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I am continually amazed by my ignorance (you, of course, might be appalled). I was reading one of the latest posts on Kestrell’s Blind Bookworm Blog - something about WisCon and WisCon Access Witches. I have no idea what WisCon is and blew right by it to the word “witches.” Hmm, now there’s something I didn’t know about her!

Then she had this:

Friday 2:30-3:45 “Hermiones Unite! The Politics of Reading and Being a Female Reader” How does identity intersect with reading? How does access to books continue to be a political issue for readers with print disabilities? Who are the “technopeasants”? Why are audio books, podcasts, and other forms of reading aloud still looked down upon as less valuable than “real” books, and how does this intersect with the politics of literacy? How is it that girl readers get passionate about science fiction and yet are still underrepresented in the science classroom?

Okay, so now she had my attention. How DOES identity intersect with reading? Since this blip was only an excerpt, I followed the link for the full article. Come to find out, there’s going to be a panel on “Half-lives, Orphans, & Other Tiptree Oddities” and a discussion of “Boys and Gender Expectations in Contemporary YA Fantasy and Science Fiction.”

I skimmed the rest before deciding that whether or not to gender my droid wasn’t really an issue for me, but that it might be for some of you. so here’s the poop: WisCon — the World’s Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention, May 25-28, 2007, The Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin.