My new favorite blog Mad Science Mama has an amazing post about scientists who tweaked a gene in fruitflies that seemed to govern sex-specific behavior. And what did altering this gene change? The fruitflies’ fighting styles, of course:

The gene called “fruitless” is known for its role in male courtship… The same gene directs another sex-specific behavior — fighting patterns, the new study shows. Female fighting, for example, largely involves head butts and some shoving. Males prefer lunges; they rear up on their back legs and snap their forelegs down hard - sometimes nailing an opponent that is slow to retreat.

The flies undergo a major role reversal when the male and female gene versions are switched. With a feminine fruitless gene, male flies adopt more ladylike tactics, mostly the head butt and some shoving. With the masculine fruitless gene, females instinctively lunge to the exclusion of their usual maneuvers.

Every city over a certain size has a bar like Divas in San Francisco. Dark, somewhat threadbare and self-consciously glitzy, it’s known far and wide as the place for men to meet transgender women. Men visiting from out of town swing by Divas in the hope of meeting a tranny girl, and some local men go there regularly. A significant proportion of the women who hang out there appear to be working girls.

I’ve been to Divas maybe half a dozen times in the eight years I’ve lived in San Francisco, but I had never been there alone. But one evening I decided to put on a cute dress and strappy shoes, and swing by there to see what it would be like to be on my own there. But whatever I was expecting, I didn’t expect to be meeting other health policy wonks there.

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Over at the excellent FairerScience blog, Rosa points out that scientific studies that emphasize gender differences tend to get more attention than those that explore similarities.

Rosa writes:

If the results of two quick searches on Google are any indication, there’s a lot more interest in sex differences (”about 1,030,000 for “sex differences” “) than in similarities (”about 10,700 for “sex similarities”.”) . . .

We look for differences to help us define how we think about who we are, as individuals and as members of a group. For this reason, studies, articles, and statements that highlight differences are appealing and interesting. When these resources reinforce things we already think about the world and about sex differences, it can be even more satisfying: “See? I knew men and women were different!”

Yes, we do know that men and women are different in many ways, but we also know that men and women are similar in many ways as well. It’s easy to forget, amidst the exciting talk of difference, that just because it gets more play doesn’t mean it’s the only game in town.

Anecdotally, I’ve noticed the same trend in the kinds of studies that get media attention. Many of us are trained to explain gender as a “battle of the sexes.” Plus, clashes make for more interesting stories than agreements. Of course, it’s important to emphasize how women are different from men sometimes. Many medical studies conducted in the twentieth century used male subjects and assumed women would respond to drugs and treatments in exactly the same way men would. Obviously, this was absurd and simply led to ignorance of female biology.

Read Rosa’s post.

I’ve had Valerie D’Orazio’s blog Occasional Superheroine in my blog folder as a live bookmark for the past few months. Unfortunately, the RSS feed hasn’t worked in ages, so I totally missed the fact that she had erased all the previous blog entries and replaced it with a new, extremely revealing, story of her life in comics. An incredibly difficult life, judging from the account in her blog.

The main shocker in D’Orazio’s online memoir is the fact that the rape, and later murder, of longstanding DC Comics character Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis came not from the needs of a groundbreaking story, but rather from the DC editorial honchos sitting down and saying “we need a rape” to boost sales. There’s a lot of stuff you can excuse on the basis of good storytelling, but the picture changes when it’s clearly just a publicity stunt. On the other hand, D’Orazio’s blog is being discussed in the comics blogosphere as an indictment of the way the male-dominated comics industry treats female employees. Having read the entire thing, from bottom to top, I didn’t really see a clearcut indictment, partly because the details (and order) of events isn’t always very clear. She does, however, offer a pretty grim view of the world of male comic book writers, editors and fans. Definitely worth reading, although it will probably leave you as depressed as it left me.

Does sexism in communications and information technology contribute to violence against women? Can women use information technology to help prevent violence? Now’s your chance to share your thoughts on these issues with others. GenderIT.org is organizing “Take Back The Tech,” in which women bloggers and writers take control over IT and communications technology and “consciously use it to disrupt gender relations.” GenderIT is hoping to see a debate about the connection between communications IT and violence against women. You can sign up to take part in a 16-day blogathon:

ka-BLOG! is a 16-day blog fest for the Take Back the Tech Campaign. It is open to anyone and everyone - girls, boys, everyone beyond and more — who wants to share their thoughts, write poetry and prose, post graphics / pictures, rant, rave, heckle, make snide remarks, stick their tongue out at violence against women, and how online communications can exacerbate or help eliminate VAW.

