Cynthia Gonsalves says: Many of you out there have heard about the systematic trollage of one of my favorite science fiction and fantasy conventions, WisCon, over this past weekend. [Information is easily available on the net, but summaries and links are here, {Eamong other places.] One young woman managed in one fell and pestilent swoop [...]

Debbie says: Sorry for our long silence. We had hoped to post from WisCon 32, but both of us were knocked over in the middle of the convention by the stomach virus that afflicted maybe as much as 10% of the convention. We’re both well now, but exhausted, and we have lots to catch up [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: Fitness Magazine is not where one would usually look for positive body image articles, but this one. which centers on BlogHer and quotes Laurie, is both good and interesting. (Of course, we would prefer that it wasn’t surrounded on all sides by swimsuit models with muscular navels.) BlogHer.com has seen an [...]

Debbie says: Laurie and I generally try to stay away from blogging about the horrors of the U.S. incumbent government, because 1) so many people do that well; and 2) most of it isn’t directly related to body image (even though that’s not always what we blog about). This particular outrage, however, is, among other [...]

Debbie says: We are delighted to announce that the California Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage in the State of California. The opinion is here. Every major news outlet is carrying the story; the local angle is here. It is long overdue, and still subject to legal challenge, but that’s for another day Today is [...]

Lynne Murray says: I have been thinking about women in movies recently. Well, really thinking about how few there are, and how similar they all are. I have a friend whose view of current movie actresses is similar to Ulysses S. Grant’s view of music. Grant was so musically challenged that he could recognize only [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: In 1870, not long after the end of the horrifyingly bloody and destructive U.S. Civil War, anti-war activist Julia Ward Howe called for an international Mother’s Day holiday. In her declaration, she said: We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with [...]

Debbie says: I saw this article a few days ago, and I’m still thinking about it. The premise is that (married) men are showing less interest in sex: Relate, which provides counselling, sex therapy and relationship education, said there had been a 40 per cent increase in male clients admitting that, despite being physically able [...]

Debbie says: A common progressive lament in these times is “But what can I do?” The problems seem huge and it’s easy to get caught in choice paralysis. Years ago, Laurie and I wrote what is still one of my favorites of everything we’ve written: “Wholesale Problems: Retail Changes.” So here are a few roads [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: We are deeply saddened by the apparent suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D.C. madam,” earlier this week. Palfrey seems to have killed herself rather than go back to jail. Susie Bright, who interviewed Palfrey last year, says: I know you swore to me that you’d never serve another term in [...]