Women in the Martial Arts, ed. Carol A Wiley

Focusing not on a single statement of what women’s martial arts is but on multiple perspectives on how martial arts isn’t the domain of male fighters that popular imagery portrays, this book will speak not merely to women with an interest in the martial arts but to anyone interested in diversity as a whole. Wiley …

Will You Enjoy This Post Before You’ve Read It?

One of the online communities I'm in is engaged in the discussion of the difference between preference for the familiar and prejudice. Instinctively, we recognise there is a difference but where it lies can be much harder to pin down. For me, the starting point is pre-emptive denigration. We all have preferences, both general and …

Mob Injustice

I could add a nuanced expansion on a point from this video; instead I'll post it with a simple reminder that we can strive to be better on the internet (and in other interactions); and not just to women.

People Are Complex, So Their Issues Are Too

An interesting argument that seeking gender equality, racial equality, &c. can ironically - if the underlying aim of human equality is lost - obscure the issues facing those in more than one disadvantaged group. The same inefficiency of labels applies to privileged groups: a social structure that privileges men doesn't mean all men are fine; …

A Heavy Tongue

Seeking diversity in fiction can be a burden. Not one equal to the issues it seeks to correct, but enough that I can understand why it doesn't spread as easily as it might. When I started serialising Seven Stones, several subscribers commented that they found Anessa a very sympathetic character because she was a competent …

It’s a Man’s Life in the WAAF

For more years than I can count, I have (as I previously blogged) believed that - barring certain biological factors such as a womb - there is nothing about a particular group that makes them more fitted to do a specific task, that fitness is best judged on the individual's capabilities. However, over the last …