Currently Reading: The Hunger Games Chapter 1

It’s been a while since I’ve read any young adult fiction, but I’ve been really looking forward to finally reading The Hunger Games. It’s taken me a while to get around to it, what with starting a new job and spending far too much of my time working at home rather than engaging in my usual evening pursuits like reading and writing, but I’ve finally begun.

The first chapter of The Hunger Games is one of the finest first chapters I’ve ever read. Suzanne Collins masterfully draws the reader into her dystopian future with history and descriptions that are immediately fascinating as well as chilling. The poverty of District 12 is apparent straightaway, and the sketch of Effie Trinket provides both a picture of a frustrated bureaucrat and a window into the politics and culture of the Capitol.

The main focus of this chapter, however, is our heroine Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss is hard. She’s unsentimental, stubborn, and unforgiving. Honestly, she’s not particularly likeable. Oh, she loves her sister, Primrose, and indulges her sister as much as she can, but Katniss also sees her sister as weak and fragile. She resents her mother. She takes far too much upon herself, and she thinks a bit too well of herself because of it.

If I knew Katniss in real life, I wouldn’t be able to stand her.

As a character, I love her. I’m curious to see where her character development goes. She’s already tough, so it’s not like she has to learn her own strength. She’s street-smart, so she doesn’t need to have a rude awakening. She’s confident, so I don’t think she’s going to need to learn how to stand up for herself.

I imagine that at some point she’ll be traveling to the Capitol, so I suppose that we’ll get a bit of fish-out-of-water development there as Katniss has to learn how to use the skills she already has to cope with an unfamiliar environment. And of course there will be the Games themselves. I dunno. I’m just curious so far. Katniss isn’t a character with some hidden reservoir of strength–she’s actually strong and capable, which is fairly unusual for a girl character.

Time to read some more, I guess.

Tags: book review, currently reading, Katniss Everdeen, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Atheism and Privilege (Cont.)

I keep feeling like I’m really struggling here, trying to explain a fairly complex concept in a concise way. I don’t think that I’m completely off-base, since there are other people who understood immediately what I was trying to convey, but I’m also (obviously) not being as clear as I would like.

After much discussion with my partner on the topic of atheism and privilege dynamics, I’ve realized that maybe I’ve been going about explaining it all wrong, so I’ll try to explain again in the way that helped him to understand what the heck I was talking about.

Tags: atheism, feminism, Friendly Atheist, gender, Hemant Mehta, misogyny, privilege, sexism

In Which I am Disappointed in Hemant Mehta

Last week, I made a possibly ill-advised statement on my Tumblr, which led to quite a bit of further explanation on my part (here, here, and here) when several people misunderstood what I intended (admittedly, I worded things poorly).

After the original Tumblr discussions, I never expected to hear anything more about it, honestly, but a few days ago I woke up to find that someone had sent this screenshot of the original post to Hemant Mehta over at Friendly Atheist. After reading Hemant’s man-splaining of the sexism situation in general, I read through the comments on his post and basically hated everything far too much to be able to respond right away. I’m finally feeling at least somewhat up to that challenge.

Tags: atheism, Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, mansplaining, privilege, sexism, skepticism

Skeptical Sexist Bingo

So, I was planning on writing a post tonight about skepticism and home birth, but then Hemant Mehta mansplained all over something I posted on Tumblr last week and I was going to respond to his post.

Instead, after I popped over to Friendly Atheist and read the comments, I made this. It’s like regular sexist bingo, but with SCIENCE!

My response to Hemant will be incoming tomorrow, but this is all I’ve got tonight.

Tags: atheism, bingo, feminism, mansplaining, sexism, skepticism

Queereka and Myths About Trans Women

Skepchick has a new sister site, Queereka, which looks like it’s going to be exciting. From their About page:

Queereka is a place for skeptics and nonbelievers who are interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues. We seek to promote the inclusion of LGBTQ topics, voices and individuals in the skeptic and secular community and movement, promote rational and evidence-based approaches to LGBTQ topics, encourage critical thinking about gender and sexuality, and combat misinformation and mistaken pseudoscientific, superstitious, biased, religious, irrational, unsubstantiated or bigoted beliefs about LGBTQ topics, lives, individuals and experiences.

I highly recommend checking it out; although there isn’t a whole lot to see just yet, you can sign up for their RSS feed, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook.

I’m particularly interested in reading the Perspectives column, which plans to examine queer genders and sexualities from an anthropological/historical/cross-cultural standpoint, but I’ve already learned some things from a pair of posts on 13 Myths and Misconceptions About Trans Women. Part One was posted at Skepchick, and Part Two is over at Queereka. Both seem worth a read, and there is some interesting discussion going on in the comments as well.

It’s good to see a space like Queereka being built in the skeptic community, which so often fails to address these sorts of issues, and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow.

Tags: atheism, skepticism, gender, sexuality, Queereka, Skepchick, LGBTQ, anthropology, transgender, trans women, queer issues

New Year’s Resolution: Writing in 2012

So, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to write something every day. I haven’t done that yet today, and I sort of did a half-assed job yesterday.

The good news is that I’m not horribly disappointed in myself or discouraged yet. The bad news is that I don’t have a plan of how exactly to make this resolution happen.

My thought right now is that I need to have a project. Something I can do every day and that will, preferably, take around an hour of my time (maybe less). I have a few ideas, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to do.

Tags: accountability, art, blogging, New Year's Resolution, project, reading, writing

Reflections and Hope

2011 was a rough year for me.

I was laid off from a job in early January with the promise that I would be called back by the end of February. That never happened, and I spent a full 5 months being unemployed, struggling to keep the lights and phone turned on so I could look for work as I slipped further and further behind on everything.

Tags: anxiety and depression, goals, life, New Year, personal, resolutions

Looking for Great Movies for Kids

Margot Magowan at the Ms. Magazine blog has a list of 14 questions to ask when choosing a movie for your kids:

1. Is the movie titled for a male star?
2. Is the movie centered around the quest of a male?
3. Are the females in the movie helping the male achieve his goal?
4. Which character goes through a transition?
5. What is the ratio of males to females? Main roles? Crowd scenes?
6. What are the females wearing? Does their clothing expose belly buttons and other body parts?
7. How many lines do the female characters have?
8. How many of the females’ lines have to do with what they’re wearing, what they look like, romantic relationships, or shopping?
9. How many of the males refer to the females only in reference to romance and how they look?
10. How do the females in the movie interact with each other? Do they interact at all?
11. How are female friendships depicted in the movie? Are there any?
12. Is a female character rescued by a male character?
13. Does a female character make a rescue?
14. What heroic acts or acts of bravery do the female characters perform?

I think this is a great start, especially as the mother of an 8-year-old daughter.

Tags: body positivity, gender, inclusiveness, movies, Ms. Magazine, parenting, questions, race, sexuality