I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

• Sadomasochism isn’t a dirty word.–“And today over at #SexEd, Planned Parenthood opponents were up in fucking arms because professionals who are trusted to offer open and shame-free advice about sex were “caught on tape” offering open and shame-free advice on kink – a type of sexual expression.”
• What it’s like to cough so violently that you can’t inhale–“Collected from your comments on the several pertussis posts I did over the weekend.”
• Submit Your Panel Proposals for #FtBCon by July 22!–“FtBCon 3 is fast approaching: August 22-24, 2014. As always, we’re going to have a full weekend of panels, talks, and Cards Against Humanity.”
• How to skeptic–“Saying you should ‘keep their intentions and goals in mind when someone is imperfect’ about ‘your side’ only is simply to embrace the fundamental attribution error in a permanent bear-hug.”

The Wider Web

• Thirteen ways of looking at a narrative.–“By the end of this essay, I expect I will have ruined Hollywood movies for you forever.”
• talking about like ”””neckbeards”””–“it is that, over the course of my life, the men who have harassed me, bullied me, done sexualized things to me without my consent, or directed misogyny at me have usually been Pretty and Popular and Well-Liked sorts who went to parties on weekends”
• An uncommon household: The history of an early American same-sex marriage–“The women were pillars of their community for four and a half decades, living together in a small house, running a tailoring business, teaching Sunday School, and acting as surrogate mothers and caregivers to hundreds of nieces and nephews. They were also, according to their own understanding and that of those around them, a married couple.”
• Ta-Nehisi Coates and the boundaries of legitimate debate–“But the piece is part of a larger project, a redefinition of what counts as a legitimate conversation about race in the United States and an attempt to define what intellectual credentials are required to enter that debate.”
• The Promise of The Green Line: A Family History–“I am told I rode on one of those last University Avenue street cars in 1954, a four-year-old carried on the lap of my Irish-born grandmother (She would have approved of a ‘Green Line’) who learned when my father was a baby that a brief street car trip up and down University Avenue was the perfect sleeping tonic for a fussy baby.”
• Helter Skelter: connecting some of the dots of white supremacist violence–“The myth, created and nurtured by white supremacy, of the savagery and inherent criminality of black people has resulted in repeated violent backlash against black communities. Backlash, incidentally, not against actual harms or danger, but against the fear of harm and danger that never seem to actually bear fruit.”
• The Devil Made Me Do It: How Christianity Enables Sexual Abusers–“There was no difference in their eyes between two teenagers ‘falling into sin’ by having a consensual sexual relationship and one person sexually assaulting another – both were simply sexual sin.”
• Living as a woman in a science fiction future–“Science fiction lied. As I got older, not only did I see the insidious cracks in the futures I loved (the clothes, the endless kissing of Kirk, the problematic nature of some of McCaffrey’s ideas) I also saw how rare these women were.”
• “Game of Thrones” fails the female gaze: Why prestige TV refuses to cater erotically to women–“I’d add that the realist position falters if one accepts that hemorrhoids, measles, miscarriages, pinkeye, and hot consensual sex involving fully visible male members were all probably more common than orgies, brothels and rapes, and yet they play a considerably smaller role.”
• We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome–“Then she all but disappears from the film, raising the question of why the story spent so much time on her in the first place.”
• Where Art Meets Abuse: Terry Richardson and #AbuserDynamics–“Even those performers who are part of scenes of extreme violence, such as rape scenes, describe the need for plenty of rehearsal, a safe environment, trust, as well as space for figuring things out in the moment.”
• Auctions for Science: DIY Plague Doctor Mask & Photo Shoot for 4 at CONvergence–“We do not get a cut of ticket sales or charge anything extra for what we offer. We do not profit. At all. This is why we need your help.”
• SKEPTIPROM–“Join us the Saturday night of Skepticon for what is going to be the best prom ever as we’ve taken out all the raging teenage hormones and added a crapload of glitter and skepticism.”
• “What Can I Do To Help”?–“Existing with painful emotions is actually a skill and a difficult one to learn. But if you want to help someone learn it, what you can do instead of asking how you can help is suggest concrete things that allow someone to tolerate distress.”
• Will Louisiana Help The U.S. Gulf Become An Abortion-Free Zone?–“It seems as if every week we read another ‘The worst anti-abortion bill to be signed into law’ story, yet each law truly does top the last in scope and impact on limiting abortion access to near non-existence.”
• Silence is Complicity–“First, some history, It was widely known–in some circles–that Marion Zimmer Bradley was complicit in the sexual abuse of children by her husband, Walter Breen.”
• Why I Support The Helsinki 2017 Worldcon Bid, by Elizabeth Bear, age 42 2/3–“Have you noticed that they’re managing to get liqueurs that taste like pine tree sap (strangely delicious, actually) as well as scrumptious smoked fish to every corner of the United States?”
• Autopsy Contradicts the Official Story–“Cohen’s autopsy report, released on June 12 by Lockett’s attorneys, disputes Oklahoma prison officials’ reports of Lockett’s veins “blowing out” during the execution.”
• Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about–“But when we look to atheist and humanist organizations for solidarity on these issues, there is a staggering lack of interest. And though some mainstream atheist organizations have jumped on the “diversity” bandwagon, they haven’t seriously grappled with the issue.”
• What the Theory of “Disruptive Innovation” Gets Wrong–“The strength of a prediction made from a model depends on the quality of the historical evidence and on the reliability of the methods used to gather and interpret it. Historical analysis proceeds from certain conditions regarding proof. None of these conditions have been met.”
• Dear Marc Andreessen–“The debate is, as ever, really about power. So let’s set robots aside, and with them your black and white dichotomy of pro-growth, pro-tech heroes versus regressive Luddites.”
• Turning anti-gay hate into love with a Loring Park memorial to Joel Larson–“In the late-1980s and early 1990s, a rash of hate crimes hit Loring Park and other areas of the city where LGBT people gathered. 1990 alone saw 112 ‘gay bashings,’ a number that spiked to 130 for just the first half of 1991.”
• In landmark decision, Patent Office cancels trademark for Redskins football team–“In the previous case, the team’s attorneys argued that losing trademark protections and the exclusive right to their brand would cause ‘every imaginable loss you can think of.'”