Friday Links Fights Crime Like a Discus Thrower

Does everyone else miss the Olympics as much as I do? This week’s Gruen Sweat did a good job of psyching me up for the Paralympics, though. In the mean time, check out some great posts about the Olympics, women and us:

Fit and Feminist looks at the girl love and friendship displayed between the athletes and wonders if there’s a female equivalent of bromance (it’s sromance, actually!).

Meanwhile, Comics Alliance asks the big question – with so many different types of super-fit trained bodies on display across the Olympics, why do superheroes in comics use such limited body types, over and over?

Mayim Bialik comments on the tightly pinned hair of the Olympic gymnasts and wonders about the implications of a sport that doesn’t allow even a hair out of place. I think that the many commenters who talk about the practicality of the hair clips (a stray hair can actually distract you badly) and the problem with bringing attention to the hair of female athletes all have really good points, but at the same time I also think Bialik has a good point about the disturbing message of perfection as a priority that comes from professional gymnastics. (though I still love it and totally consider it a sport, Alex! Mind you, I feel the same way about Masterchef…)

In non-Olympic news, it has finally been confirmed that Mark Gatiss is in fact writing a one-off TV drama to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, based around the story of the creation of the show itself and featuring characters such as Verity Lambert (the youngest female TV producer of the era), Waris Hussein (the youngest and only Asian director at the BBC), brash show creator Sydney Newman, and of course the actors who brought the early episodes to life. I am fascinated with TV history generally and this is especially exciting – who on earth will they cast as William Hartnell? Will any current Doctor Who actors feature in new roles? (this could totally work, like those wonderful Hercules episodes where Hudson Leick plays Liz Friedman, Robert Trebor and Ted Raimi play Roberto Orzi and Alex Kurtzman, and so on) Eeeee!

I can’t find the link right now, but Steven Moffat also confirmed this week that there will be an anniversary Doctor Who story screened on 23rd November 2013 – which has turned out to actually be a Saturday! Who organised that, then?

Sarah Rees Brennan writes a magnificent essay about the women behind Nancy Drew – and how the famous series was constructed. I had never heard any of this before, and was gobsmacked.

Related revelations about the book packaging come from this post about how the Sweet Valley High books were written – hint, not by Francine Pascal! But man, that woman was clever.

Tor.com wants to talk about why we really love Princess Leia.

Oh and Sarah Rees Brennan also manages to make the world feel better about the Prince Caspian movie with this parody.

Jim C Hines posts his thought-provoking personal sexual harassment policy.

A little girl speaks up (yells up!) about a casual sexism drive by – because yes, a complete stranger did think he should be able to inform her that cars are for boys.

The Angriest’s ongoing series of posts about how the DC New 52 have been faring since the reboot has been greatly entertaining and informative but I was particularly keen to see what he had to say about the new/old Batgirl.

Rowena’s new paranormal crime book The Price of Fame is out – I am looking forward to this one, as I read it in manuscript form some time ago and am interested to see how it’s changed. When I read it though, it was a spooky love letter to 1980′s Melbourne culture. I hope it still is!

Sean the Blogonaut interviews Trudi Canavan for Galactic Chat.

via the Mary Sue: