “American novelists” on Wikipedia, and Filipacchi said that “the first few hundred of them are mainly men”.Schappell added: “It would appear that in order to make room for male writers, women novelists (such as Amy Tan, Harper Lee, Donna Tartt and 300 others) have been moved off the ‘American novelists’ page and into the ‘American women novelists’ category. Not the back of the bus, or the kiddie table exactly – except of course when you Google ‘American novelists’ the list that appears is almost exclusively men.”
Their observations sparked a widespread condemnation of the policy on social media. “Women writers are consistently underrepresented, their work receiving much less attention than that of their male counterparts. In 2012 the New York Review of Books reviewed only 40 female authors, as opposed to 215 male authors,” wrote Abigail Grace Murdy on the publisher Melville House’s blog. “The subcategory ‘American women novelists’ “simply reflects a widespread and belittling perception of women writers that already exists. But in reflecting that perception, Wikipedia perpetuates it, and the sexism marches on.”
Wikipedia editors have now begun the task of adding the female writers back into the wider category, while debating the situation among themselves. “This is embarrassing us on a global basis. If you don’t segregate males and gender unknowns, then don’t segregate women (and that’s how it’s being perceived),” wrote one.
Another said: “Removing women from the list of novelists is like removing black or foreign-born novelists. Its effect is inherently biased. For those who want to find women novelists, a sublist is acceptable, but it cannot fairly involve removal from the main list. The effect is too discriminatory and drastic. The same applies to all women-nationality lists (not only novelists). I think this kind of category, based on the characteristics of the novelist, is very different from a subcategory based on the characteristics of the novels, eg, mystery novelists or science-fiction novelists.”
An enterprising soul has just launched a new “American men novelists” category, bizarrely only currently including Orson Scott Card, and PD Cacek – a woman.
headline should be: wikipedia still garbage dump run by babymen
i dont want my words to be taken out of context
i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized
i dont want to be molested at shows or on the street by people who perceive me as an object that exists for their personal satisfaction
i dont want to live in a world where im gonna have to start employing body guards because this kind of behavior is so commonplace and accepted and I’m pissed that when I express concern over my own safety it’s often ignored until people see firsthand what happens and then they apologize for not taking me seriously after the fact…
I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them. or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology. I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers
I’m tired of the weird insistence that i need a band or i need to work with outside producers (and I’m eternally grateful to the people who don’t do this)
im tired of being considered vapid for liking pop music or caring about fashion as if these things inherently lack substance or as if the things i enjoy somehow make me a lesser person
im tired of being congratulated for being thin because i can more easily fit into sample sizes from the runway
im tired of people i love betraying me so they can get credit or money
I’m sad that it’s uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues
I’m tired of creeps on message boards discussing whether or not they’d “fuck” me
I’m tired of people harassing my dancers and treating them like they aren’t human beings
I’m sad that my desire to be treated as an equal and as a human being is interpreted as hatred of men, rather than a request to be included and respected (I have four brothers and many male best friends and a dad and i promise i do not hate men at all, nor do i believe that all men are sexist or that all men behave in the ways described above)
im tired of being referred to as ‘cute,’ as a ‘waif’ etc., even when the author, fan, friend, family member etc. is being positive
(fyi)
waif |wāf|
noun
1 a homeless and helpless person, esp. a neglected or abandoned child: she is foster-mother to various waifs and strays .
• an abandoned pet animal.
cute |kyo͞ot|
adjective
1 attractive in a pretty or endearing way: a cute kitten.
• informal sexually attractive.
I’m tired of people assuming that just because something happens regularly it’s ok
——————————————————
i have so much love for everyone who has been cool and amazing. I have the best job in the world but I’m done with being passive about any kind of status quo that allows anyone to suffer or to be disrespected
Grimes world tour is officially over, the visions album cycle is officially over, and I’m now taking the time to overhaul everything and make it better
much love to every fan - stuff can be lame sometimes but its really cool to have this support <3
a lot of the tumblr people who follow me are aware of grimes as “haha sailed a trash boat, also a musician i think?” but i think its important to recognize her as an artist and a feminist and an intellectual
hell yes motherfucker
TRIGGER WARNING FOR SELF INJURY/CUTTING
Golden Hour
giclée with gold enamel on thick velvet art paper
13 x 19”
closed edition of 7
Available here, on my official store.
