The Easy Targets

I miss having Hiba as a colleague here at FtB. I fully support her taking her writing in the direction she wants, and I have no doubt she’ll continue to be successful at it, but I miss her blogging. I miss the nuance she brought. I miss the confrontational truths. I miss the challenge to break down our behaviors and really understand them.

I miss this sort of thing.

Side-by-side photos of Hiba Krisht, one with hijab, one with bare hair and shoulders. Text in post.

Feminism is defending Muslim women who wear the hijab for whatever reason against shaming or attack.

Feminism is not categorically denying that the hijab can be coercive, body-shaming, slut-shaming, restrictive, or psychologically crippling.
– Hiba Krisht

Ex-Muslims of North America posted this to their public Facebook group a couple of days ago. Some of their readers had a problem with the statements. Actually, they mostly had one of three problems. Continue reading “The Easy Targets”

The Easy Targets
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Dancing for Uncanny

It’s no secret around here that I’m a fan of Uncanny Magazine. It isn’t just that the editors are friends of mine, though they are. They publish plenty of fiction that is to my tastes, like here and here…and, uh, here, here, and here. They’ve also published me, so I have every reason to be biased.

Still, there are plenty of people who agree with me that Uncanny is well worth supporting. You might even be one of them. This is part of the reason I’ve offered up two rewards in their Kickstarter to pay for their second year of publication.

PICK A SKEPTIC BRAIN. Stephanie Zvan of Freethought Blogs (Almost Diamonds) will blog about a topic chosen by you. Includes everything from the SUSTAINER level.

Want me to write about a topic that interests you? No problem. You get a year’s subscription to great art and essays as well, plus additional fan goodies.

Or maybe you want to go for something a touch more cruel.

TORTURE A SKEPTIC Do you love to hate ghost/monster hunter or UFO shows? Choose your best-worst episode of paranormal TV and have skeptics Dr. Rubidium, Jason Thibeault, or Stephanie Zvan rally the Mock the Movie crew to watch and live-tweet the pain. (We’ll contact you to select the episode and skeptic. First come, first choice.) Includes everything from the SUSTAINER level.

This reward was built out of the long-standing trolling of one of the Uncanny editors who loves to tell me how much he’s enjoying his ghost-hunter shows. (Yes, Michael, I said, “trolling”.) He’s been telling me I need to watch them for years and finally found a pitch I couldn’t resist.

Even if neither of those rewards suits your fancy, go check out the Kickstarter. Basic subscriptions are available, as are plenty of other rewards. Uncanny has just a few days and $6,000 to go to to maintain its ability to support diverse stories, new writers, great fan writing, art, and kindness. Help make that happen.

Dancing for Uncanny

A Useful Definition of Identity Politics

“Identity politics” has never been more than a dogwhistle in my experience. It’s been a way to tell people facing discrimination in activist spaces that they should shut up for the cause. It’s used to suggest that certain identities are inherently divisive when asserted, while others are still merely default. In other words, it’s made certain identities unwelcome in organizing simply through its use.

This is why it was refreshing and illuminating to see an activist lay out a definition that’s useful for planning effective activism and that doesn’t define the behavior of only a marginalized group as political. Interestingly enough, it came out of discussions about Rachel Dolezal a couple of months ago. From Elizabeth Wood at Woodhull Alliance: Continue reading “A Useful Definition of Identity Politics”

A Useful Definition of Identity Politics

Secular Women Work: How to Be an Ally

We have some video conversion and editing to do before we can release all the talks and panels from the Secular Women Work conference. We had several people tweeting the event, though, so I am collecting and releasing Storifies of the sessions over several days.

This was a pretty intense panel, with people talking about it all evening and the next day. The tweets won’t and can’t do it justice, as they captured the advice more than why it is important. I am extremely grateful to Desiree for asking us to put this together. Continue reading “Secular Women Work: How to Be an Ally”

Secular Women Work: How to Be an Ally