Children’s Book for iPad Teaches Acceptance

At first glance, Pop It seems no different from the many other interactive children's books "popping up" on the market for the iPad. But give the screen a shake and you'll begin to see the bigger picture.

The book features a child going through normal daily activities with his parents. By shaking the iPad, these parents can be changed from a homosexual couple, to a lesbian couple, to a heterosexual couple.

“It’s a metaphor for shaking from one perspective to another,” said artist and author Raghava KK in an interview with Mashable. “The relationship between parent and child does not change if they have two moms, two dads. I’m challenging the concept of family.”

Raghava hopes to use the concept to teach children to be open-minded about a variety of issues, including racial and ethnic biases. Eventually, he would like the project to be open-source and to allow users to create interpretations that address different biases that they deal with in their everyday lives.

Continue reading this story on the Spark blog...




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What are you reading?

This past weekend, I finally began "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The book came recommended by either Bitch or Bust magazine, but sat on my table unopened the first time it came from the library. During my last visit, I noticed it on display at Woods Run, so I checked it out to try again.

The book chronicles the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali who "rose to fame" after the assassination of her colleague Theo Van Gogh for their collaboration on a movie critical of the manner in which Islamic women are treated. Ayaan is now under the protection of armed guard in the United States and a topic of current controversy as the Netherlands government (she was a sitting member) threatens to pull her guard unless she returns to that nation. She came to US to work for the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

She's still a teen in the book so I can't adequately reflect on her adult political views. I can say that the book is very interesting if you, like me, appreciate an authentic glimpse into the life behind the scenes of another culture. Ayaan's childhood took her from Somalia to Saudia Arabia to Kenya.

I do have to admit that the writing itself isn't particularly appealing. Ayaan will describe herself as a willful, disobedient child only to emphasize her obedience and fearful servitude a few lines later. Given that she is relaying the story in hindsight, I expect a bit more organization and reflection. I don't really have any sense of who she was as a child or young adult. I certainly appreciate the brutish nature of her surroundings - those are vivid passges --, but the adults come across as nearly one dimensional charicatures -- the absent father, the hysterical and bitter mother, the old-school grandmother, the benevolent male father figures, the lost soul sister, the redeemed through Islam brother, etc. And she's just 18.

My hope is that at some point Ayaan is going to acknowledge that the reasons her mother nearly beat her to death over and over again are much more complicated than being abandoned by her husband. I'm hoping that at some point Ayaan is going to hold her father accountable for her female circumcision because he abandoned her to an old-school caretaker even though he "told them not to do it." I'm really hoping that this book is going to surprise me.

I just finished Ha Jin's "A Free Life" which was excellent. In the wings, I have a collection of Christopher Hitchens' essays. I believe I'm caught up with the magazines, although there may be another article or two to catch in Ms.

What are you reading?

Three Books for Three Days

During the past three days, I had the good sense and the ability to read three incredible books: Terror Dream, Susan Faludi; Blindness, Jose Sarmago; and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer. My thoughts rarely ever stray too far from analysing post 9.11 United States, but the first and the last titles allowed me to examine the event from other, fresher microscopes.

Faludi; though at times I get annoyed when her emotions, innocence, and lack of experience (of poverty, of motherhood, of siblings even) interfere with her logic and reason, I always hang on for the ride because I know - whether or not I agree with her observations - that I will praise her for her insight. Part of her thesis is that America returned to its (ir)regularly scheduled program following 9.11; the one in which voices of intelligent women all but disappear from the media, the one in which women are the helpless victims, and men are our saviors.

My opinion: it's a valid and true argument. It wasn't and isn't enough that the U.S. is fighting a war (as a result of the despotic rule of GWB n' Co). I believe the same thing occured during the years of the Vietnam War. The war wasn't just over there>>>, it was propagandized as an attack on home soil as well, with enemies like "hippies" (who, in reality opposed so much more than the war!), "blacks", drug users, criminals (laughable, considering it was Nixon pushing the message), feminists, and Muslims. Why did masses of people still rise up against the system? Was the propaganda late in coming? Was there no real attack on home soil, like Pearl Harbor, to gather together the people to fight and support a war? Did citizens have too much freedom? Or federal authorities too little control? Was it because they didn't have a privatized mercenary army? Obviously, this isn't the medium to properly address these questions; I just want to plant the seeds.

I don't know about you, but from where I stand I've been able to see unbelievable change in this country in the past six years. For the record: I don't participate in viewing television programs and I don't pay much attention to corporate media, which includes movies and popular magazines. I witness enough of it though. I read more than anyone I know, not much fiction. And I observe people...on purpose. I listen to them, watch their actions, their mannerisms.

Right now, the change coming to mind pertaining directly to women is how readily so many are willing to objectify themselves these days. I see it more in the younger women. It seems common, accepted and most definitely encouraged. Is it related to 9.11 and the return to cultural mores long established that place women in the mythological role of victim or object needed by the supposed hero to validate his self worth? I don't know. I just notice it, and after reading Terror Dream the other day, I thought, 'man, I wish I could have a conversation with this woman', because she's observed something similar. Her book provided me with a different venue to explore what I think I believe about that. Anyway, I highly recommend taking the time to read it or sections of it, and be patient. While Faludi may not have 20/20 insight, she's damn close.

Oh! Almost forgot! As for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - not that anyone is looking to be told what to read - you should just read it, obviously. (that's something Oskar would say - obviously) Oskar is the nine year old from whose perspective the reader hears most of the narrative, and whose father had a meeting at Windows on the World the morning of 9.11. It's...well...it speaks for itself. Yes, it's that good.
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Great Site for Booklovers

I have always loved books. Always. I just cannot remember not reading. In 3rd grade, I found a tattered copy of Gone With the Wind in the neighbor's trash and read it with fascination. My grandparents presented me with my own hardback edition the next year. Nancy Drew, Ramona, Black Beauty, dog stories ... I devoured them.

Like many kids, I used books to escape the cruddy stuff in life (growing up in a steelworking family in the 1980s generated lots of cruddy stuff). The downside to this was my concept of womanhood was shaped by a lot of throwback references. I wasn't smart like Nancy or keen like George or pretty like Bess. No one invaded West Mifflin in my lifetime, forcing me to survive on my wits and dig for root vegetables. The girls in the juvenile fiction books wore cashmere sweaters and pearl necklaces on their dates. I didn't even know what cashmere was. And none of the boys ever picked me to dance. (Don't feel bad - Ledcat always picks me to dance now.)

But, there were always books to be read. And, eventually, I met real live feminists in grad school and learned a whole new concept of being female. And read more books, minus the cashmere and quarterbacks.

I'm a big fan of the library and usually check out far more than I can read in the allotted time. I always wished for a "queue" like Netflix offers for videos. Ta da! My friend and fellow Society member, Ehrrin, turned me onto this site ...Goodreads.com

What books shaped your girlhood? Actually, recognizing that not everyone in this group had a girlhood, what books first shaped your idea of being female?