Gender bending

I like the kind of situations that feel like the pictures where you stare at seemingly random dots and suddenly a 3D image appears. It happens in real life when you make some assumptions or guesses which turn out to be wrong, and in a sudden shift of vision it all looks very different. It always reminds me that the world is more complex than it may seem, and that I actually have preconceptions and hidden assumptions. I also like to see it from the other side, for example when I'm asked for ID in a bar and the bartender suddenly sees that I'm ten years older than he thought. (I think it's because I'm so short. Unconciously people tend to judge age after size also in the case of adults.)

So. Recently I realised that on the Internet I might as well be a man. Why not? As long as it's only about exchanging links and ideas, sex shouldn't matter at all. I like it.

It also makes me think about gender, but I don't know if I have any conclusions other than that of course it is more likely to meet a physicist and science fiction fan who is a man than one who is a woman. I often think that I live in a world with about 10 percent women.

Anyway, here is a picture of me that I wanted to post just to show that I've been to a Worldcon:



This is me at Interaction, the world science fiction convention in Glasgow 2005 (photo from this page, published here with permission). The picture was taken at the Swedish room party, where I'm giving people some "punch" in plastic cups (a Swedish liqueur based on arrak and lemon, very sweet). I didn't drink any myself, because I was seven months pregnant (it's not so visible on the picture, but with some imagination you can see it).