the cat & dragon rag

I only just found out about this recall of cars with potentially dangerous airbags. If you have a car made in 2000 or later, especially if you have a used car (because recall notices might not reach you) please check whether your model is affected. If it is, please take it in to have the airbags replaced ASAP.

The defective airbags can explode AT ANY TIME (not just during a collision) with much more force than they are supposed to, and hurl shrapnel at you. Because of their chemistry, the air bags become less stable over time.

List of models affected:
http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/takata-airbag-recall-list-cars-article-1.2602999

You can look up whether your car is affected using its VIN here: https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/vinLookup

Here's a long article that goes into the chemistry and the corporate hubris behind the whole thing. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-06-02/sixty-million-car-bombs-inside-takata-s-air-bag-crisis

This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/878656.html, where there are comments.

[The Twitter hashtag #Codeswitching has GREAT notes about this panel. Other people also use the hashtag so scroll back or search for #Codeswitching and #Wiscon40 or #wc40.]

Code switching

A discussion of how, why, and when a person code-switches — i.e., changes their language, words, accents, and thoughts depending on their audience. As fans, activists, writers, family members, and friends, how do we use code-switching to communicate? Can code-switching be useful in communicating across cultures, or is it disrespectful?

[My notes definitely don't use the actual words of the panelists. I welcome corrections. My comments and additional links in square brackets.]
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/878485.html, where there are comments.

I'm going to be a speaker at the virtual Fat Activism Conference this year! Here is what it's about:

The Fat Activism Conference is "a virtual conference (so you can listen to the talks by phone and/or computer) for people of all sizes who are interested in creating a world that respects the diversity of body sizes, and who are interested in fighting the bullying, stigmatizing, shaming, and oppression faced by fat people, and want to do that work intersectionally."

I need to decide what topic to speak on! Please help me decide! I'm giving about a 30 minute talk with an opportunity for Q&A. Under the cut are some topic ideas, but feel free to suggest others (and/or suggest changes to the ones that are there.)
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/878110.html, where there are comments.

[Check the Twitter hashtag #KitchenPrivilege for more notes about this panel.]

[I participated on this panel and didn't take thorough notes; I have paraphrased everything that was said and also probably included some things out of order.]

[Some very personal stories were told and I don't know if the panelists are comfortable having their names associated with what they said on a public post, so I did not associate panelist names with comments, and I used "they" pronouns for everyone. If anyone on the panel wants to be identified please comment here or send me a DM.]

Privilege in the Kitchen: Food Snobbery and Culinary Condescension

Foodieism is all the rage these days and while there's nothing wrong with making and enjoying good food, it seems to go hand in hand with a sense of condescension when it comes to cheap, simple fare; fattening foods (except for bacon, of course); and "poor food," the kind of thing prepared with a packet of this and a couple cans of that. Let us discuss economics, classism, racism, sizeism, and ableism in the ways we prepare, present, and talk about food.
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/878029.html, where there are comments.

This is yet another thing that people with medical conditions get blamed for—not managing their own care well enough, although according to this article NO ONE studies the efforts required to manage one's own health care.

(Content note: one use of the "O-word")

"But American medicine demands another scarce resource from patients, and that is their time. The time it takes to check in on the status of a prescription, to wait for a doctor, to take time away from work to sit on hold and hope that, at some point, someone will pick up the phone.
...
"There is a risk associated with not measuring patient work: namely, that patients will give up when life gets in the way. This is an especially acute worry for lower-income patients, who often work for hourly wages and have little space to change their schedules."

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/1/11712776/healthcare-footprint

This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/877700.html, where there are comments.

"Women and Trans/Non-binary people" : The Pitfalls of Haphazard Gender Inclusion

Attempts to create calls for submissions/lists of authors with marginalized genders have come under criticism for asking for "women and non-binary" or "women and transgender people". Adding trans and non-binary identities to "woman" often adds additional confusion for trans masculine people (are trans men included as "sort of women", or excluded as "not a marginalized gender identity"?). Does inclusion of non-binary identities with women imply that those identities are necessarily "feminine"? Does the addition of "trans" as a separate category imply that trans women are not members of the group that is ALL women? How can we more effectively promote the inclusion of transgender, genderqueer, or non-binary authors?

[My notes aren't a complete transcription and may represent my own language rather than the actual words of the panelists. I welcome corrections. I did not identify audience commenters by name. If you said something I paraphrased here and want your name to be used, please comment or send me a private message.]

My comments or clarifications are [within square brackets].
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/877566.html, where there are comments.

I went to Wiscon 40! This is a list of stuff I did. I will post more about the panels I was empaneled on and the panels I attended later.
( Collapse ) This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/877217.html, where there are comments.

Will you be coming to Wiscon?

We All Start Somewhere: Welcoming Social Justice Newbies
Fri, 4:00–5:15 pm
Conference 4
Moderator: Jacquelyn Gill.
Many people aren't born into families that talk a lot about or value social justice. We come from all different backgrounds with all different kinds of experiences. When someone wants to gain a better understanding of and start practicing social justice, how do we, as a community, welcome them and offer opportunities for education? How do we deal with the same basic questions over and over again? What do we do well? What could we do better?

Privilege in the Kitchen: Food Snobbery and Culinary Condescension
Sat, 2:30–3:45 pm Caucus
Foodieism is all the rage these days and while there's nothing wrong with making and enjoying good food, it seems to go hand in hand with a sense of condescension when it comes to cheap, simple fare; fattening foods (except for bacon, of course); and "poor food," the kind of thing prepared with a packet of this and a couple cans of that. Let us discuss economics, classism, racism, sizeism, and ableism in the ways we prepare, present, and talk about food.

This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/876875.html, where there are comments.

I love The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. The fourth and final book was released last month. (I didn't think the fourth book was quite as good as the other three, but still a worthy ending.) Five people involved with the blog WomenWriteAboutComics.com talk about the series, and they get at a lot of what I love.

http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2016/05/19/searching-glendower-reflecting-raven-cycle/

A few non-spoilery quotes (there are a few more spoilers at the link, but only for stuff that happens very early, until you get to the big red banner that reads SPOILERS AHEAD):

Stiefvater is just such a great writer, especially when it comes to building distinct and fully realized characters.

Stiefvater treats its young adults the way I appreciate seeing young adults treated: like people with brains and emotions that don’t melt into a puddle of love juices and angst over their love interest....he friendship between the boys is so heartbreakingly beautiful, and the unquestioning loyalty between Blue’s aunts is so powerful. This is a YA book that does not forget that there are others who help shape the lives of the main character and gives those people such depth.

I love Blue because I relate so much to being a “sensible” teenager and her wanting to rebel against that sensibility....I also love that she’s so prickly, opinionated, and stubborn.

It’s a much more realistic portrayal of family, in a way, than other YA books.

This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/876332.html, where there are comments.

This post sums up a lot about girls' and women's experience of anger, and as a person raised as a girl I relate to it a lot. It included many links to other articles, many of which I also added to this post.

[Edited to add: On Facebook it was pointed out that this post doesn't address the ways anger is racialized. I agree. When describing it I should have specified "white girls' and women's experience."]
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/876134.html, where there are comments.