Part two of a few of my favourite things from 2014, (see here for Part 1); this time Feminism, Diversity + Inclusivity, Bangladesh, and All-women lists.

Feminism

OK, clearly the ‘feminism’ list is going to be a long one. I tried to narrow this down as much as I could!

• Illustrations on women’s empowerment, by Brazilian graphic designer Carol Rossetti. (right)
• Call yourself an “intersectional” feminist? by Reni Eddo-Lodge.
• On the exclusion of Islamic feminism within “western” feminism, by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed.
• Foreign Policy Interrupted’s newsletter landing in my inbox every Friday with a round up of women writing on foreign policy is a highlight of my week. Really great way to increase visibility working in this field.
• Lego’s new set of female scientist/researcher figures - which has, unsurprisingly, been “overwhelmingly popular” and out of stock since it went on sale.
• How not to study gender in the Middle East - long, but some great points. By Maya Mikdashi

• From 2011, but I came across it this year and love it: on Why we need to dismantle the myth of ‘Western’ feminism by Chitra Nagarajan.

• Men writing about feminism is always a delicate balancing act- in my opinion, Robert Webb does it pretty well here.
• “Who killed Adulthood” by Sady Doyle
• Okay, it’s an advert - but it’s clever, and poignant.

• What harassment is like for women, in cartoon form. Really good.
• I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m so happy that an Iranian feminist vampire film was released this year - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
• Raja Ravi Varma’s Women Rejecting Marriage Proposals, with a big hat tip to the original Women Rejecting Marriage Proposals In Western Art History.
• Awkward moments for feminists, beautifully illustrated by Naoise Dolan.
• 18 Badass Women You Probably Didn’t Hear About In 2014 - wonderful examples of feminism from all around the world. I added my own to another Buzzfeed post, too.

Diversity + inclusivity

Lots of this could fit in ‘feminism’ too.

• Open Dyslexic, an open source font reated to increase readability for readers with dyslexia.
• On the potential consequences of new Hacker News comment policy: men needing to endorse women’s comments, by Neha Narula.
• We can do better, a tool visualising gender disparity in engineering teams in the tech industry, by Ri Liu and Tracy Chou.
• These people are nothing like me, with a lovely conclusion: “My challenge to you is to find writers and other online creatives you love, but who are also nothing like you, and let them blow your mind”. By Karen Walrond.

• Disney princesses, re-imagined as different ethnicities. I alternated between dressing up as Pocahontas and Jasmine when was younger - these would’ve given me so many more options…!
• An illustrated style guide to Appropriation vs Appreciation
• A playable post on the shape of society -a fun interactive explanation of diversity in society.
• An all-too familiar post on growing up as a second generation immigrant by Hakan Tanriverdi (in German).
• A new New York Times video series, Off Colour, highlighting “artists of color who use humor to make smart social statements about ways that race plays out in America today.”
• I’ve referred to this a lot this year - how to tell a white person they are being racist, by Alice Bell.

Bangladesh

Not all of these were produced this year, but they’re the most interesting things I came across about Bangladesh online.

• Powerful photo project showing servants next to housewives in Dhaka, to highlight the “distance between two people who often live under the same roof.”. By Jannatul Mawa.
• This year, Bangladesh’s first magazine aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues was launched - Roopbaan.
• The utterly ludicrous borders of Bangladesh - including the world’s only third order enclave- Dahala Khagrabari is a piece of India within Bangladesh, within India, within Bangladesh.

• A heartbreaking photo series of a shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh
• I spent last winter in Bangladesh, and struggled to explain to people what the political situation was there. This 5 minute video by Human Rights Watch sums up the worst of the elections.
• Privacy International have been keeping an eye on surveillance technologies purchased by Bangladeshi security.
• Some gorgeous photos of Bangladesh’s female Freedom Fighters from the Liberation War

• The untold story of the Bangladesh-Palestine alliance from the 1980s

• Great article on the rebirth of comic books in Bangladesh.
• Savifa, the “virtual library South Asia”, with a huge range of digitised archive of materials from colonial Bengal.

All-women lists

One of the biggest arguments I come across when asking why more women weren’t included is “but we couldn’t find any.” This year I came across a number of lists of women in various professions, giving them the much-deserved kudos for work they’re doing, and making it ever so simple for to be ‘found’ if people are looking to talk to women. No more excuses for not being able to find women in [data visualisation/technology/books by women]* (fill in as appropriate) - and on my list of things to do is to come up with some lists of my own, as I feel like I come across brilliant women all the time!

• As part of the #readwomen2014 campaign, here’s a list of “14 timeless reads by women”, by Maria Popova.
• Top 100 movies of all time, by female directors. by Miranda Sajdak
• I’ve referred so many people to this post this year: “The Women of Crisis Mapping”, by Patrick Meier.
• It’s fairly US-centric, but you get the picture: An Incomplete List of Females in Data Visualization (with an accompanying, ever growing Twitter list).
• My own list of women writers from Latin America crowdsourced via twitter. Thanks, kind people!