Another social network launches and another kerfluffle about gender and privacy is born. This time it’s Google+, it’s must-be-public* gender drop down, and the choice to identify as “Male,” “Female,” or “Other.” Randall Munroe sums it up nicely. For a discussion about why “Other” is problematic as a category, see Sarah Dopp’s piece from November, [...]
[22 Jul 2011]
This generation of the middle classes has internalised the values of individualist aspiration, as zealously propagated by Tony Blair as by Margaret Thatcher. It does not look to the application of social justice to improve its lot. It expects to rely on its own efforts to get ahead and, crucially, to maintain its position. From [...]
[19 May 2011]
Design conferences are like a competition, and only the best of the best are allowed the privilege of sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience to teach us. Any other perspective is illogical. I will also ignore the fact that slaves were originally prohibited from competing in the Olympics. That’s Faruk Ateş in his post [...]
[4 May 2011]
I am tired of people having this debate about the relative impact of pejorative words on their target minority group. If injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, then the relative power of an antigay gay slur is irrelevant, it is simply a threat to human dignity, and that should appall us all. That’s [...]
[15 Apr 2011]
But now some see a new “digital divide” emerging—with Latinos and blacks being challenged by more, not less, access to technology. It’s tough to fill out a job application on a cell phone, for example. … Fifty-one percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of blacks use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33 [...]
[9 Jan 2011]
Or “Why are Daily Mile‘s default avatars male?” This is a pretty common — and I would guess, frequently wrong — assumption on the part of web site user interface designers. No, your users won’t all be male. Yes, many women and genderqueer people will be annoyed that you made such an assumption. No, “But [...]
[3 Jan 2011]
The prison terms were suspended — not commuted — on the condition that Gladys donate a kidney to Jamie, who is seriously ill with diabetes and high blood pressure and receives dialysis at least three times a week. Gladys had long expressed a desire to donate a kidney to her sister, but to make that [...]
[2 Jan 2011]
New Orleans was among metros with the largest decline in segregation among blacks and whites since 2000, due largely to the exodus of low-income blacks from the city after Hurricane Katrina. One of the findings from a Brookings Institution review of census data as reported by the Associated Press in Black segregation in US drops [...]
[14 Dec 2010]
But this isn’t about sex positivity. Look at the terms of the bet. How can any three men ever determine what “all women” like? At the moment that this becomes about generalizing female sexual practices under one banner, it no longer becomes about women, but about men’s idea and projection of who they would like [...]
[7 Dec 2010]