Collisions with Reality

Had I only encountered one blatantly sexist incident online today, I probably would have bypassed it. But as I saw two, I am now annoyed enough to present them as Exhibits AA and AB in what could be a never-ending series.

1. I’m a big fan of The Online Photographer (TOP) blog, whose resident curmudgeons (I mean that in a good way) have an incredible amount of enthusiasm and experience. In the most recent Random Excellence post, Mike said:

   I’ve been accused of featuring too many female photographers in my “Random Excellence” posts (which, as longtime readers know, means randomly encountered, not that their excellence is accidental).

   Okay. Hold up. Too many female photographers? I went back until June 2009 in the archives, and tallied up 53 male photographers and 9 female photographers. Only 15% of the photographers featured in “Random Excellence” have been women, and somehow that is too many? Maybe the complainers meant to say, “You haven’t featured enough female photographers,” or, “I hate boobies!” (I have commented on the post, asking/hoping for clarification, but my comment is still in moderation.)

2. The Ada Initiative is trying to increase the number of women in technology (particularly the various open source communities). Their biggest achievement in 2011 was probably getting large conferences to adopt an anti-harassment policy. They’re fund-raising for 2012, and their funding push has been picked up by a lot of tech and geek blogs*: Boing Boing, Linux.com, and reddit, to name a few. So hey, let’s see how it’s been ranked by reddit!

   … only 58% like it. Okay, then. I know I go around clicking “dislike” on every fundraising cause I see! Especially if it’s trying to encourage members of an underrepresented minority in X to pursue X, while also trying to improve the climate of X for everyone! THAT’S CRAZY TALK.

Let me emphasize that these are both general-interest websites. These comments were not complaints about women invading a forum on prostate cancer. These were comments complaining about women existing in the population at a proportion higher than ten percent.

I’m not going to highlight every instance of sexism on the internet. That would make this a very long and boring blog, and send my blood pressure through the roof. But here is your occasional reminder that as soon as women come out of the woodwork, there will be people complaining about their mere existence.

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* NO ONE TELL ME IF SLASHDOT PICKED IT UP. I swore off Slashdot comments several years ago**, and haven’t looked back since!

** Okay, the first time I swore off Slashdot comments was in, like, 1999. But I have stayed firm since 2007!

It feels like it’s just been all bad news this week. So here’s a few things that are a little bit lighter:

• Here’s an awesome map of the Mississippi and all its tributaries, rendered as a mass transit map. How had no one done this before? What a great way to look at the geography. (via Strange Maps)
• Here’s a careful and reasonable take on what’s happening in Wisconsin. It’s worth noting that Democrats (and Independents) have been successful in enacting education reforms that are unpopular with teachers. Turns out there’s a difference between reforming public education and naked union-busting. Who knew? (via EMJ)
• I love a behind-the-scenes glimpse of anything, and the Big Picture blog has a great round-up of pictures from behind the scenes at Fashion Week. Seating charts! Run-throughs! Models playing silly games while in hair and makeup!

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’m hoping it eventually stops raining here.

The most successful resolution I ever made was to go to the beach more often, for 2009. It worked because it was a fun resolution, and it forced me to manage my time better. I never would have succeeded at just resolving to manage my time better. On the photography side, in 2010 I learned that I’m much better at project-based goals, not deadline-based goals. (In other words, no Project 365 for me.) With that in mind, here are my resolutions for 2011:

1. Learn one new thing every day. This could be anything — a Python trick, an interesting spot in the neighborhood, a weird factoid about the state of Delaware, you name it. This is a fun resolution that i think will help me combat some of the inertia I get stuck in.
2. Go to the dentist. I have good health insurance, and haven’t been to the dentist in about five years.
3. Do physical therapy or yoga at least once per week. I’m having some neck and shoulder issues that, if not preventable, should at least be more manageable.
4. Create photograph collections. I haven’t decided exactly what projects I’d like to do. But what I want to focus on in 2011 is on creating cohesive series of photographs. I’m stuck in a mode of wanting each picture I upload to Flickr to be able to stand alone. But sometimes, a picture is more interesting in a series, and that’s okay. Of course that’s okay. So I want to work on seeing the big picture more often in my photography. (No puns in this resolution intentional. Sigh.)

I think that’s a reasonable and fun list. Happy New Year, everyone!

There are some things that didn’t quite pan out for me in 2010, but I want to focus on the positive. My family moved to the Bay Area, and we’re having a good time. My son is at a fun age — 14 months — and doing something new every day.

I even accomplished many of my revised goals for 2010. I didn’t manage to take my camera on the family strolls very often — for a variety of logistical reasons — but I finished nearly everything else. Admittedly, I only went carefully through my backlog of photos because I was running out of hard drive space, and needed to archive things. But if I took a picture before December 24, 2010, and I liked it, it’s online. Woo-hoo!

Tomorrow I’ll post my resolutions for 2011. Today I’m just going to enjoy the startling realization that my life is actually pretty well balanced right now.