Looking for a safe space to have a vagina

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I love to let my eyes leave the screen for a while and let my brain grapple with information in another way. It’s generally a very enjoyable way to spend time.

As I recently prepared my place for guests, I clicked on the science fiction cast StarShipSofa #240 to make the cleaning go faster. Everything was going great, as usual, until J.J. Campanella’s Science News. His intro to the first story began, as you may remember like this: “The first story of the night may make the male part of the audience a bit uncomfortable because it has to do with, well, female plumbing, so to speak. So if you have kids listening or are just uncomfortable about the topic you may want to skip ahead about five or six minutes to get beyond this particular story. So what is this anti-macho, squirm-inducing story?”

The answer to that is: a very technical story about the human microbiome, specifically that of the vagina.*

This embarrassing intro not only undercut the cool science of the story but it also made me feel incredibly angry and sad. Here’s why:  First it suggests that male audience members are so immature as to find a rather dry (though interesting) story about vaginas somehow unlistenable. StarshipSofa often includes stories where men and women fuck each other, most often, vaginally—including the story before this one. So imagining a vagina is cool if we’re talking sex, but if we are talking science, it’s gross? Way to reinforce negative stereotypes of science fiction fans, Dr. Campanella, while undercutting your own science reporting at the same time! At its most innocuous, this kind of intro panders to the immature and close-minded, more insidiously, it provides support to the idea that it is totally reasonable to think that women’s bodies are gross, that it's okay, if you are a man, to be ignorant of the non-sexual aspects of the vag.

And, worse than gross, apparently “the topic” is unsuitable for children. Considering half of those hypothetical kids have vaginas themselves, this idea is absurd at best. It is definitely a pretty terrifying statement about how many people conceive of reproductive organs, especially those of women, as shameful, embarrassing, and most importantly, a dirty secret. If you, as a parent, are not comfortable with your kids knowing about their own bodies, or them hearing the correct terms used for their parts, then you are failing in your job. Frankly, any parent listening to a podcast aimed at adults, full of violence and other adult situations, with their children better be prepared to answer much more challenging questions than “What’s a vagina?”

Even though the terms “anti-macho, squirm-inducing” are thrown out a with a little cheek, it is still incredibly disappointing to hear SSS’s science correspondent use those words to describe a story about a part of half of the population’s bodies. Why do I have to hear this shit on a podcast dedicated to the world of the fantastic, fiction or fact, where anything is supposedly possible?

* Here's the article: P. Gajer, R. M. Brotman, G. Bai, J. Sakamoto, U. M. Schütte, X. Zhong, S. S. Koenig, L. Fu, Z. (. Ma, X. Zhou, Z. Abdo, L. J. Forney, J. Ravel, Temporal Dynamics of the Human Vaginal Microbiota. Sci. Transl. Med. 4, 132ra52 (2012).

She’s Such a Geek! edited by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders

I picked this up because I like the editors’ work on io9. Here they’ve collected essays on loving stereotypically geeky (and male) interests like math, science and internetery. I love essays, so I was hoping for some passionate writing about the subjects to which, years after education in them was easily available to me, I finally see the allure.

The book is divided into six chapters: growing up nerd, high tech, in the lab, geek, interrupted, games and superheroes. Essentially, all the stories belong in “geek, interrupted” first and foremost. All these women’s stories of loving whatever nerdy thing they love involve interference by sexism in its various guises: parental expectations, harassment, rejection by peers and lovers, casual put-downs, academic glass ceilings and self-confidence issues. The best ones, like Newitz’s “…When Diana Prince Takes Off Her Glasses” and Wendy Seltzer’s “The Overloaded Activist,” take a firm idea and see it through with a mix of analysis an anecdote. The majority, however, are linear biographies without much craft. Many focus on the trouble of getting a lover who understands and respects a brainy lady, and the inclusion of so many of this type of story was both a sad statement on the romantic mores of our times and frankly a little boring. They pile up and bog down the interesting bits of scientific description scattered throughout the collection. As a non-science type, I wanted to hear what they actually do and why it is so different from, say, being a lawyer.

The excellent introduction by the editors set my expectations high. The rest of the book left me to wish that they had exercised their whittling skills and cut the bloat by presenting essays that worked--not only as individual stories but that fit together into a larger picture of the wonderful women of science.

