Stephanie Leary

Writer and WordPress consultant

  • Books
    • Content Strategy for WordPress (2015)
    • WordPress for Web Developers (2013)
    • Beginning WordPress 3 (2010)
  • Blog
    • Fascism Watch (2016-17)
    • Content Modeling for WordPress series
    • WordPress Hidden Gems series
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Pro tip: a “women in…” industry panel should include, y’know, women.

May 26, 2015 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Denver ComicCon's Women in Comics panel on Saturday featured... no women. Let's have the allmalepanels Hasselhoff of approval, folks: When asked about this, the convention's PR rep responded with a prime example of how not to respond to questions about your problematic … [Read more...]

Conventions all male panels, feminism, sexism

Lightening up

July 5, 2013 Stephanie Leary 1 Comment

It’s hard not to feel humorless as a woman and a feminist, to recognize misogyny in so many forms, some great and some small, and know you’re not imagining things. It’s hard to be told to lighten up because if you lighten up any more, you’re going to float the fuck away. The … [Read more...]

Life feminism

Not sure if you’re flirting or harassing?

July 2, 2013 Stephanie Leary 2 Comments

Not sure if you’re flirting or harassing? Ask yourself if you’d be talking the same way if the woman were in a position of authority. If she were a police officer, who you knew had a gun and a badge, and happened to be off duty, at a bar, or a convention… You’re free to flirt, … [Read more...]

Conventions feminism

Background noise vs. the stuff you deal with

June 20, 2013 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Background noise: An offensive joke told by two men in front of you in line at the post office. “Bitch,” said about someone else. Loud phone calls on the street, as he hopes his fucking ex died or got fat. Women’s representation in any given movie. Hearing a woman’s spent too … [Read more...]

Life feminism

Movies about women: There are not any

June 17, 2013 Stephanie Leary 4 Comments

In many, many parts of the country right now, if you want to go to see a movie in the theater and see a current movie about a woman — any story about any woman that isn't a documentary or a cartoon — you can't. You cannot. There are not any. You cannot take yourself to one, take … [Read more...]

Movies feminism

“The Secret to Being Both a Writer and a Mother”

June 9, 2013 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

So when I see yet another bloody article that, right from the headline, demands women limit the number of children they have in order to succeed professionally – as though the universal introduction of equally distributed paid maternity and paternity leave, a collective cultural … [Read more...]

Life feminism, parenting

“Lady Author”

June 6, 2013 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

It's very telling that you'll get people saying, again, "author and lady author are just true facts," but then getting angry when you say that fine, if they want divisions, it needs to be "male and female author." No! Male is the default the norm the baseline of human experience! … [Read more...]

Publishing feminism

Why are there so many brothels in space opera?

May 23, 2013 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

...it seemed pretty clear to me that if there are so many brothels in space, there has to be an entire social and economic structure to support them. In most of human history, that structure was deeply entwined with sexism. -- Malinda Lo, "On Space Opera: Why so many brothels in … [Read more...]

Books feminism, space opera

The Fake Geek Girl problem in WordPress

May 20, 2013 Stephanie Leary 5 Comments

Over the weekend, at WordCamp Austin, I had a conversation that I think a lot of women in WordPress will recognize. I introduced myself to a male developer, and he asked if I was speaking later in the day. I said yes, and he asked about the topic of my talk. (All normal so far.) … [Read more...]

WordPress feminism

That’s what she said

May 16, 2013 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

This kind of crap went on and on. It was exhausting. Exhausting to figure out how to respond to the relentless misogyny from men who are otherwise kind and educated, who would never think of themselves as chauvinist assholes. ... A big pile of reasonably aware and … [Read more...]

Life feminism

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Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

Latest WordPress Book

Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

Read the sample chapter

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WordPress for Web Developers

WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

WordPress for Web Developers is out now. See what's inside...

The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Screen Options
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Bulk Edit
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Private Status
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Dashboard Feed Readers
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Options.php

Content Modeling for WordPress series

  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 1: analyze content
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 2: functional and organizational requirements
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 3: a sample content model

This is an excerpt from Content Strategy for WordPress.My latest books are Content Strategy for WordPress (2015) and WordPress for Web Developers (2013). Sign up to be notified when I have a new book for you.

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