This week over at our illustrious blog of Harpyness:

• On Monday I responded to commenter Skada’s request for “women-empowering porn” with a post on where I go, on the internet and elsewhere, looking for erotic material. Decidedly not safe for work, but would love it if you hopped on over to share your own resources and thoughts in comments.
• Wednesday saw a book review of From Disgust to Humanity by Martha Nussbaum which I’m honored to say was included in my friend Danika’s round-up of queer reviews over at The Lesbrary.
• And on Thursday, I threw together a link round-up / “first thoughts” post on the Department of Justice decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Haven’t had a lot of time to read up on this one, what with one thing or another, but I thought folks might like to know what Jeffrey Toobin, Dahlia Lithwick, and Nancy Polikoff have to say about the short- and long-term ramifications of the new policy.

Marie Anelle wrote a post about her personal relationship with the Tumblr blog STFU, Parents; foureleven posted her thoughts about the public ridicule that follower a television anchor’s on-air migraine symptoms; and BeckySharper offered thoughts (on behalf of all of us who blog at Harpyness) on what it means for us to identify as a “feminist” blog.

from Fiendish

Hi folks. So the last couple of weeks have been a bit exhausting here around the feminist librarian household, as Hanna and I have both been struggling with bad winter colds (hers worse than mine; fingers crossed I don’t relapse!). And we have a friend coming in from out of town to visit for the long weekend. So I may or may not get around to posting as usual next week. Just so’s you aren’t alarmed if nothing comes across your RSS feeds.

Meanwhile, here’s the usual round-up from over at Harpyness from the passed seven days.

On Monday, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I put up a post critiquing Dan Savage’s “stick to your own” advice when it comes to dating and relationships. The post generated some heated discussion in comments concerning whether or not my interpretation of Dan’s advice was acccurate, and whether or not said advice was actually prejudiced (as I suggest it is). So whether or not you agree with me, I’d suggest checking out the comment thread to see what folks have to say on the subject.

On Wednesday, I managed to get up a booknote on Judith Warner’s 2005 polemic, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety.  I read the book in tandem with Stephanie Coontz’ history of The Feminine Mystique (reviewed two weeks ago) and was struck by how far we haven’t come in terms of re-evaluating the demands of motherhood over the past half century. Nonetheless, I also felt frustrated by the author’s narrow focus (upper-middle-class, heteronormative parenting) and the way she blamed feminist for the failure of society to change. By coincidence, this post went up in tandem with a guest post by regular reader/commenter Wingstaff, writing about work, family, and life as a military wife.

Marie Anelle wrote a post on Wednesday about sexism in our culture’s response to illness, which I followed up on Thursday with a post about ageism and access to over-the-counter cold medications. There was a lively debate in the comment thread on cold medications about the acceptibility of society regulating teen access to over-the-counter drugs, particularly those which have the potential to be used in abusive, self-harming ways.

As always, wander on over to The Pursuit of Harpyness to check out the full range of posts that went up during the passed week.

Continued due to popular demand: The weekly round-up of posts I wrote at The Pursuit of Harpyness. This week I put up three posts on relationships.

• On Monday, I wrote a post ruminating on the sister relationships in Masterpiece Theater’s recently-aired “Downton Abbey.” I asked readers to share some of their favorite examples of sibling relationships in books, movies, and television series. Check out the comments for thoughtful reflections on sister- and siblinghood.
• Midweek, I put up a book review of Stephanie Coontz’ A Strange Stirring, an account of Betty Freidan’s famous feminist polemic The Feminine Mystique. Coontz documents readers’ reactions to the work when it was first published and places the book within historical context. Even if Mystique is a book you love to hate, I highly recommend checking out Coontz’ analysis. Stay tuned next week for the Wednesday review of Judith Warner’s Perfect Madness which is, in many ways, a follow-up to Mystique for the 21st century.
• And for the Friday Fun Thread, I shared some of my favorite literary love stories and threw open the floor for readers to share some of their own favorite titles. Feel free, on this Valentine’s Day eve, to go add your own suggestions to the list.

In addition, SarahMC prompted a lively discussion about pornography in contemporary culture with a post on teenagers’ and young men’s relationship to pornography; PhDork ruminated on competitiveness in the classroom; and Marie Anelle described her parenting style (flying by the seat of her pants). We discussed pop culture’s obsession with polygamy and on Thursday decided to establish Bradshaw’s Law (invoke Sex and the City in a discussion about women these days: you automatically lose the argument).

Have fun!

This week at The Pursuit of Harpyness marked the start of my second month of group blogging. Not sure if these weekly round-ups are of any use to y’all … feedback is welcome!

I don’t want to be redundant if anyone who cares is just following the Harpy blog. But I also don’t want to leave folks out who want to keep up with what I’m writing, but don’t necessarily want to follow a group blog. So please do let me know if you have strong feelings one way or another!

