THE ACADEMIC FEVER SWAMP. Award for best war coverage goes to Al-Jazeera, argue Frances S. Hasso. About what you might expect from a professor in "gender and womens' studies." (If I ran the University ... stay your hand, that rant will be coming). Get this: "Rather than being an anti-Western propaganda tool, al-Jazeera is popular in the Arab world because it addresses issues that are already on the minds of people in the region: U.S. foreign policy and militarism, Israeli occupation, poverty, democratization, gender inequality, and the role of religion in public life." Yes, and there is a topology in which a bikini is isomorphic to a burqa, isn't there?

The reality is, all this talk about "gender" is just that, talk. This Eszter's Blog post covers all the bases in a recent gender identity quiz. (I found it via Farrellblogger. The exact post is here, and do check all the cross references. The Farrells have reorganized their link list and you might wish to start at the top.) Apparently being uncomfortable around power tools is NOT a social construction of the female "gender."