Bitch HQ

Did this week go by fast or what? Here's what we're reading on this fine Friday...

• When a woman performs oral sex on a man without his express consent, is it rape? If not, why not? At the Daily Beast, Amanda Marcotte considers the case of rapper Danny Brown and the unwanted onstage blowjob. [The Daily Beast]

• This past Sunday, thousands of protestors marched in Morocco after the brutal sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl, in order to raise awareness of, as one particpant put it "victims not only of rape but victims of silence and society's inaction as well." [allAfrica]

• The New York Times considers the success of showrunner Shonda Rhimes in an age of network television's declining viewership. [New York Times]

• Transgender high-school student Isaak Wolfe will not have his chosen name called at his graduation ceremonies; his Pennsylvania school district is insisting on calling his birth name instead. The ACLU is appealing to the school's administration on behalf of Wolfe and other transgender students. [Huffington Post]

• A team of British feminists will relaunch Spare Rib, the radical magazine that began publishing in 1972 and folded in 1993. New editor Charlotte Raven promises that it will "revive the spirited and soulful vision of feminism that SR once embodied, not the timid liberal one that dominates the mainstream media." [The Guardian]

• It has long seemed that the quickest route to consideration as a "serious" female actor is playing evil. At the Women and Hollywood blog, Melissa Silverstein asks why. [Women and Hollywood]

• Why don't more women run for office? (Spoiler alert: money and sexism, mostly.) [The Cut]

• Thoughts, inspired by the douchebag comments of Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, on being a feminist in a world of fat shaming. [International Design Times; Sin City Siren]

• A fascinating look at Bertha Alexander, the woman who started one of America's biggest, most beloved doll companies, Madame Alexander. [Tablet]

Happy May Day everyone! Here's what's on our radar.

• "Latina feminist," not just "feminist." On why today's modern, "mainstream" feminism has yet to prove its commitment to anti-racist projects and transnational movements. [The Feminist Wire]
• Five-year old girl in India is killed by rape. Trigger Warning.[The Guardian]
• For more extremely depressing news, read here about the recent murder of Ci Ci Dove, a trans women in Cleveland.[Advocate]
• Have you been looking for a body-positive magazine written by feminist, queer-friendly women who don't take themselves too seriously? Welcome to Ms. Fit. [Autostraddle]
• Ok, we're still talking about it cause it's so ridiculous. Female athletes have been out for decades: and here's a timeline to prove it. [BuzzFeed]
• The pursuit of more representation of diversity in comics - an admirable, intersectional attempt or just plain old tokenism? [Policymic]
• Help back this project and kickstart Assigned Sex, a documentary film tackling gender role stereotypes from trans perspectives. [Kickstarter]

What a freaking week, huh?

• Boston is on lockdown. Stay safe, everyone. [NPR]

• Gabby Giffords served up a big heaping plate of fuck all y'all with this editorial in The New York Times about the failure of the Senate to serve the American people by passing "common-sense legislation" requiring expanded background checks for gun buyers. [New York Times]

• A new Tumblr called Boys Clubs highlights the organizations, panels, boards, presidencies, and other institutions where women don't exist for a bracing visual on what insitututional bias—whether conscious or not—looks like. [Boys Clubs]

• Top WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner has been in the news a ton lately, but not because she's gay. Autostraddle discusses her graceful, casual acknowledgment of her identity, and, well, we love this girl: "Don't worry about what other people are going to say, because they're always going to say something."  [Autostraddle]

• Vulture investigates a classic Hollywood gender dynamic with a series of snappy charts showing that as film's most bankable male stars age, the female costars with whom they're paired, well, don't. (Or as one famous lothario put it, "I get older—they stay the same age.") [Vulture]

• Speaking of movies, IndieWire's Women and Hollywood blog has a list of all the female-centric movies opening this summer. Get excited! [Women and Hollywood]

• Former Bitch blogger Michelle Dean looks at the long history of pervasive sexism levied at memoirs written by women. [The Cut]

• If you're a fan of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, you'll want to know about her partnership with the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. If you donate to RAINN this month (Sexual Assault and Prevention Awareness month), her publisher, MacMillan, will match your contribtution. [RAINN]

• Are we running out of female body parts around which to create consumer anxiety already? The apparent craze in the U.K. for nipple-darkening tattoos, or "tittoos," suggests yes. Greeeaaaat. [The Telegraph]

Have a great weekend, and join us in hoping for a blissfully uneventful coming week. Oh, and if we missed anything, let us know in the comments.

Good morning Bitch readers!  Here's what we've been reading today.

• In light of the recent Boston Marathon Bombing, there have been countless racist responses and unfounded finger-pointing. Here's why David Sirota hopes the bomber is a white American, and how white male privilege could dramatically shape the course the U.S. will take. [Salon]
• There's lots of coverage about the sadistic and sloppy abortion-performing doctor Kermit Gosnell. Here's a rundown seperating the truth from the false info in the gruesome case and a commentary on how the situation shows the lack of access to healthcare among poor people of color [RH Reality Check]. 
• One year since three Black trans-women were murdered, we remember them. [TransGriot]
• Folks are celebrating the release of "Trans 100," a list of 100 great trans* activists. [Autostraddle]  
• Breaking the cycle: In Afghanistan, it's taboo for women to ride bikes. But a group of women have semi-secretly formed a national biking team and are getting new gear from American cyclists. [New York Times] 
• Maintaining a heritage language can be difficult enough when you live in an English-speaking country, but coupled with thehuge stigma against foreign languages results in the overwhelming loss of an ability to speak them by the second-generations of immigrants. [Racialicious]
• While there are plenty of YA novels that are a source of empowerment for girls, the focus on "beauty" is still very prevalent. [This Ain't Livin']
• Although we've seen this done before, here's a new take on recreating the all-too-common sexist advertisements using role-reversal to replace the female models with males. [The F Bomb]
• Yay for progress!  New Zealand has officially approved its bill for marriage equality. [Huffington Post]
• North Dakota lawmakers are confident that the newest in a slew of anti-abortion bills will deter women from getting abortions, when in reality, they will only be making it more difficult and, therefore, unsafe. [NY Mag]