January 2nd’s drawing is called Golden Hour. This is a pencil drawing scanned, painted digitally, then printed as an archival giclée and painted a second time with enamel paints, producing an unreproduceable hybrid between print and original media.
The grease stain on the paper inspired me to go with a cloudy motif, which will likely repeat because the next few pages are also grease stained, although in an increasingly smaller area.
The Golden Hour girls are each named after one of the seven most popular names for girls born in 1998.
-=-=-=-
WHAT IS THE HYBRID VIGOR SERIES?
See my Hybrid Vigor tumblr tag here: http://toxoplasm.org/tagged/hybrid vigor
For the month of January and possibly for the rest of 2013, I will be producing one sketch or drawing per day, and then producing it as a hybrid giclée print on the following day. I’m a little behind.
What do I mean by a hybrid? A combination print and original. A very short giclée edition (3-10 pieces) will follow, which will combine the scanned drawing with digital painting and, finally, real media painting on the giclée.
NOTE ABOUT VARIATIONS & PHOTOGRAPHY:
Each member of the Hybrid Vigor series will be slightly different due to their hand-painted process. If there are more than minor differences, it will be noted in the description and the option to order individual prints will be made available.
The photography of these prints is never going to be absolutely true to the real color and detail. This is due to all monitors having slight variations in color calibration and display resolution, as well as by my not being a professional art photographer. Please allow for a little wiggle room in your expectations, and feel free to ask me any questions.
SHIPPING:
Each print will be shipped rolled protectively in a sturdy cardboard tube and mailed USPS First Class unless otherwise requested by the buyer.
total retribution.
if you live in williamsburg/bushwick and feel in danger or are just pissed about being assaulted, harassed or bashed let us know. email at brassknucklewitches@gmail.com or call us at 347.68.SLICE
PLEASE REBLOG!!!!!!!!
Sooooooo, what exactly are these guys proposing?
This flyer says nothing about what they intend to do about rape but seems to heavily imply that this group will counter sexual harassment and assault with assault with deadly weapons.
I mean, I’m just spitballing here, but wouldn’t getting locked up for physical assault land your ass in jail and render you unable to go vigilante on a bunch of rapists?
Just wondering.
What are they “proposing”? Same thing the Black Panthers “proposed” when it became clear the police were no longer protecting minority populations. Same thing the Red Warriors “proposed”:

Meet the Red Warriors, the dudes who would get your back when nazi skinheads were persecuting minority populations in France in the 1980s. Do you know why people have to do this? Because the police won’t. As per the article I posted about Denver, which you didn’t bother to reblog, the police often won’t run rapekits, they won’t prosecute hate crimes, they don’t give a shit about sexual harassment or abuse, and they’re often engaging in hate crimes themselves. Even in the rare instance of police who are willing to help, their coverage is extremely low.
Furthermore, when police are involved in situations of hate crime, particularly in instances of self-defense by a minority victim, they usually side with the attacker. Cece McDonald was sentenced to 41 years in prison for defending herself against a man who attempted to murder her in the street for being trans and Black, after she had had a glass smashed across her face and then attempted to flee. Another Black woman fired a single warning shot into the ceiling of her house in order to warn off her husband, who had been routinely beating her, and she is facing 20 years in prison. He had put her into the hospital before, his attacks were so brutal.
When the police refuse to do their jobs, the people have to defend themselves and each other. Sometimes this means stepping outside of our comfortable white liberal pacifism and meeting violence with defense. That’s what Queerbloc and Fembloc are about in Oakland (where the police just don’t even bother investigating crime, much less responding to it in a timely manner that would interrupt a rape or assault [“but the OPD is overworked because there aren’t enough officers!” well maybe being some of the highest-paid police in california, in one of the poorest cities, a situation the police union crowbarred its way into, presents some sort of logistical concern that is not adequately addressed by corruption, the regular murder of non-white citizens, brutality, and incompetence?), and that’s what SLICE is about in NYC.
