Today's gender enforcement rants

#1
When I went to my Facebook account just now, I was informed that my profile "might be confusing" and asked to click one of the following radio buttons:
"Stef edited her profile."
"Stef edited his profile."

Uh, no thank you. There was a reason I didn't provide a gender when I signed up for Facebook (although I do usually use standard gender pronouns, and plenty of my status messages include them).

#2
When I went to my gmail account, I had an ad from Sandlot Games for the "Girl Power! Value Pack". "This bundle combines 9 of the greatest Sandlot Games titles featuring female heroines." The games in question?

• Cake Mania
• Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery
• Cake Mania 2
• Granny in paradise
• Super Granny! Winter Winderland
• Super Granny 3
• Super Granny 4
• Eye for Design
• Burger Island

I gather that the Cake Mania and Burger Island games are about building food businesses, and the Super Granny games are about Granny rescuing her kitties. There's nothing wrong with those game genres, but when those are the only genres with female protagonists? Grump.

Today's gender enforcement rants

#1
When I went to my Facebook account just now, I was informed that my profile "might be confusing" and asked to click one of the following radio buttons:
"Stef edited her profile."
"Stef edited his profile."

Uh, no thank you. There was a reason I didn't provide a gender when I signed up for Facebook (although I do usually use standard gender pronouns, and plenty of my status messages include them).

#2
When I went to my gmail account, I had an ad from Sandlot Games for the "Girl Power! Value Pack". "This bundle combines 9 of the greatest Sandlot Games titles featuring female heroines." The games in question?

• Cake Mania
• Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery
• Cake Mania 2
• Granny in paradise
• Super Granny! Winter Winderland
• Super Granny 3
• Super Granny 4
• Eye for Design
• Burger Island

I gather that the Cake Mania and Burger Island games are about building food businesses, and the Super Granny games are about Granny rescuing her kitties. There's nothing wrong with those game genres, but when those are the only genres with female protagonists? Grump.

Writer's Block: The Best Thing You've Done

[Error: unknown template qotd] Part of my mind immediately goes to something like "I wish I had a great creation I could point to as my important contribution to the world." I don't have one. Part of me feels like a failure because I don't.

On the other hand, I have set up my life so that I contribute in a bunch of little ways on a regular basis to the part of the world immediately around me—my family, friends, partners, community, political activism, homeless animals, work. Those contributions don't get noticed in the world at large, but I do get ongoing pleasure and satisfaction out of contributing in that way, and I seem to strongly want to have that sort of ongoing satisfaction.

So I guess those little contributions would count as the good stuff I've done.

(via <lj user=serenejournal>)

Writer's Block: The Best Thing You've Done

[Error: unknown template qotd] Part of my mind immediately goes to something like "I wish I had a great creation I could point to as my important contribution to the world." I don't have one. Part of me feels like a failure because I don't.

On the other hand, I have set up my life so that I contribute in a bunch of little ways on a regular basis to the part of the world immediately around me—my family, friends, partners, community, political activism, homeless animals, work. Those contributions don't get noticed in the world at large, but I do get ongoing pleasure and satisfaction out of contributing in that way, and I seem to strongly want to have that sort of ongoing satisfaction.

So I guess those little contributions would count as the good stuff I've done.

(via <lj user=serenejournal>)