19 Nov 2011
Jailbreak the Patriarchy: GitHub, Press, & Favorite Examples
You ask for it, so you got it - I put the source code for Jailbreak the Patriarchy up on GitHub. Feel free to check it out, contribute, or use it to make your own extensions. Have fun!
I'm staggered and delighted by the responses to my little extension. I'm still not bored of watching people tweet their reactions or examples of swaps they've come across and liked best! Here's a bit of a roundup of the press it's received:
• I was interviewed on APM’s Tech Marketplace. Thank you, public radio! I think you just made my month. My segment starts at 2:35 in that recording.
• The New Yorker mentioned me! Of course, they rather hilariously proved my point by writing: “Jezebel tests the new Google Chrome extension Jailbreak the Patriarchy, which feminizes nouns and pronouns on any Web site.” Only in a world in which the default is masculine can gender-swapping be described as “feminizing”.
• Jezebel: Fun Chrome Extension Gender-Swaps The Internet
• Flavorwire: Re-gender Your Webpages with the New “Jailbreak the Patriarchy” Chrome Extension
• The Toronto Star: Woman! I feel like a man: Swap gender of words from your browser
• The Mary Sue: You Should Really Check Out Google Chrome’s Genderswap Plugin
• Cyborgology has perhaps the most thoughtful response I’ve read yet.
• Gina Carey: Swapping Gender in Books - “Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. She also likes little boys.”
• Prosumer Report: Genderswap Your View of the World
• Maria Popova (brainpicker) declared Jailbreak the Patriarchy to be the “best Chrome extension ever - wow!
• And so many more! I’m pretty thrilled to have excited Kelley Eskridge, who’s pretty exciting herself. Morning Quickie suggested using Jailbreak in sociology or history classes (and women’s studies, of course). I made it onto Metafilter and Reddit. I love Ellen Chisa’s response. I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I actually found some thoughtful discussion on gendered language over on the Sensible Erection forum discussion (includes NSFW images) of Jailbreak the Patriarchy.
• Not to mention all the other fabulous folks on Twitter who said wonderful things and quoted some great swaps they were finding: Jonathan Haynes and Oliver Burkeman of the Guardian, Zach Seward of the Wall Street Journal, Julian Sanchez of Reason Magazine, Charlie Glickman of Good Vibrations, Elizabeth Bear, Bloomsbury Press, TrustWomen, ResearchGate, Disinfo, and more. Even GRAMMARHULK seemed excited!
Thank you, everyone! I love seeing all your examples and hearing your responses. I've had an amazing week, seeing everyone react to this thing I built. What a trip!
If you haven't checked it out yet, I suggest you go install Jailbreak the Patriarchy and then read pages such as Schrodinger's Rapist or the art of being an ambitious female. Or perhaps the "relationships" tag on Ask Metafilter. Check out the news on the latest sex/harassment/abuse scandal, the latest corporate scandal, the latest big thing in business or politics. And for best effect, leave it installed for a few days, let yourself forget that it's there, and see what jumps out and surprises you.
Also, ports and spin-offs created by other coders: </p> • Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale ported Jailbreak to work for Safari • sinxpi ported Jailbreak to a Greasemonkey script for Firefox • Marianna Kreidler released a gender-neutral version of Jailbreak