In an effort to cast a net beyond the sea of my own opinions (most of which involve reality television and hilarious animal photos) I asked for reader feedback on this week's Douchebag Decree. The nominations were many, and all were deserving: The Itawamba School District, for its attempts to ban gay couples from attending the prom. Eric Massa, for allegedly sexually harassing employees in his Congressional office. Ken Cuccinelli, for his letter advising public universities to retreat from their policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Ben Roethlisberger, for yet another alleged sexual assault. Douchebags are running amok!
However, one nominee rose to the top of the list for me, especially once I realized this Douche Supreme has never been awarded The Decree before. (I guess it was too obvious?) Congratulations, Howard "Douchemeister" Stern.
We hope you're as excited about our new web layout as much as we are. But just because our blogs are taking center stage doesn't mean you can't continue to access our other content, such as podcasts, videos, and magazine articles. And we've just uploaded the Old issue's "Target Women: The Rise of the Sexist Media Stunt" by TheFrisky writer Jessica Wakeman, which analyzes the various articles that jerk our feminist knees simply because they're so ignorantly infuriating (look no further than Spencer Morgan's Douchebag Decree to see that his Sexist Media Stunt on "The Cheetah--the cougar's younger niece" worked). And don't forget you can browse Bitch magazine articles--recent and archived--on our articles page or by issue.
Andromeda Klein is the second YA novel by Frank Portman, aka Dr. Frank of East Bay punk band The Mr. T Experience. Even the simplest plot description showcases how truly weird Portman's latest creation is: she's a high school student/magic disciple attempting to decode the dream messages she is receiving from her dead best frenemy. This isn't harmless, whimsical, nose-wrinkly "Bewitched"-style magic, and Andromeda isn't just quirky or offbeat – think more along the lines of deeply alienated and borderline schizophrenic.
Lewis & Clark College in Bitch magazine's hometown of Portland, Oregon is hosting a Gender Studies Symposium this week under the title The Science Of Gender And Sex, from March 10 to 12.
New York City chef Daniel Angerer has caused a bit of a stir this week—anger, if you will, ha!—after posting a recipe for "mommy’s milk" cheese on his blog last month. You might think as a vegan, who is by definition opposed to taking the milk from infant non-human animals for my own consumption, I’d dig this bizarre stunt. You'd be wrong.
The new record from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings is less than one month away. I Learned It the Hard Way is their first full-length since the record-breaking (but by no means debut) album 100 Days, 100 Nights which catapulted Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings into indie stardom. And their latest proves their musical momentum is just as strong as ever. Due April 6th (Jones' birthday), it's another solid album of songs that sounds decades-old but for some reason feels anything but anachronistic, and is equally fit for a cocktail party as your headphones. Stream the title track, "I Learned It the Hard Way" after the jump!
Andi is the co-founder of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. A longtime freelance writer and illustrator, Andi's work has appeared in numerous periodicals and newspapers.
She passes her non-Bitch hours watching television and embroidering portraits of dogs, often simultaneously. Her other interests include painting, walking, candy, Scrabble, and the interrobang.
What I'm reading:
Girldrive, by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein; Nurture Shock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman; I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith, Much to Your Chagrin, by Suzanne Guillette
What I'm listening to:
Morningwood, Vivian Girls, Camera Obscura, Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, girl groups
Briar Levit is a graphic designer who blends her love of design with social/environmental progress. She first began working with Bitch in 2003 (starting with the Transformation and Reinvention issue). After a grad school hiatus to Central Saint Martins in London, Briar has returned to where she knows she belongs, not only as a designer, but as a feminist and pop culture junkie.
Haruki Murakami, William Gibson, Zadie Smith, Alain de Botton, Jhumpa Lahiri, bell hooks, pattrice jones, zines, veg & animal sanctuary blogs of all sorts, and a neverending backlog of New Yorker magazines
What I'm listening to:
Spoon, Alphabeat, Jay-Z, (Grampall) Jookabox, Gossip, MEN, !!!, Passion Pit, Diam's, Hall & Oates, Beck, Buckingham Nicks, CCR, NPR podcasts, vegan/AR podcasts, jug bands, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Gang Gang Dance, bands on the anticon. label
What I'm watching:
cop/legal/FBI dramas on TV, geopolitical hypertext thrillers, uncomfortable/inconvenient documentaries, movies based in/about Boston (Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone, The Departed, etc.), & a mess of TV shows on DVD: Twin Peaks, Seinfeld, Rob & Big, My So-Called Life, Big Love, Taxi
Graduate school and the Internet have relegated me (and my attention span) to the land of short stories. It's a nice place to be, especially when Lorrie Moore and George Saunders are there.
What I'm listening to:
King Khan & BBQ Show, Girls in the Garage, The Blow, NPR
What I'm watching:
Arrested Development, The Twilight Zone, Mad Men, 30 Rock
Why Not Socialism? By D.A. Cohen. Latest issue of The Baffler. The Averaged American, by Sarah Igo.
What I'm listening to:
as always, stuff that MAY have been considered cool three years ago (e.g. Vampire Weekend) or was never ever cool (e.g. Beyonce). On the feminist tip, recently enjoyed a performance of Bach's Coffee Cantatas.
Mandy Van Deven is a freelance writer, the founder of the Feminist Review blog, and the Associate Editor of GirlFuture. She's worked as a community organizer and nonprofit administrator for ten years in Brooklyn and Atlanta on issues such as educational equity for low-income girls of color, reproductive and sexual health, safety, queer rights, and economic inequality. Mandy is the co-author of Hey, Shorty!: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment in Schools and on the Streets and a contributing writer for the Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism, both of which will be released later this year.
What I'm reading:
Best Sex Writing 2010 (Kramer Bussel), Committed (Gilbert), Tunnel Vision (Minhas), Nine Lives (Dalrymple), 250+ blogs and news feeds in my Google Reader
What can I say? I like to read.
What I'm listening to:
cars honking, crows squawking, and my ceiling fan spinning at top speed
What I'm watching:
The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Lost, House, Grey's Anatomy