Bots with Boobs

Why does it have boobs? No, really -- why?

The purpose of the human breast is to provide nourishment for infant offspring. (And if you believe my husband or my dog, to act as a comfy pillow -- so nice to be useful.) A robot, being inorganic, incapable of sexual reproduction, and gender-neutral, has no need of them.

OK, so you're uncomfortable with a robot that has no gender. We like our binary gender pronouns, don't we? "It" seems impolite, so we must use "he" or "she," and if the 'bot is female, it must have breasts to visually identify its artificial gender. Right? I can follow along with that logic, I suppose.

But this thing, Femisapien (yours for a mere $100), has more than just breasts to make this less of a robot, and more of a gynoid. Oh yes! This expensive toy is feminine in other ways:

Intelligent and interactive, RS Femisapien™ speaks her own language called "emotish" which consists of gentle sounds and gestures. There is no remote required; interact with her directly and she responds to your hand gestures, touch, and sound.

"EMOTISH"??? "Gentle sounds and gestures"??? Are you [&%$@] kidding me? "She will slow pose, be your back-up singer, introduce herself, dance with you, and even blow kisses."

I found her over in the boys section of my local Toys R Us. Mostly what caught my attention was the bustiness of the robot. Then I looked it up when I got home, and found that. *sigh* The Robosapien has "Fluent international 'caveman' speech."

I have to admit, this sounds like it would be an entertaining toy. She has three different modes: Attentive, Learning and Responsive, and might be interesting for kids to play with, since she can respond to you. Read RobotsRule review of her. I think it would be funny to see what the dog thinks of her, but not $100 curious...

All this is certainly cool, but I still don't know why she's so busty! She's about 14 inches tall, and the most entertaining thing I read about her was in the PC Magazine review:

In the end, my 10-year-old daughter offered the best description and summation of this unusual and somewhat endearing entertainment bot, "I bet 90 percent of the people who will buy this will be men—very, very lonely men." 

Ten years old, people! And she gets it!!

UPDATE: Anita Saarkesian of the Feminist Frequency has also covered the fembot. You should absolutely watch that video. I remember the Heineken ad, and was horrified by it all over again.

Blue is for Boys

My daughter had bowling practice after school the other night, but we had time to kill so I popped in to my local Toys R Us, and started looking for any missing ladies for my collection. On this particular trip, I was able to pick up Barriss Offee and Tauriel.

I noted again, as I always do because it bugs the hell out of me, that the action figure aisles are marked in blue and labeled as Boys. Across the aisle are the pink signs labeled Girls, where one finds dolls.

The way the store is laid out, this side goes from Electronics - Action Figures - Cars & Trucks - Sports. Electronics and Sports are not marked in blue (sports is green), but the implication is pretty clear. The center of the store is Dolls - Learning - Arts & Crafts. Learning and Arts & Crafts are signed in orange, but again, the implication is clear, and the green/orange of those signs are analogous to the blue/pink, so it's even a VISUAL relationship that any child who isn't colorblind can recognize.

I went back today to get photos. [cue The Pink Panther theme] Retailers do not want people taking photos inside their stores. I don't know why, exactly, possibly because they fear pricing wars. (It was the same when I worked at the bookstore, company policy: No Photography.) However, neither this morning, nor last night, were any employees interested in my shenanigans. Near as I can tell, no one noticed what I was up to.

The boys toys aisles are marked with blue signs, and the shelves have blue headers (see below).

Obviously, only boys build stuff, right??

Even the football and the soccer ball are blue on the green sign, reinforcing the message of Blue = Boys

Not entirely certain why the doll on the girl's sign is blue. Perhaps it's a coincidence that
the sports balls are blue, since blue is the main color for TRU... call me skeptical.

It SAYS "kids' cooking" but the signage is pink as are most of the packages.
(None of the silver/black "unisex" Easy-Bakes yet.)

Even the website has a division:

The lists are identical except for (girls') Bath, Beauty & Accessories and Dolls, and (boys') Action Figures and Vehicles, Hobby & R/C. At least it's not pink and blue...

Upon checkout, I mentioned my gripes to the cashier (stressing that I was not upset with her, because she wasn't responsible), and she actually came back with "the manufacturers tell us where to stock things," the first time someone had ever responded intelligently to criticism instead of just saying "thank you, I'll let my manager know." To that, I replied that it's TRU deciding to make the signs pink and blue, marked with "Boy" and "Girl" -- not Mattel, Hasbro, et al. (Surely, the influence of gender-specificity doesn't extend that far... She didn't contradict me so, hopefully that's the case.)

I received a "how are we doing" survey with my receipt, and the potential to win $500. One of the last questions was an essay opportunity to tell them how they can improve, with 2000 characters to do so. And I did.

I told them that the pink/blue signs were unnecessary, that "boys/girls" was unnecessary, and that just Cars, Dolls, Sports, etc. was sufficient. Just because the manufacturers insist on using color to tell kids who should play with it (I'm looking at you, Hasbro, of the girly Easy Bake Oven -- by the way, McKenna Pope, you rock!), doesn't mean that the retailers must goose-step along with it. Yes, I know Barbie Pink won't be going away, and no, GI Joe won't be ditching the red, white and blue, but why does a retail store have to follow suit? I pointed out that, as a girl, I played with cars with my brothers, we built stuff with LEGOs, and I had dolls. I noted that stores abroad were opting for gender-neutrality, and there was no reason they couldn't do the same. In fact, a Swedish TRU ad showed boys and girls playing with toys on both sides of the aisle (the pages were still pink and blue, but at least they're making an effort). I said that, by not steering children to only half the store, they could make more money -- because let's face it, they're there to make money, not cater to my dreams of gender-neutral toys. I honestly expect nothing to come of it. If someone from TRU replies to my comments, I'll be astonished. But at least I had my say, even if it's going straight into the trash.

Interestingly, a different TRU had the same pink and blue signs, but they were not marked as Boys/Girls.

This is what you see walking in the door. The pink signs are first, then the blue, then sports in green,
and electronics is back in the corner. The (orange) learning toys, games, and arts & crafts are in the center.

Blue: remote control cars

Pink: beauty, baking and princess dress-up

I'm a little baffled at why one store has signs marked with gender and another does not. My husband suggested that the other store store was newer/recently renovated, but honestly, I don't know which one is the newer. He thinks it's the one without "Boys/Girls" but I'm unconvinced. The signage in our local store (with the genders on them) looks newer. When it's not so bloody cold outside, perhaps I'll widen my investigative circle, and see if I can figure out if the gender-specific signs are a new thing, or something they're phasing out.

What are you finding in your local toy stores?

Minimalist Cosplay

OK... "cosplay" is a bit of a stretch.

I recently started playing with hatmaking. My millinery skills are limited, but I have managed to create a creditable pillbox, and I can manage the little fascinator-style mini top hats. So I thought, Hey, Wonder Woman pillbox! A cinch, really: blue pillbox, with a metallic gold "tiara" appliquéd on with a red rhinestone star. Naturally, this led to Who else could be created as a hat? Lots of superheroines have iconic symbolism, but how can those symbols be interpreted as hats?

So far, I've sketched Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Phoenix, White Queen and She-Hulk.

Nerd couture. Geek chic. Madness.

I'll post pics as I make 'em up.



Helpful links for hatmaking:
Mini top hat tutorial and patterns (sewn or glued)
Mini top hat video tutorial (no-sew)
Pillbox photo tutorial (some sewing, some gluing)
Pillbox video tutorial (sewn; I didn't have a lot of luck with this, but it really is a nice-looking hat)

Also see:
Threads magazine issue #153 (March 2011 - I got my copy on ebay)
Hat making books at Amazon -- once you find one that sounds good, you can check your library if you don't want to commit.

Semantics: You say "tomato", I say "nonpoisonous member of the nightshade family"

A woman I follow on Twitter (@honestlynina) asked

Anyone: Whats the difference between a geek and a nerd to you? 

I replied in two parts, because 140 characters just wouldn't cut it.

Geek = *serious* fan of pretty much anything; music geek, comics geek, science geek [con't]

Nerd = bookish, awkward, excessively knowledgeable (about anything). I am geeky about some things, & nerdy abt others 

I want to expand on that, though. There's more to it than just being a fan, or excessively knowledgeable.

These days, people use the phrase "geek out" pretty casually. (I don't have to get into the whole history of geeks/carnies, right? That's been done to death.) I think it's awesome that what was once reserved for gamers and Star Wars/Trek fanatics is now crossing into other fields of interest... and that's really what it amounts to for me. YMMV* I love comics, comic book movies, World of Warcraft, Star Trek and Star Wars, etc. etc. I cannot quote chapter and verse, issue and volume, episode and season. I haven't memorized the canon or the lore. And I'm not saying that people who do are bad or weird. They are the nerds, those people who have encyclopedic knowledge about their favorite things. But just because I can't quote Cassandra Cain from page 10 in issue 4, volume 2 doesn't mean I don't have sincere passion and appreciation for comics. It's what makes idiotic rants from people like Tony Harris so hurtful and baffling.

