The Rabbit Hole

I'm sure the Whedon-files have read this already

Not to dismiss the Joss' opinion on the matter, but womb-envy is no more a predominant explanation for sexism and misogyny than penis-envy explains the psychology of women. It is, no doubt, a secret fear and source of mistrust, but the biological imperative of survival is more complicated than simply "You have what I want."

In fact, biologically speaking, men don't envy women; they envy other men (Bateman's Principle). This is true in non-sentient species as well as man, hence the multitude of adaptations of both male and female members of different species to select for and against particular individuals. Females, because of their larger investment of energy in the production of offspring, have to be choosey about partners, and the ones best evolved to select for favorable traits among partners will produce the most, healthiest progeny. Males must then evolve to compete for their fewer females in such a way that they both succeed in winning and mating and prevent other males from undoing their hard work.

Otherwise? Not a bad article from the Joss. I just wish that the Pandagon thread about it hadn't immediately de-volved into fans shouting down fans about whether or not his works count as feminist or not. ( ...which I'm going to do now myself. )

Womb-envy or not, there's nothing he's saying about how stupid and perverted the treatment of women is that is anything but right and righteous. It's been said before, true, and we shouldn't make a bigger deal of a guy saying this than a girl (equality is the goal, remember), but I support spreading this message around if only because it a) ends optimistically with a call to (positive) action; b) is being said by someone with the attention-getting power of a hundred or thousand voices; and c) is coming straight from one of geekdom's idols and thus is deserving of my fannish praise.

A Television Without Pity review/recap of Serenity!!!

Should be most excellent ::sets off to read::

ETA: This is the most awesome quote yet: "[Simon] comforts [River], but she's in a talking mood. Endorphins, you know. The last time I killed a bar full of people, you'd think I was on crystal meth!" I love you, TWoP!!!

To those I haven't answered about my last post, I'm just giving up on it for now. No one is more frustrated by inability to rectify the myriad ways I approach one topic than me, I promise. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to drop something so fast, it's just a tad too depressing for me right now.

I distracted myself with a preview of the Serenity novelization. I have to say, having some experience with novelizations, that this one is pretty good. The selection up on Amazon has a rewritten account of the scene from Serenity Valley that was the opener of the episode "Serenity" (let's have a Pee-Wee's Playhouse "Woooooo!" everytime I have to write 'Serenity,' okay? WOOO!!!!). It has all the dialogue faithfully represented and it's got a good rhythm to it. Think I might have to pick this one up. I've bought more embarrassing novelizations in my day, for movies I didn't like half so well or that weren't half so smart as Serenity. So, why not?

Also, WOOOO!!!

I've been trying to google this and running into a wall. Can anyone point me in the direction of the map of the Allied planets from Firefly/Serenity? I know there's a picture on the interweb somewhere of which planets make up the Core, the outers, etc.

Help a fellow geek out, won't you?