As you may have noticed, I love a good controversy, and I certainly got one last Thursday when the Swedish Academy honored prose writer Doris Lessing with the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.

But before the complications, the good part: Lessing, at nearly 88, is the oldest winner (not entirely surprising, since the prize can't be given posthumously) and only the 11th woman out of 106 (not entirely surprising, since, as we well know, female-friendliness isn't a typical "Academy" quality).

The other good part? Lessing's initial response to reporters asking about the win was to say, "Oh, Christ! I couldn't care less." Also, "I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot, OK?" And finally, "Now I'm going to go in to answer my telephone. I swear I'm going upstairs to find some suitable sentences, which I will be using from now on." … continue reading

Maybe you’re a Buffy fan; maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re a Joss Whedon fan; maybe you’re not. But I think we can agree that we're all — unequivocally — fans of women. Period. End of discussion.

Since I am a big fan of all three of those, I stopped by Whedonesque this weekend to check up on the latest happenings in the world that Joss built. What I read there both broke and mended my heart.

This well-managed and lovingly-tended community weblog is a depository for any and all news on projects by the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel and Firefly and I could go on) and the actors, writers and other creative folks who logged time in the Whedonverse. Every now and then those actors, writers and Joss himself pop in to say hi and interact with readers.

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On Friday, Joss stopped by and — with the eloquence and anger, the wit and wisdom he has displayed throughout his career — laid out one of the most moving and articulate defenses of women’s equality that I have ever read.