I am a casual gamer. True, I can spend hours and hours playing in a single sitting, playing until I can barely get out of my chair, but I have not memorized the loot tables. I hate raiding, and I don't like dungeons. I enjoy questing. Most of my toons have leveled almost exclusively through questing, so my gear ain't so great. I nearly made a guildmate cry because all my gear on a max-level character was green level from quest rewards, not blue or purple from dungeons. He decided that I needed better gear and started dragging me through dungeons. He is a WoW nerd, I am a WoW geek. I love the game, love the stories (seriously loved Golden's novel The Shattering), hoard various things in the bank because I might want them later... I can discuss story lines, but not mechanics of boss fights. I have all the soundtracks, and that is my preferred background music for long-distance driving, and think Cranius is a freakin' genius. (Oxhorn's good for comedy, but doesn't have the level of artistry that Cranius has, in my opinion.)

I suppose that's sort of where I draw the line between geek and nerd; nerds aren't casual. They are driven in their passion to know everything they can learn about something.

My nerdiness usually comes out as weird bits of stored scientific knowledge. The "classic" nerd, if you will; the studious and socially awkward kid who was the teacher's pet and got straight As. (I was a solid B student; studying was too much work.) I think that was how I was perceived, in part, by a lot of my classmates. One of my biggest hurdles, so to speak, to becoming a true nerd is my inability to devote the time to gaining that encyclopedia head. I bounce from interest to interest and back again, because there are a lot of things that interest me. It's hard to focus on one thing for a long time, because there's just so much more in the world to know and learn and try. A less kind person would call me (and I have done) a dilettante, a person of casual interests, without commitment to the subject(s). Oh, what a hateful, insulting and mean word... worse, because it's accurate. We should all be grateful that the Fake Geek Girl proponents haven't used the word, not that I've seen anyway. Perhaps it's because they're ignorant, sophomoric twits who have a less than stellar grasp of wordsmithing, hmm?

Anyway, that's how I look at the nuances between geeks and nerds. How do you use the words? Are they interchangeable?


*Your Mileage May Vary, or what is true for me, may not be true for someone else. My experience is mine; yours is yours.

Gathering of Geek Grrls

This year, I was unable to attend Geek Girl Con, in Seattle, Washington. It happened the weekend before my daughter started high school as an incoming freshman, and though I desperately wanted to attend, I just couldn't. The 2013 con is scheduled in October, and when I mentioned it to my husband, he asked if I wanted to go. (DUH!) Then he said something surprising -- he asked if I wanted to go alone, or if I wanted my daughter and him to go with me. I didn't have to consider that for long; of course, I'd love them to go with me!

The con's motto is "The Celebration of the Female Geek." He and I have had some spirited discussions about male/female relations, roles, and women in pop culture. He probably sees me as being a little rabid about some things, and I see him as a bit clueless (but it's not his fault, because as a non-female, he can't truly understand my POV). That he is willing, in fact kinda volunteering, to go to this particular con with me shows me that I really married a great guy.

The Kid won't be as excited, probably. Cons are noisy and crowded, and she's autistic. But the hotel will likely have a pool (don't they all?) and if she can't take it anymore (or if he can't), they can always go hang out in the pool. And she loves to fly, so at least she'll get to do that.

So I'm jazzed on a couple of levels. Getting to attend a con with like-minded people, with minimal BS about being a fake, is awesome. Plus I hope that he can gain some insight into some of the things I'm all ranty about. And it'll be a family vacation like I wanted to take this summer that never materialized... *sigh* ANYway, there's all kinds of excellent reasons to attend, and the biggest drawbacks I see are that we'll have to board the pup and The Kid will miss a day of school.

I just have to wait 10 months and 9 days... :(

Advertising Intolerance

Please note: This is a rant. As such it contains salty language unsuitable for young children (who shouldn't be surfing the internet unsupervised, anyway) and prudes (likewise).

We all know that advertising wants to sell us stuff, right? Companies sell ad space and advertisers try to entice us to buy their stuff. So what does this sell?

It sells out, that's what it does! This is an ad for the website College Humor, which appeared on the back page of DC's Sword of Sorcery (featuring Amethyst) #1 -- arguably a book aimed at females, since the main protagonist, Amethyst (a reboot of the 80s comic character), is female. It's also written and edited by women (Christy Marx and Rachel Gluckstern, respectively). I'm not a fan of College Humor; I find the fratboy-level intellect just a little too grating. Fine, whatever, it's not for me. I don't have to look at it.

But then DC Comics sold them ad space. A lot of ad space. Like nearly every DC and Vertigo title ran the ad. What. The. Fuck.