Make sense?
total retribution.
if you live in williamsburg/bushwick and feel in danger or are just pissed about being assaulted, harassed or bashed let us know. email at brassknucklewitches@gmail.com or call us at 347.68.SLICE
PLEASE REBLOG!!!!!!!!
the argument that “fake nerd girls” exist at all, and are “doing it for attention”, demonstrates perfectly that the people who say this shit have no actual experience with how fucking difficult it is to get men to leave you the fuck alone
i dont spend four weeks painstakingly assembling a screen-perfect replica of a beloved character in order to be chased around, groped and hit on by perverts at my local anime con—i make and wear the costume despite them.
do you know how many times i’ve gone to a convention or driven my car to the grocery store or attended a class wearing something other than a Powergirl cosplay and been subject to uncomfortably high levels of male attention?
the answer is: every time
What if racists had a city in the sky? Ken Levine asks the hard questions!
The recent announcement that the Bioshock Infinite cover would be a tour de cliche featuring your average dark-haired caucasian protagonist, chin down, eyes up, rather than something like the (brilliant) fanart Rockwell/Leyendecker Saturday Morning Post pastiche (by Alex Garner) is symptomatic of the entire game development, at least as well as I can tell from the trailers and gameplay released so far.
Hey this game looks pretty g-
“THIS TIME IT’S PAYBACK,” SAID JOHN BIOSHOCK GRIMLY
The most striking difference is in the character of Elizabeth, who started out as a pageboy-bobbed hellraiser in copious eyeliner.
Notice the slight widening of the nasal bridge, the freckles, the nasolabial fold and the longer philtrum.
Notice also that the nose is slightly more convex, stronger and more mature here than in the later, infantilized Elizabeth, who has a more typical Malibu snub nose.
Her freckles are gone, her mouth is smaller (more baby-like), and her hair and makeup—previously strongly-styled, indicative of a woman’s agency over her own appearance (see: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc)—have been lightened and softened, brown instead of black, with the sideswept, childish bangs revealing a larger forehead (again, a physical sign of immaturity). Her nasolabial folds are softened and her skin appears to be more tan than her original gothic pallor.
And while it’s hard to tell if the voice actor has changed her reading style or if this is entirely dependent on the different emotional tones of the different scenes, Elizabeth’s voice sounds higher, more ingratiating, and not at all angry. In other words, she’s been defanged—the new Elizabeth is totally unchallenging, and appears to be about 13 years old.
The cleavage was absolutely gratuitous even at the beginning, but at least she sort of appeared to be a young woman (the character is supposed to be 20 years old), rather than a little girl with precocious tits.
Her original appearance in the first gameplay trailer to be released portrays her furiously acting, her brows lowered, her voice hoarse, low and powerful. In each following video release from the developers, she became more and more dilute, until she took on her final form of what appears to be a kewpie-head-on-a-barbie-doll bimbo. “Booker, Booker,” she simpers, holding up some shiny knickknack as they crash through some abandoned store, “gold!” Haha! Stupid girls!
Exciting realtime events!That she has been removed entirely from the final cover design is telling, as her character also appears to have been slowly extracted from the actual game. My enthusiasm for the gameplay has waned with each new trailer.
To quote a friend,
RN: you’ve already experienced ken levine’s horrifying epic about what if objectivists had superpowers
RN: now sit back and enjoy as he takes on battered wife syndrome through the medium of robot birds and racial stereotypes
Adding to this awful morass is Levine’s revelation that Elizabeth is based on an abused woman he knew in real life:
“When you arrive in Columbia, Elizabeth has been trapped in this tower since she was a little girl – and you bust her out. That’s essentially the catalyst that heightens the conflict. You really turn the heat up in a way that it wasn’t before,”
[…]
Levine revealed that Elizabeth’s complicated relationship with her captor, the Songbird, was inspired by his personal experience with a victim of domestic abuse who inevitably returned to her abuser.
And just in case you weren’t tired of books, movies and games vilifying the notion of populist uprisings in oppressive capitalist citystates,
“The Vox Populi [editor’s note: these pseudo-soviets in the trailers appear to contain the only visibly non-white members] believe that the city is corrupt, so they want to demonstrate to the workers and the downtrodden of the world that this symbol of American imperialism has to fall. A prophecy says that if Elizabeth falls then the city falls with her. So they want her dead.”
