So here’s an interesting story: The creator of the popular I Fucking Love Science Facebook page recently got a Twitter account.
Oh, I know that doesn’t sound all that interesting, but here’s the thing: When she got the Twitter account, she revealed to her Facebook fans that she was, in fact, a she.
This apparently shocked and confused a large portion of her readership. A … Woman? But … but … SCIENCE?! But there she was, with a woman’s name — Elise Andrew — and a woman’s face and everything.
Over on Hello Giggles, Julia Gazdag — also rumored to be a woman — reports on the reaction to Elise Andrew’s Big Reveal. Some chick at Reuters also did a piece on it.
(Thanks, Elizabeth, for pointing me to this story.)
@lowquacks, what age range are those?
@thenat, woooooo hhhoooooo!!!!!!!
@valerian, I work around the fringes of CPS (not a CPS worker but mandatory reporter), and I recommend you keep reporting and reporting. Document what you witness and report. I am so so sorry you were let down by services.
One site I found has most of their stuff listed as 5-9 years. I think I was exposed to them a little earlier but did find some a little scarier and I was a very advanced reader for my age.
@thenat, tell me more….
Yeah, I’m in the US. Somebody help us, please.
@ Valerian
I have some small idea of what you are going through, and I am so sorry. I have some experience with CPS not really doing anything, especially with a sibling that can’t live on their own. I don’t know what my point is here, some sort of “you’re not alone” maybe?
Your story hit a soft spot i guess 🙂
I wish I could give you some smart advice, but I have no idea what you have tried already, or how severe her autism is, so…I don’t know how to end this, gonna post anyway…
Child protection is so tricky/prone to general awfulness. I had a friend/ex who was incredibly battered around by DOCS, Australia’s child protection agency, and I’ve heard many more stories of (particularly trans or other LGBT children and/or Aboriginal children) who’ve been fucked over by them, but they’ve done some great work taking children out of the reach of abusers as well. That was a career I considered but decided would be too hard, but I’ve changed my mind again and might be applying to study social work at a local uni. I’m anti-state but pro-help and don’t even know anymore.
@thenatfantastic, I want to hear about your book too!
And BigMomma, has your daughter read Coraline by Neil Gaiman?
@lowquacks, I am wary of DoCs too and have stayed away from working with them. Not sure I could handle what they do, in the environment in which they do it. I work for charitable orgs/NGOs instead.
@Valerian, the other thing to consider is getting in contact with an autism awareness/support group and outline what is going on and ask for pointers.
@Historophila, I took her to see the movie when it came out and she was terrified. I think she was 6. But we tried her with China Mieville ‘Un Lun Dun’ which quite clearly owes heaps to Neil Gaiman and she loved it.
oh and she just finished We Free Men
and is now knee deep in The Northern Lights. She reads voraciously, We make her put the book down sometimes and go outside/play with her little sister.
I seriously doubt anyone was really that surprised that a woman is into science. Just a note, women make up more than 50% of medical school students, 65% of veterinary school students and for me personally (A Biotech Patent Attorney) more than 75% of my professors during my scientific education. Want to surprise me show me the leading female Petroleum Engineer I have yet to meet one.
@BigMomma, I suggest trying her with the book, she should be just about the right age for it, if she wasn’t too traumatized by the film!
And yay for Wee Free Men! How did she like it? And I’m sure you’re well aware of them, but all Terry Pratchett’s books for children are excellent, Nation in particular is a favorite of mine.
@BigMomma – I know an illustrator and out of the blue she asked me if I’d ever thought about writing a children’s book. She has a daughter who’s five and I have a sister who’s nearly nine, so we’d spoken about the difficulty of finding them appropriate, Bechdel-passing books that weren’t about princesses and stuff. So it’s going to be a book about two sisters, a pirate robot, buried treasure and saving beaches. I sent the first chapter to TinyFantastic yesterday and it got the seal of approval. Obviously it’s really early stages but even if Tiny and my friend’s daughter are the only ones to see it, that’s still cool 🙂
That sounds awesome natfantastic, so it has a sort of environmental theme to it?