There's been so much attention given to the whole Fake Geek Girl meme and the challenging reactions to it. John Scalzi, bestselling author and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, blogged about who gets to be a geek. The Mary Sue blogged about it. Probably lots of other people did, too, but I don't spend every waking moment online. I really can't believe people at DC are so damned stupid that they wouldn't realize that nerd grrls are on the verge of starting a bloody revolution. Starting in their offices.

I first caught wind of the ad last week, at The Mary Sue. I was pretty annoyed, and sent DC a tweet about it. Today I picked up SoS #1, got to the back page, and damned if it wasn't there, too. A little digging, and I learned that it's pretty much publisher-wide. Really, DC? Are you so hurting for money that you sell that much ad space for an ad that alienates any female readers you have left?? Or are you rolling in so much cash that you don't care if all women quit buying your books?

DC is apparently aware of what they're doing, and they don't care. Here's a great article by Georgia Ball about it, written in February ('12): "Women Do Not Read Comics Says DC and Kevin Smith."

DC will also conclude that as female readers don’t exist, content offerings don’t need to change. As long as mainstream comics continues to ignore and offend female audiences, the more they will see that audience shrink, leaving plenty of opportunity for independent titles made available digitally to take their place.

So I undoubtedly wasted my breath when I sent them a message this evening via their contact form, questioning their judgement on that particular transaction with College Humor. Maybe, just maybe, if enough women let them know that We Are Not Amused by this, and want them to stop, it will make a difference. Or maybe it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and all women will stop buying their titles and tell them to go to hell. Contact form is here -- so if you buy comics and think this ad is bullshit, let 'em know.

International Day of the Girl

October 11, 2012 is the first International Day of the Girl. Like with Woman's History Month in March, there may be some detractors who want to know why it's necessary to have a day (or a month) set aside for females. We have a Children's Day, so why do we need a day just for girls? Because so long as girls are marginalized, devalued, sold, sexualized or denied education, we need to honor them and be aware of the plight of girls around the globe. Why, because things like a girl being shot because she wanted an education happen.

When I read about Malala Yousafzai, I was horrified, angry, and depressed. Fourteen years old, shot by the Taliban because she wanted to go to school and had the audacity to blog about it. A teenaged girl, targeted for assassination, because she wanted an education. Some extremist bastard shot a child because she wanted to go to school. No matter how many ways I phrase that, it's still awful. And honestly, I'm not "angry," I'm fucking mad as hell. But it's not just Pakistan. It's not just Muslim countries. This evil-mindedness toward girls happens everywhere.

 

What you can do to help today, and affect real change:

• Rescue a girl from indentured servitude in Nepal.

In western Nepal, many indigenous families from the Tharu ethnic group subsist as farm laborers. Unable to make ends meet, they have been forced into a desperate trade – selling their daughters to work far from home as bonded servants in private homes or as dishwashers in tea houses. Some of these children are as young as six. Alone and far from home, these "indentured daughters" have no knowledge of the ways of city people or of other cultures, and most speak only the local dialect. Their living conditions are entirely at the discretion of their employers. The bonded girls seldom attend school and have no prospects for a decent future. Some are ultimately forced into prostitution.

• Send a girl to school in Afghanistan.

The Zabuli Education Center was founded by Afghan native Razia Jan through the Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation. Razia’s dream of a school for girls became reality through the collaboration of several extraordinary women — as well as the vital support from generous organizations and the hard work of staff and volunteers.

• Sponsor the education of a Maasai girl in Kenya.

The Maasai Girls Education Fund was created to improve the literacy, health and economic well-being of Maasai women in Kenya and their families through education of girls and their communities. MGEF provides scholarships from primary school through university to girls who have never enrolled in school, or who would be forced to drop out of school for cultural or economic reasons, and we are committed to each student until they have the knowledge and skills needed to enter the workforce in Kenya.  With economic empowerment, this new generation of Maasai women will end early marriages and circumcision of girls and bring greater literacy, health, and economic well being to future generations.

Want something closer to home, or think this is only a Third World problem?

• Donate to Children of the Night in the United States.

Children of the Night is a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 and dedicated to rescuing America's children from the ravages of prostitution.

Note: I looked for something similar in Canada, and didn't find it. Prostitution is legal there, but child prostitution is not, nor is child trafficking. If you know of an organization that helps Canadian girls escape prostitution, or helps Canadian girls generally, let me know!

If you know of an organization that seeks to raise up girls and give them equal status to boys, post it in the comments!

If you don't have the cash to donate to an organization, you can donate your time. Mentor, raise awareness, make your voice heard. Find more ways to affect change here: amazingwomenrock.com/links-to-empower-girls, ungei.org/ (United Nations Girls' Education Initiative), and of course dayofthegirl.org/.

Girls matter. And if you need an explanation why, you're part of the problem.