When Buffy Met Edward....

To celebrate the unblocking of YouTube (with provisos) by my employer, here's a video: (This is just wonderful!  - I fell off my chair laughing!)




I've seen it in a number of places, library blogs, book blogs.  It originated from Rebellious Pixels, where it is described thus:
In this remixed narrative Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Sunnydale High. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed in hilarious ways.



And oh yes, it is funny!

Cheers, Ruth

You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM&feature=player_embedded

What's a girl to read?

Justine Henning, in an article in the NY Times, lists 12 notable books for girls, asks, What's a Girl to Read?

To quote:

Parents and other adults in these novels usually fail to prevent young people from acting out — with variously comic or tragic consequences. Yet their authors recognize the developing moral intelligence of both their characters and their audience, producing stimulating books for young readers (that parents might even enjoy).

• Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison. Be More Chill, by Ned Vizzini.
• Breakout, by Paul Fleischman.
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler.
• Feeling Sorry for Celia, by Jaclyn Moriarty.
• Flipped, by Wendelin Van Draanen.
• The Friends, by Rosa Guy.
• If You Come Softly, by Jacqueline Woodson.
• Life Is Funny, by E. R. Frank.
  Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
• Luna, by Julie Anne Peters.
• Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff.
• Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer.
• Sandpiper, by Ellen Wittlinger.
• The Skin I'm In, by Sharon G. Flake.
• Someone Like You, by Sarah Dessen.
• Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson.
• Tears of a Tiger, by Sharon Draper.
• Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume.
• Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld.

But go and read her article - she provides a summary of each book with age-range recommendations, plus additional useful web links. It's from 2006, but I hadn't come across it till recently. So maybe you hadn't come across it either. Till now.

Conversely, Naomi Wolf expresses concern, in another NYT article, about Gossip Girl books and similar series. To quote:

The "Gossip Girl," "A-List" and "Clique" series — the most successful in a crowded field of Au Pairs, It Girls and other copycat series — represent a new kind of young adult fiction, and feature a different kind of heroine. In these novels, which have dominated the field of popular girls' fiction in recent years, Carol Gilligan's question about whether girls can have "a different voice" has been answered — in a scary way.

and she concludes:

The great reads of adolescence have classically been critiques of the corrupt or banal adult world. It's sad if the point of reading for many girls now is no longer to take the adult world apart but to squeeze into it all the more compliantly. Sex and shopping take their places on a barren stage, as though, even for teenagers, these are the only dramas left.

And if you click here, you'll find ten questions readers of Wolf's essay posed, and how they were answered.

What is a girl to read?

International Women's Day (March 8)

A friend's idea for a poster for International Women's Day has morphed into an idea for here (we share ideas all the time, it's great to be inspired!).

I've sent a pdf of this to the nswtl list, but for those who aren't on it, the poster consists of a whole bunch of words used to describe women.

Here's the list, in case it's useful for others. If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Adventuress Amazon Aphrodite Aunt Babe Bird Bitch Blonde Bluestocking Bra-burner Bride Broad Brunette Chick Crone Dame Daughter Debutante The Distaff Side Doll Donna Dowager Duchess Dyke Empress Eve Fairer Sex Female Feminine Feminist Femme Filly Frau Fraulein Gal Gentle Sex Girl Girlfriend Girlie Goddess Godmother Goodwife Gran Grandmother Granny Hag Harridan Hen Her Indoors Heroine Housekeeper Kitten Lady Lass Lassie Lesbian Little Woman Luv Ma Madam Mademoiselle Madonna Ma’am Maid Maiden Mama Mater Matriarch Matron Mem-Sahib Midwife Milady Miss The Missus Missy Mistress Moll Mom Mother Mrs Ms Mum Nan Nanna Niece Nun Nymph Old Maid Petticoat Pollyanna Priestess Princess Queen Redhead Senora Sheila Shrew Signora Signorina Siren Sis Sister Skirt Spinster Squaw Suffragette Sweetheart Venus Virago Wench Wife Witch
Woman
International Women’s Day March 8

I used DesertDogHmk font (from the font library at scrapvillage.com) in 21 point for the synonyms and 36 point for Woman. Printed on pink paper (rather than suffragette purple/green) because we're dealing with clichés, among other things, here, and hey, it amused me.

Added later: find the nominee list for NSW Woman of the Year here.