Addendum: When I say this title in my head, I hear it to the beat of the Go Go's We Got the Beat. Say it with me now: She’s Such a Geek! She’s Such A Geek! She’s Such a Geek! This is more annoying than charming. This is my own problem, but a problem nonetheless.

link-a-dink

Have you ever needed to see something beautiful, but not even known it? Then, when it happens, you suddenly feel a weight lifting from your shoulders and feel stupid for not even thinking that a bit of awesomeness could do you good? Irina Troitskaya's work is today's cure. She has all kinds of art and a nice blog too.

Anyone want to translate her comics for me?

Thanks Zoologix!

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Have I ever told you guys about the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library? Their Historical Collections and Services department does amazing work by bringing truly brain-smashing medical images and scholarship to the masses by actually utilizing web technology. Some exhibits are a little clunky (and named after Police songs), and others are better, but all are worthwhile. Work sometimes brings me to them, but even after I am out of the medical writing sphere, this will continue to be an awesome resource for old-timey WTF.



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My main man has a blog where you can hear his musical stylings. If you need a bright boy on keys, give him a jangle.

bits of good

Some thoughts on internet persona and anonymity by bug girl. Work, passion, Darwin and Tootsie all make an appearance.
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Michael Schaub is back at bookslut. Hooray-a-thon. He is hilarious and smart.
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The excellent Matthew Cheney talks about books on a particular shelf over at Strange Horizons. The only downside to the essay is that he opens with a confession of bookshelf voyeurism and I wanted to know more about what he's gleaned about others from their display.
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Cure for the rainy-month blues:
spicy vegetarian chili
iced tea with garden herbs
books set in Seattle, Scotland, Jupiter or beneath the earth
cotton blankets
Maniac Cop

real life

Whew! only 15 more books from 2008 to go. As I look them over, I realize how few books of nonfiction I read last year. Not including the totally crazy Mia Tyler autobiography (which I will not be reviewing here), I read four and they were memoirs. A few of the comic collections I read had auto-bio bits, but I didn't delve into any nonfiction subject beyond internet reading and maybe a few magazine articles. Though you can't tell from the sidebar, 2009 is shaping up to be a much better year for nonfiction. Right now I am reading a book about the eye, and I have a few more science-y history books stacked and waiting.

I think I ought to add this one to the list, don't you? Bug girl certainly makes a case for it.
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Longtime readers and friends may have noticed that I let my brother's birthday yesterday go unremarked upon here. I certainly felt the unfinished business of his life press about my shoulders and face and spent parts of the day wishing with that raw feeling that is so much angrier than wishing that he was here to get my card and my love. Mostly though, I spent his birthday nourishing myself and my tiny family, did some maintenance of myself and my home and reveled in all the personal work I have done the past five years or so.

It was almost enough.

link-smackin' good

Maud Newton has two events coming up that sound really great. Both are at the Housing Works Cafe & Bookstore.
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A week of groceries on $30? Here in New York? These folks are doing it and making really good food too. (Except for the nasty raw food week. Raw food dinner is a-ok. Raw food breakfast is not for the hedonistic, to say the least.)
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Science and life and being a lady--all the good things, no? Thesis--With Children is great writing on all of those topics and more. I have especially been enjoying the posts on race and academia.
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Speaking of science, here are some great posts on depression, courtesy of Neurotopia 2.0. Read the entire enlightening series.
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I've also been doing a lot of art snooping these days. If a poor person buying art is wrong, I don't want to be right!

“no monster exists that cannot be made pleasing through art”

Or "hello, I am monstir" for the smart set...

While at work, I stumbled upon this amazing online exhibit by The New York Academy of Medicine called A Telling of Wonders: Teratology in Western Medicine through 1800. All the material is from their library's collections, which makes me want to go check out the historical collections, which, from the online teasers, seem a bit like a subdued (and fetus jar-less) Mutter Museum. Field trip anyone?

Though it gives great summaries of fascinating and bizarre historical books and pamphlets, the visual elements are too small and too sparse. I wish that there were more scans from the various books cited and a gallery of the more compelling images. Still the exhibit is a nice tease and includes a great bibliography of current works related to teratology. Things like this are the very reason I considered applying for a medical librarianship concentration.

What monsters are you studying these days?

(image from the exhibit: engraving, Frederik Ruysch)

linkulous

Berlin! Jason Lutes gives a great interview over at bookslut. This is the first interview I've ever read with him and he seems like a pleasant and thoughtful guy.

