Sunday Links: Mostly Smart People Doing Cool Things

• One of my favourite bloggers, Cass, has started a new project. Queerly Seen will discuss “books and publishing from a queer perspective”, and I’m so excited that it exists.
  
  
• Also, Amy and Jodie have started a “punk rock experiment in TV writing” called Irregularly Scheduled Viewing. I got a ton of TV recommendations from them over the years (I’ll never forget how Amy was the person who patiently encouraged me to get over my weird resistance to Buffy, and we all know what happened when I finally did), and I can’t wait to see what they’ll tempt me with next.
  
  
• Last but not least, Renay and Smuggler!Ana have launched a new postcast called Fangirl Happy Hour, which is “dedicated to fun pop culture and fandom chat tailored to [their] specific fangirl needs”. yay!

• 2015 had a less than auspicious start for me, but one thing that’s cheered me up immensely is the fact that so many of my favourite bands and musicians will have albums out this year. Here’s Stereogum’s evaluation of Björk’s Vulnicura, and here’s a wonderful interview where she discusses sexism and the erasure of women’s contributions:
  

  I want to support young girls who are in their 20s now and tell them: You’re not just imagining things. It’s tough. Everything that a guy says once, you have to say five times.

• I can’t remember if I’ve linked to this before, but even if I have I’m more than happy to do it again. Margo Lanagan’s acceptance speech of the Barbara Jefferis Award is a perfect example of why she’s my favourite:
  

  There’s an ongoing need to just keep forcibly pushing into the limelight literary works about women, as much as by women. As long as schoolboys are asking visiting authors, “Why would you write stories about … girls?”; as long as the global social and economic costs of domestic violence are outstripping the costs of civil war; and as long as women who try to raise awareness of gender-based hatred are being driven from their homes by online threats of rape and murder, we need to keep on claiming column inches and screen time, and story space and art space, for women’s matters, women’s minds, women’s lived experiences.

• This piece on the Sociology of Gender Bias in Science is a fascinating if depressing read:
  

  The idea that women should not talk about inequality in science dominates public discussions of science. This happens in science communities such as ours, which expressly state that sexism is grounds for being banned. Women who speak up about inequality are accused of bias or they are otherwise targeted for personal attacks. This includes the women moderators, who are practising scientists with PhDs and a strong knowledge of the science on gender bias. It also happens to women scientists writing about inequality on their personal social media profiles.

• Memory wrote a long post about Saga, and (unsurprisingly) it’s a thing of beauty.
  
  
• Lastly, my favourite thing about this Graphic Novels for Kids: A Year in Review post is that I found out that a sequel to my beloved Giants Beware! called Dragons Beware! is coming out this year. I don’t think I did a good enough job of spreading the love for Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado’s comic to the people I tend to swap recommendations with, so consider this another attempt.