This week’s roundup of blogosphere goodies includes a smashing video from auto mechanic Ann Farmer, and a discussion of why women in tech are justifiably outraged at their erasure from blockbuster flick The Social Network.
Nadine Brunk’s An American Midwife in Haiti, is a good way to mark National Midwifery Week, and to remind ourselves that the Haiti “crisis” is far from over. Brunk, a Virginia nurse-midwife, writes about the organization she helped found there: “In French, the word ‘midwife’ translates as ‘sage femme,’ which literally means ‘wise woman.’ Midwives For Haiti is humbled to be grooming wise women in the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere to have a baby.”
The Social Network, aka “the Facebook movie,” has dazzled critics coast to coast. But we knew the flick had a gender problem once we heard from Roger Ebert: “A subtext the movie never comments on is the omnipresence of attractive Asian women.” Jos at Feministing breaks down the film’s racial and sexist stereotypes, taking some small comfort in the two smart women that bookend the film. “In a film about men who are computer geniuses but clueless about human interaction both these women display emotional intelligence.”
As it gets colder, is your car engine giving you trouble? Do you get tired of calling male mechanics who’ll rook you? It may be time to deal with it yourself — or at least to delight in Ann Farmer’s “Under the Hood” video, courtesy of our friends at On The Issues magazine.
Last week, we called on WVFC contributors to look back on the high (and low) points of 2010. Then we asked them to look ahead to 2011, and what they think is worth our keeping an eye on in the new year.