Are there turtles? 😛
I want to read thenatfantastic’s book!
In other news, this is the first day this week I haven’t had to get up extra early for work. So what did I do? I woke up extra early and couldn’t go back to sleep. 0_0
Lowquacks: I’m studying social work at uni (honestly, I recommend it if you think that may be the area you want to go into) and we literally just had a lecture given last week by a lady who has been working in child protection for the last 25 odd years. You need to keep in mind that the system is incredibly difficult to work within (“you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t” she said), and very, very underfunded and in need of serious reform. The lady who gave us the lecture (which was so informative and such a great insight) said basically that she realises we’re in the midst of potentially recreating another sort of stolen generation situation (though not just Indigenous children) but that’s because they are so underfunded and ill-structured that many calls about at-risk children are ignored to the point that nothing happens unless the family situation is so dire that the only option is to remove the children (albeit temporarily in a lot of cases).
The actual ‘child protection’ statutory services should be at the very END of the system and should be the smallest portion of the available services, and the majority of services should be targeted/preventative services to help at-risk families BEFORE they reach the point where children are removed. The number of children in out-of-home care in Australia increased from 18,000 to 37,000 over the last decade, which I think suggests that we REALLY need far better/more preventative and targeted services for at-risk families where they can be dealt with early and given the help they need before DoCS or someone needs to step in and remove children.
And not just that, but those numbers also seem to point to the fact that we have an increasing number of people and families who are living below the poverty line and who are struggling in a number of ways and need a lot more help than they are currently receiving.
I’m rambling sorry (I could go on and on) but I think given the state the system is in at the moment there are sadly going to be horror stories of children who have gone through hell and who have been fucked over. Hopefully change comes soon.
Um, and sorry everyone, I didn’t mean to come in and take over the thread with all that or anything.
And damn, somehow wordpress changed my username without me knowing. 🙁
Except the comment with my changed username is in moderation… so it probably looks like I am talking to myself.
I fail at technology.
Historophilia, it’s more of an anti-privatisation idea with a bit of environmentalism thrown in. The baddies want to use the treasure to finance building a hotel on the beach and meaning people who aren’t guests there won’t be able to use it any more, plus it will be bad for the environment. It also has archaeology in it XD
This may not be the place for it, and I apologize if that is the case, but are radical feminists not wanted here? I’ve seen a few things lately that sort of make me think so, and since I’m a newcomer, I have no problem shushing if I’m not exactly welcome. No malice or anything, just figure I should ask before something comes up 🙂
@Sid – I think it depends what you mean by ‘radical feminists’. Certainly I doubt trans-exclusionary radfems would be welcome (I certainly wouldn’t welcome them), but I know radfem =/= TERF.
Basically (as far as I’m aware) everyone’s welcome here as long as they’re not being a douche. There’s lots of things I disagree with people here on, but we can do it respectfully and without being ninnyhammers about it.
Sid, it depends.
I think everybody here is more or less on board with some of the tenents of radical feminism. Break down traditional gender norms! Break down the way society constructs feminity!
On the other hand, most of us are still pretty, um, sensitive to trans-fail. Especially now.
And radical feminism has a pretty rotten record on that front.
(and, hey, Ozy (ozyfrantz.com has been doing a series on radical feminism–touching on the problematic pieces and the good stuff. Everybody has been following that, right?)
So, long story short–what thenatfantastic said.
Yeah, I’m way on board with a lot of radical feminist ideas. Gender as a social construct, destruction of patriarchy etc. etc., but I’m also way not on board with a lot of other ideas which I know aren’t essential to being a radical feminist but tend to occur a lot more in radical feminists than other-ID-ing feminists. Like transphobia, kinkphobia, and whorephobia. I wouldn’t want to be tarred with that brush or expected to not call it out. I’d always rather be outside pissing in than complicit with stuff that’s entirely antithetical to my beliefs, even if I was the only one. Also I prefer my activism to be more activism-y and less writing-tedious-academic-screeds-y, which radfem tends to be. I don’t have a problem with it, it can be really useful, but it’s not for me. I’m much happier fundraising and picketing.
Emphasis mine. What a prize