(no subject)

Feminist SF, especially feminist SF set in future utopias or dystopias, sometimes handles homosexuality well and sometimes handles it badly. I'm reading The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper, and I've just come across a bit where someone explains that they routinely cure homosexuality, which, as people knew even before the apocalypse, is caused by a simple imbalance of hormones in utero. wtf?!

In the news

Rape Victims Suffer Ordeal to Get Medical Tests: "Victims of sexual assault in some areas of NSW are being forced to wait hours in blazing heat and travel up to 500 kilometres without showering because there are not enough local people to carry out the medical tests later used as evidence."

MPs seek to lift ban on abortion advice: "The federal coalition may accept a move to overturn a Howard government ban on Australian aid funding advice on abortion and other aspects of family planning."

In the Name of Hijab?: "Some so-called “traditional” Muslims argue that ‘Western’ women are oppressed because they must derive their self-worth from the gaze of men. However, it is also true that within some Islamic communities a woman who does not cover is not afforded the same respect as one who does. The expectations are different but the result is the same; a woman’s worth is still determined by others, including men."

Random stuff

illudiumphosdex shows off his phonofiddle.

A reviewer is a little frustrated with Unnatural History.

Cupco is God! is an exhibition of religious images done as felt dolls.

Along similar lines, ryuuri_chan's chibi Torchwood.