So, just to be absolutely crystal clear here: Elizabeth is a mental child in a woman’s body, who has been freed from her tower-prison, and who is now being hunted by
the 99%Occupypopulist rabble intent on senselessly smashing the state, as well as by her robot father-monster/ex boyfriend. Only one man can stop them.There is absolutely no way this can go wrong.
CORRECTION: The SEP cover above was not official Irrational art, but fan work by Alex Garner. Kotaku says: “[The official cover is] nowhere near as imaginative or as evocative as what comic-book artist Alex Garner drew earlier this year(featured above), even if that followed a similar magazine-cover design published by Game Informer more than two years ago.” The text above has been corrected to reflect this.
women are told that food is a guilty pleasure, that the very act of consuming calories is something we need to be ashamed of and sometimes our food packaging tells us that survival is a guilty pleasure because you need food to survive
so yes, I think a lot of us are confused

[madmaryholiday asked me to repost this in a rebloggable form, so here it is.]
Since it happens—-literally and without hyperbole or sarcasm or any of the other facetious verbal tics I use to deal with serious issues in a way that doesn’t make me want to claw off my own face—every time I leave my house without a companion and most of the times I leave my house without a male companion (I need everyone reading this to think about that for a minute…every time. I am subjected to unwanted, threatening, possessive, insinuating, etc male attention every time I am outside. Every. Time.) it’s actually incredibly difficult to recall every individual instance, even the bad ones. It’s sort of like asking a combat veteran about every time someone shot at them.
But I’ve been thinking about this question for a few days and I think maybe I have a few interesting ones.
There was the time I was 16 years old and riding the Greyhound bus to Seattle to see my long term committed boyfriend at the time, who was 22 and was routinely abusing me in his own capacity (but that’s a different kind of story, and then again the same), and a middle aged man sat down in the empty seat next to me, trapping me against the bus window, and spent the next hour staring fixedly at me, telling me about how he had gotten out of prison that day, how he liked my waist-length, copper ringlet hair, and the nice outfit and makeup I had put on for my 22 year old boyfriend, who had insisted earlier that day via IM that I make myself look “fuckable” (his word) when I came to visit him that weekend.
And when I turned to look out the window, smiling as gently as I could, smiling to keep this man sitting next to me from feeling like maybe I wasn’t being nice enough, like maybe he would have to do something more than just talk at me to make sure I was paying attention, I turned to face the window and the setting sun got in my eyes and I knew even before he said it that I would not be able to keep him from seeing they were green, that I was “a green-eyed redhead”, fitting neatly into a premade slot for women and girls who can check off certain clusters of traits and become a “type” rather than a person—I was a green-eyed redhead.
Of course he noticed, consuming the sun in the bowls of my irises the same way he was consuming the scent of my conditioner, the pretty colors of my nailpolish, the lipstick I was wearing for my abusive boyfriend. ”Green eyes,” he murmured, wondering, as if at a waterfall or a doe who hadn’t seen him yet, walking in front of his gun. Like this man had been sent to bookend me into the window seat until I got to my other male guardian—like he was walking me down the aisle of I-5, my honorable escort to ensure I passed from one custodian to another.
For every free coffee beauty privilege gets you, it also gets you a guy following you down the steps on the subway, saying he wants to work his tongue into your ass.
Recently, at the bar where I work as a gogo dancer in an identical capacity as Molly describes in this article, my and Molly’s mutual friend John Adams insisted, insisted, that we meet and know each other. We’ve been circling each other’s circles in the Internet Art World for years now. I hope I have the opportunity to meet her next year when I go to NYC for an art show.
on wednesday night when i was walking back to my car after work some fuckshit in an SUV pulls up next to me and starts parroting “hey pretty lady, hey pretty lady, hey pretty, hey, hey, hey,” like they do, but i always keep one chambered for these occasions, so to speak, and my hand was literally wrapped around my incredibly threatening-looking taser anyway, so i let fly with my nastiest and most dismissive eyerolling and “UGHH, SHUT THE FUCK UP” and he said some stuff i didn’t catch, (probably about how i was an ugly bitch dyke or whatever, the usual) so i told him to “have fun pulling his pencil dick” and he drove away lmao dunked scrub
tldr smash the patriarchy, reblog with your catcalling beatdown stories imo









