Several days ago on this blog Ellen Spertus suggested several subversive gifts for girls, and several commenters offered other good ideas as well.

I’d like to add a few more suggestions:

Fun, molecularly-inspired jewelry and clothing can be found at Made With Molecules. What becomes a female geek better than a pair of estrogen earrings?

I’m neither an astronomer nor a biologist, but I can’t decide whether Bathsheba Grossman’s science crystal of the large scale model of the universe or DNA polymerase is cooler. If you can’t make up your mind yet, just buy a couple of DNA keychains as stocking stuffers and get a Julia set as a birthday present.

Since I’m actually more of a nerd than a geek (I tried to be a true geek, I really did, but I had to come out of the closet and admit that I actually prefer stories to physics equations), I really enjoy books that blend science with amazing stories and captivating artwork. One wonderful book that I’ve seen is A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World’s Extinct Animals, full of gorgeous illustrations and brief stories about animals that once roamed the earth but are no more. Not the cheeriest thought, of course, but are we not doomed to repeat the mistakes if we do not read the cautionary tales? On a cheerier note, though, the same author-illustrator team published another book of esoterica about the animal world that lives today: Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fascinating Worlds They Inhabit. I’ve not seen this book myself, but it sounds delightful, and even with a bit of of a challenge: they’ve made up one of the creatures, and try to guess which one!

That last topic reminds me of the monkey-picked tea that we gave as a gift once from a British purveyor of exotic foodstuffs called Edible. Gifts here would not be for the picky eater, unless she’s Wednesday Addams.

And for Christmas next July: SF Bay Area author Wendy Lichtman has written a story for children in which the female protagonist uses math to solve a mystery, Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra. I’ve not read it myself, but my writing group instructor who is a protege of Lichtman says that she totally got into the story despite being math-phobic. Maybe this can be our way of roping girls into the female geek lifestyle….

An article printed last year in The Observer (London) recently surfaced on a UK scifi blog. The author, who seems to think that science fiction is comprised entirely of Star Trek and Star Wars, says there are more male than female SF fans because men like “order” and science fiction is orderly:

The appeal of the sci fi system to the ordinary fan lies not just in its orderliness, but in its finiteness. You can watch every single episode of Star Trek and learn everything there is to know about it. You can contain an entire universe in lists and DVDs. The kind of universe that is knowable by heart is much less threatening than the real universe outside, off screen, full of unpredictability and disorder.

It is my contention that the reassurance offered by a system of order, internal coherence, completability and collectability – a universe that can be put in alphabetical order – is particularly appealing to men . . .
Whether by social conditioning or nature women seem better able to adjust in adulthood to the irksome imperfection of the universe . . . I can only speak for my own gender, and I can reveal that men are mostly dragged kicking and screaming into grown-upness. They never give up the secret hope that complexity will go away and leave them alone. They take refuge in trivia because facts, nice orderly facts, are psychological balm to the friction burns inflicted by contact with real life.

There’s the old chestnut that men hate being grown-ups, but somehow women don’t mind it. Then there’s the extreme misunderstanding of science fiction itself, a genre which is full of ambiguity, plotholes, infinite complexity, and disorder. What’s amusing is that this guy is really talking about world-building, a practice more often associated with fantasy than science fiction. And fantasy is a genre full of extremely successful female authors.

Why men love SF [via SciFi.UK.com]

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.