Read more at TakeBackTheTech.Net. Thanks to Beth for the link.

I was finishing up my big college search when I realized why this book was created. But more on that later. It all started the same weekend I needed to finalize my college list. My entire family was celebrating my grandpa’s 80th birthday by the ocean, so I wandered off for a few hours with my college list to try to choose a college list. I found this amazing place where the water had cleared out a tunnel, leaving a narrow bridge of rock over the open gully. The way the waves thwacked against the back of the cave was *so cool*. I could hear it a half-mile away (at night I thought it was a pile-driver. Fifty miles away from the nearest city). Anyway.

So I sit down with my list, and I center. I think roots and branches, very California new age. Since I haven’t been accepted anywhere I am merely choosing where I want to try to get in. So I try to decide the course of my life. And then I get stuck. My mind is blank, I stare at some birds and am non-productive. So I tried a different tact. I think “Who do I want to be when I grow up”. I could think of musicians, politicians, and teachers who I would love to grow up to be, but when I tried to think of women computer scientists I drew a blank. Ok, I know Grace Hopper and Radia Pearlman, but I did not have as clear a vision of what life might be like to be a computer scientist.

It’s not the all-male environment: I love wrestling and most of my friends from middle-school are boys, so I’m ok with that part. But the stories are what I miss. I have stories about singers, about politicians and teachers giving me a potential road-map for my future. But I was missing the stories about women computer scientists. I wanted to know what other women had done when working in a team where all of the men assume you’ll be the secretary. What the justifications for being ultra-fem in a masculine environment are. I could not think of any role models for how to live fully as myself in a challenging environment.

Amazon mailed me the book two days ago. After an embarrassing session with dancing and singing “I’m published, I’m published” I started reading everyone else’s essays. And I now I have those role models. I can’t wait to read the rest of the essays.

I am about to send in a large sections of my applications. I chose only schools with strong computer science and music, and where I could see myself matriculating. I’m glad I now can see how other geeks have dealt with college and life-after before me.

Anyhoo, that’s my tryptophan induced rant, hope you’re having a great turkey day!

Slashdot has linked to a C|Net UK article that purports to list the top ten girl geeks. No mention of the book, and for some unfathomable reason it mentions Paris Hilton. I have no idea how to react to this trainwreck. While I’m encouraged by the mere existence of such a post, I cringe over some of the choices. Lisa Simpson? Darryl Hannah? Ooookay. Wither Willow Rosenberg, then?

Also, I’m completely in agreement with those comments nominating Hedy Lamarr and Mythbuster Keri Byron instead.

Who would you add to the list?

Rejoice! The Seventh Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans is online now. In a nutshell, it’s just a link to all the awesome feminist posts that people have been making about SF, fantasy and other speculative genres over the past month. Including posts on Batman, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, manga, yaoi, video games and plain old books too. Check it out!

As the proud aunt of 6 nieces (and 3 nephews), ranging in age from 7 to 11 and in attitude from tomboy to girly, I devote much thought to picking out presents, especially at this time of year. Some of my recent ideas:

• A subscription to New Moon magazine plus back issues (so there’s something to enjoy right away)
• “Shero” stories, such as Tamora Pierce’s series about girls who become knights, The Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small. (I enjoy the books too.)
• A computer of her own for a niece whose brother had taken over the family computer
• Anything from Chinaberry
• The Creative Cosmetics Kit from Edmund Scientifics for the girly niece

Something I’ve considered but haven’t given is the Hary Potter Nimbus 2000 electronic broomstick, whose pulsing vibrations make it very popular with teenage girls but not with the anti-feminist group Concerned Women for America. Maybe when they’re older.

I’d welcome reader suggestions of other gifts to foster my nieces’ education and empowerment.

• Madsciencemama highlights a New Yorker excerpt about Virginia Apgar, who became a doctor in 1933 and revolutionized how doctors looked at newborn children.
• You should sign this petition encouraging Congress to end “drive-thru mastectomies.” Notyourwoman has the details.
• The National Center for Women and Information Technology unveils “turnkey” (I hate that word) best practices for companies and institutions to mentor and support women in IT.
• Women inventors registered three patents for military technology, 11 electrical patents and 633 mechanical patents from 1808 to 1895, according to this handy index.