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by jen_h 5120 days ago
I've been trying to count the offenses...to men, women, developers, drug users, anti-drug activists, lyricists, grammarians, hermaphrodites, crypto folks, choreographers, markup mavens...it's almost, dare I say it? "Genious" Art.

It's absolutely so bad that I can't even manage to be outraged by it, because it brings me to tears in laughter even just thinking about it, it's such a perfect nugget of awful.

I was actually legitimately outraged by this yesterday:

http://ryannorth.tumblr.com/post/24675908508/boys-only-how-t...

(Follow-up here: http://oomscholasticblog.com/2012/06/scholastic-responds-to-...)
1 comments
marquis 5120 days ago
Wow, that is beautifully offensive. I hope the editor who approved those gets appropriately reprimanded/fired.
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jen_h 5120 days ago
Yeah, I feel like it's one thing to offend us, we're adults. It's a little too late and at the very least, we can harangue someone or something or punch 'em in the gulliver and effect a (little) change. But kids? An entirely different thing.

I grew up in the 80s, feeling that I could do anything and be anyone I wanted to be. A scientist or a singer? I was going to be both! Also, a writer! I feel really blessed by that; but my biggest worry looking around at TV and toys and games lately is that everything's so horrifically A/B tested that any kid who feels other (due to gender, race, or other differences) is marginalized and subtly given that "you can't" message.

I don't have the data, but it really feels like we're in retrograde (like what's up with the "So simple your Mom can use it" crap? My Mom ran an ISP in the early 90s & she's an XML nerd, simple is just going to turn her off...my Grandma was on AIM before most of my friends). I'm hoping there's something we can do to stop this cruddy discouragement--we really need everyone firing on all cylinders and diversity only strengthens us.

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marquis 5120 days ago
>A scientist or a singer? I was going to be both! Also, a writer!

I still feel that way - I don't think we have to chain ourselves to being 'one thing'. Teaching this to girls when they are young, especially, to hold on to all their dreams is really important so they don't give up on living full lives outside of the job/keyboard.

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