Skepchick Sundaylies: Nerd Girls, Bisexuality, Creationism, and Raising a Young Skeptic
Sunday Funny: xkcd explains free speech
Suspension of Disbelief: Magic Time
Elizabeth reviews the 2002 novel by Barbara Hambly.
What It Means to be a Woman in Nerd Culture: The Mary Sue
Alice explains what bugs her about the Mary Sue trope.
Don’t Worry, You’ll Change Your Mind: Making Life Decisions Young
Olivia discusses the implicit sexism and ageism in telling a young woman that she’ll want children someday.
Bisexual but Not Binary
Jac discusses the need for clarity in understanding the term bisexual.
Do I Look Gay?
Ser explores some issues with a couple of recent YouTube videos where a young gay man walked around his college campus asking people if he looked gay.
Math, I Will Conquer You Yet
Benny shares his story about how the failures of his earlier math education are affecting his university-level work today.
Creationism, Part 1: It’s a Fight Over Science, Not Facts
Peter talks about his experiences dealing with Creationism.
Graduate Funding: No Easy Answers
Dan, responding to Queereka’s Vince, thinks thinks graduate funding is a complex problem, and debate ensues.
Why Teaching Makes Me Smile
Jodee reminds us that teaching is rewarding, after all.
Books for Independent, Curious Little Girls
Mombot gives her reviews of books she enjoys reading with her daughter. (Bookmark this one if you need birthday book ideas for your kids/cousins/nieces/nephews!)
Teaching Your Child to Talk Back; or, Raising a Young Skeptic
Teaching your kids to talk back helps them to develop good arguing skills and also shatters the assumption that adults are always right.
Featured image credit: Mike Licht via Flickr
The male Mary Sue is lesser-known as a Gary Stu. Stus tend to be far worse; they’re either in God Mode, or it’s smut and we get to see them have anatomically-implausible best sex EVAR!!1!1
Though really, the Mary Sue isn’t the worst sin of fan fiction. (Seriously, fanfic writers, enough with the incest already! Or at least limit the incest to canon. No, Sam/Dean doesn’t count. There’s also one author on the Pit of Voles who has this weird obsession with Bran Stark.)
But even if the inherent misogyny and racism of the Twilight franchise was taken care of, that wouldn’t make the books Good. It would take them out of Unredeemable, but not Good.