Linkspam, 11/30/12 Edition

Photograph of Women Working at a Bell System Telephone Switchboard

Why Games with Female Protagonists Don’t Sell and What It Says About the Industry Riffing off the Penny Arcade Report link from last week’s linkspam, this goes into more detail about the problem.
Nature’s Sexism Nature takes a look at itself and finds itself wanting–and adds an additional step to help combat unconscious bias.
One Shade of Grey A really lovely piece on Nicola Beauman and Persephone Books.
Reviews with ‘All Guns Blazing’ In defense of exuberantly negative reviews from the public editor at the New York Times (“Why does the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?”).
The Cost of Opting Out Thought-provoking piece on how movements that ask people to opt out or slow down without criticizing the capitalistic system as well are by nature elitist. I had a recent argument on Twitter with someone who didn’t quite understand this.
Artisanal Baby Naming
Creating the Innocent Killer I re-visited this essay by John Kessel on Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game earlier this week and it remains an interesting and thought-provoking read.
The Joke is on Us: The Two Careers of Robert A. Heinlein Eh. I am not convinced.
Simon & Schuster Opens Self-Publishing Service It is never a good thing when a traditional publisher moves in the direction of vanity publishing. Here’s Victoria Strauss on the subject.
How we read, not what we read, may be contributing to our information overload For me, the interesting bit here is that e-readers can contribute to feeling overloaded when they are much less interactive than Twitter or Facebook. The article does note that the survey took place in 2010, before e-readers had gotten quite as popular as they are now (although I wonder who they were surveying; I got my first e-reader in 2010 and I felt a bit behind the curve on that front).
Former OED editor covertly deleted thousands of words, book claims Iiiiiinteresting.
Heternormativity, fantasy, and Bitterblue Two part-post from Malinda Lo on one of my favorite books of the year. And a book recommendation for people interested in the history of heterosexuality: Hanne Blank’s Straight.