Get lost easily? If it is as bad as this, these scientists want to talk to you:
"Despite a normal cognitive development, this person has never been able to orient in her environment. From about the age of 6 years onwards she recalls panicking at the grocery store each time her mother disappeared from sight. Her sisters or parents accompanied her to school and she never left home by herself because she got lost each time she tried. As a teenager, she relied on friends to accompany her when she left her parents’ house. Neither she nor her parents know of similar navigational difficulties in their family members. She follows strict stereotyped directions to get to the office where she has worked for five years. She knows which bus to take downtown, recognizes a large distinctive square at which she must exit the bus, and then follows a straight route of about 30 meters to locate the tall building where her office is situated. She follows the same path in reverse fashion to get home, although sometimes she gets lost in her neighbourhood and needs to phone her father to ask him to come and get her."
Nightmare!

YA author and science fiction scholar Justine Larbalestier will be answering questions about her writing process all of January! Leave your query here.

Aaaand, I'm finally not sick and in the thick of application time! It's tedious and nerve-wracking at once.

P.S.

Both projects on DonorsChoose that I decided to support have been fully funded, partially by try harder readers.

Hooray!

Newsy

As you can see by on the widget to the left one of the projects I'm supporting over at Donors Choose has been funded! All you cool kids that helped out please pat yourself on the back and await your tax deduction.

Everybody else, please drop a few bucks for some microscopes for these awesome middle schoolers. When donating, please click through the link at the top of this post so I can see whose donating through try harder.

From the teacher whose classroom we helped:

Dear Carrie Tryharder [and all of you--ed.],

All I can say is WOW! I am so excited about the new materials our class will be getting. You just don't know how much I appreciate your generosity and I know when I tell the students about our new materials they will be overjoyed. You have my promise that the materials will be used to build curiosity and excitement about science. So many inner city children don't get an opportunity to explore science in depth and these materials are a step in that direction. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sincerely, Kim

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Hop on over and check out my new reviewing gig at Inkstuds. The dilemma about reviewing single issues has be solved!

Though my first post has already been seen here, please check back for new reviews soon.

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Dag, Frankenstein is good.

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Write me some letters!
Send me some review copies!

Carrie Try Harder
TTS PO BOX 113
New York, NY
10108

try harder to try harder

"F-"

Donor's Choose update:

After a strong first day (see my introductory post here), tryharderland's denizens seemed to have given up giving to the projects I'm supporting over at Donors Choose.

Boo.

We have only a few months left to get those kids their bugs and microscopes! Please head over to try harder's "giving page" (gag) and drop a few bucks for the Philly kids. No amount is too small and your donations are tax deductible.

We may be no Tomato Nation, but we can still drop the science, right?

Simple

1) I went to public school in Philadelphia.
2) Even at my "good" public schools, supplies were scarce.
3) I can't imagine what it was like elsewhere.
4) People like Miss Alison (hello, lady) shouldn't have to spend a significant portion of their already shitty salary making a classroom hospitable for kids.
5) Science has been the delight of my recent years and taught me to be inquisitive about, surprised by and respectful of this mysterious world, even during awful and painful times.
6) Kids should get the chance to feel that too, if even they aren't lucky enough to go to a "good" school.
7) I want to give something to my hometown, because, hey, I turned out ok.


Here are the projects I am sponsoring through DonorsChoose. You tryharderlanders have been so generous with your time, praise, thoughts and links. If you could extend that to your wallets, I would be ever so grateful.

Edited to Add: Please leave a comment here if you donate!

If you are in need of a little non-fiction magic, please check out grrlscientist's series on visiting Charles Darwin's house. The photographs are beautiful. I wish I had a greenhouse appended to the back of my apartment.


above:A bumblebee, Bombus spp., on a flower in the gardens behind Darwin's Down House, near Bromley, England. Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008

newsy

Yesterday, on my short but emotionally stultifying walk home from work I saw two teenage girls walking and reading real novels. I smiled at them and they were properly dismissive.

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I just finished a great book. I hope to be writing about it for somewhere else. I'll give you a clue: It is a novel by a Canadian author about Cambodia by one of my favorite publishers.

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Around the same time I started the first volume of the Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) diaries. After the many, many introductory notes, most of which I actually read, Pepys journal begins with an account of his wife's period going missing for several weeks, Royal Navy news and the perplexing complaint of a nose swollen by the cold. He kept the diaries for 9 years.

B gave me the first three volumes of the newest translation (and supposedly best) for my birthday last year. I am glad I finally started it.

I became interested in the diaries after reading the first book of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver. In the novel Pepys is a kindly and compelling character, already established as a man of knowledge by the time the main character, Daniel Waterhouse, encounters him. He also eventually cuts Waterhouse's nuts open. Because he was a prolific writer, and, by all accounts a man who liked to have a good time, I am hoping that the diaries include some gossip about other (still existing) Royal Society, its members (such as Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Issac Newton, Christopher Wren, etc.) and their wacky experiments. So far, it is mostly about the Navy.

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Have you seen the Thunder Lodge Guestbook? It's a must-read for those stuck at home.

the party I wish I were having

I love those ScienceBlogs and especially the Bleiman brothers.

Why I love bug girl's blog:

"Sapromyophilic flowers are commonly red to mimic meat, and some of them also produce heat, to further mimic decomposing flesh or a recently dropped turd."

Read all the National Pollinator Week posts!

linky

Wow. I came expecting something else and got exactly what I needed today. This is why I love the internet and mourn zines. (via journalista)

Size matters, and it was better in the old days.

"I have to take your head to Home Depot and use your eyes to buy tools."

My man's worst nightmare, or the best TV movie ever made? I think it is both!

A new blog that makes me feel happy to be alive:

A Good Poop
Safe for my work, at least.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius That Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

This little book was a book swap find that was a delightful way to fulfill one of last year's goals-- read more nonfiction.

I loved this book. Because it is set in the 1700s, mostly in England and involves science it manages to ramble through many of my favorites settings: the wacky Royal Society, pirate-ridden seas and old-timey political intrigue. The man who found "The Longitude," as it was called in the old days, was named John Harrison. His story is the kind Americans (even me!) like best: poor boy with big brains makes good. Not that it was easy, the race for the 20,000 pound prize for finding "a method to determine longitude to an accuracy of a half a degree of a great circle" took 40 years and was crazy vicious. Stargazers and tinkers (including Harrison, a clockmaker) chased each other, Captain Cook makes an appearance and Harrison's clocks still run today.

Sigh.

Edited to add: sorry about the crappy photo!

Life of the Party by Mary Fleener and Dignifying Science edited by Jim Ottaviani et al.

Another ladies of the 90s find, I went looking for Fleener’s
work after seeing a link to her photo blog on Journalista. Life of the Party was put out by Fantagraphics in 1996 and features 26 “autobigraphix” that focus on life in California. She says on her website that her first solo comic was a tribute to Nora Zeale Hurston and she decided to illustrate her wild stories after being inspired by Hurston’s stories.

My first exposure to Fleener was in, what else, Twisted Sister II. That anthology reprinted “Boogie Chillun,” Fleener’s story of falling for a surfer. Her black and white, cubist-on-a-bender style perfectly emphasizes the rabid surfer mentality. So many of her comics deal with some sort of rabid mentality, usually cocaine or sex related, that I can’t imagine these stories shown in any other way than Fleener’s exploding faces and jerking bodies. This is not to say that much of her drawing isn’t realistic, from nicely-rendered stretch marks in “The Jelly” to coastline and shoe stores in “Hush Yuppies,” the details make these stories affecting.

I am not quite sure why I am drawn to the sex, drugs and crazies stories these days. I have certainly experienced enough of all three to not need a by-proxy experience. Perhaps it is the fact that in the 80s and 90s cities weren’t popular. Artists could stick around, be bad and really contribute to a place without having to be a piece of history first. They actually had time to fuck around, make mistakes and make art! There is an energy in Fleener‘s stories that is lacking in my life right now and just opening this book is like licking a battery for my soul.

After enjoying Life of the Party, I went looking for more Fleener comics on the internets and found Dignifying Science. Fleener and a few other lady artists I had heard of were listed as illustrators so I snatched it up.

Turns out, Fleener’s piece was a single illustration of Emmy Noether, a German mathematician, for the back cover:

My copy was a library discard and seemed to have been bound wrong in the last section, resulting in some cut-off words, but even so, I enjoyed reading about the science folks and all the hardships they overcame (or didn’t quite). The art is black and white and the styles change by piece. Lea Hernandez’s piece on Barbara McClintock (genetist) looks nothing like Jen Sorensen’s piece on Lise Miller (physicist). There are some good notes at the end that shed light not only on the subject’s lives, but on the artists’ methods.

One question though, what the fuck in is Hedy Lamarr's hand on the cover?