• Harpy reader Jess left a comment on my post from a few weeks back about sexual fluidity asking folks who identify as sex- or gender-exclusive in their sexual desires to talk a bit about what that feels like. I turned her question into a new post which generated a really interesting discussion in comments.
• On Wednesday, I posted a review of From the Closet to the Courtroom, a book on LGBT rights and the law. I’m planning on making Wednesday a regular book review day for the forseeable future, as I’ve been reading a number of books that I think will be of interest to the gender/sexuality crowd.
• And Thursday, I gave a signal boost to my friend Minerva who wrote an eloquent blog post about language and identity and how she understands sensuality in the context of her asexual identity.

The other Harpy writers were busy also, posting about separate sleeping arrangement for married couples (another really interesting comment thread) and the Republican’s attempt to legally narrow the definition of “rape” within the context of healthcare reform. Hop on over the The Pursuit of Harpyness and check out (or even become part of!) the conversations.

This week saw three new posts up at The Pursuit of Harpyness, all of which in some way connected to others whom I blog with and know on a personal level.

• On Monday, I put up a post about work and identity that drew heavily on the reflections of my friend The Archivist who blogs over at Oh My Sainted Aunt. I asked folks to discuss in comments how their work fits into their identity, and how they feel about that relationship between who they are and what they do. Some really interesting themes emerged related to professionalization, career changes, and unemployment.
• On Wednesday, thanks to a YouTube video Hanna found on Tumblr, I put up a post about movies and television shows that make us weep. My picks? “The West Wing,” Iron Jawed Angels, and A Single Man (even though I haven’t actually worked up the courage to see it). There was an overwhelming response in comments from people who shared their own top tear-jerkers, for reasons both happy and sad.
• And on Friday, I contributed my first “Friday Fun Thread” to the blog with a post about the joys of fan-authored fiction (or “fanfic”), which friend Minerva has hooked Hanna and I back into after a bit of an hiatus by sifting through the burgeoning Sherlock fic out there on the internets and sending us the cream of the crop. Go forth and read the post for lots of linky goodness.

There were some fantastic offerings this week from other bloggers at Harpyness, including a guest post by regular reader Endora about the problem of gender essentialist thinking, a post by Marie Anelle on “martyr mom syndrome,” instructions for how to be a bitch on JDate by BeckySharper, and thoughts from foureleven about the questions she most often gets (and has come to dread) as a newlywed. Click on through to enjoy them all!

This past week kicked off my tenure as a regular blogger at The Pursuit of Harpyness. I admit to some measure of anxiety going in (“will they like me?” “will my blog posts make sense and be interesting?”) and want to extend a heartfelt thanks to my fellow bloggers and the readers/commenters who made the experience a positive and truly energizing one. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what next week brings!

So as not to leave all you lovely folks who follow my personal blog in the dust, I plan to provide an (ideally) weekly round-up of the posts I write over at Harpyness, as well as some highlights from fellow contributors. Look for the post to go up on Sundays.

And as a reminder, I have replaced the Sunday Smut links list with a tumblr blog that I post to all week long. The ten most recent posts from that blog can be found here at the feminist librarian at the dedicated feminist librarian reads page. Folks who prefer to get those links and posts directly through their blog reader of choice, you can pick up the RSS feed directly at the feminist librarian reads (feministlibrarian.tumblr.com).

Without further ado, here’s the week at Harpyness.

• On Monday, I put up an introductory post in which I interviewed myself about my background in blogging and my reasons for applying to be a blogger at Harpyness. Folks were so warm and welcoming, curious about my history work and eager to see more book reviews posted to the blog. I’m definitely going to take my cues from them moving forward as I pick and choose from my ever-expanding store of blog post seeds.
• On Wednesday, I offered the first in what I hope will be a series of posts on reasons why the 1970s deserve a second (and more positive) look than the mainstream generally affords them. This post was a quasi-book review of a children’s story called Baby X about a child whose parents raised hir in a gender-neutral way. Commenters drew connections between this story and a real-life family in Sweden who are currently trying to raise their child Pop without indicating the child’s sex or gender.
• Friday, I delved into the alternate world of fundamentalist history, reviewing historian Jill Lepore’s recent account of how the Tea Party utilizes the history of the American Revolution in aid of its political agenda (The Whites of Their Eyes) and sharing historian Sean Wilentz’s research into Cold- War-era conservatism’s use of history and how it has influenced present-day pundits such as Glenn Beck.

In addition to my posts, there were other great submissions by newbies foureleven and Marie Anelle.

• Marie wrote about the frustration of having relatives who give her children toys that reinforce stereotypical gender roles (in addition to crapping fake poop and looking like something out of a bad Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie) and also posted a much-trafficked post on the social policing of, and judgment heaped upon, women who do not breastfeed … and those who do.
• foureleven wrote a fascinating post about how one of her friends stopped speaking to her when … foureleven (gasp!) dared to travel without her husband. Discussion in comments revolved around the difference between choosing to travel in ways that bring the most happiness to you and your partner, or which are most practical given your economic and other obligations (vacation time, business travel, etc.) …. and feeling compelled to always travel together because a married woman alone is on some level viewed as a shameless hussy. File this one under, “and you thought feminism was dead!”

Looking forward to an equally stimulating week two and hope that some of you will join us there.