Bitch HQ

This has been a week! Here's what we've been thinking about.

• After the giant mess around Rep. Lisa Brown's oh so horrifying use of the word "vagina" (GOD FORBID!), thousands of people watched in delight in Lansing, Michigan, as women legislators enacted The Vagina Monologues on the steps of the state Capitol in response to the passing of HB 5711. [Ms. Blog]
• Where do you wanna be when 20,000 dykes take over New York City? At the 20th annual NYC Dyke March, of course. It's happening this Saturday – there's an after party too! [NYC Dyke March]
• Listen to this great conversation with our very own Andi Zeisler on gains and setbacks for working women, family policy, women's status in developing countries, and the path of women's progress in the last fifteen years. [Chicago Policy Radio]
• C.L.I.T. (Combatting Latent Inequality Together) Fest, an awesome three-day DIY, music, and arts festival is happening in New Brunswick, NJ in July (previously in DC, PDX, LA, Chicago, etc.), and they need your help to get things done! [C.L.I.T. Fest NB]
• Super queer, super feminist, super rad, Sourpatch is on tour, and they're playing in Portland with Joyride and Forever on Monday! [PC-PDX]
• Skills vs. Luck – The Olympics prove their blatant sexism once again! Because clearly, females can't have skills, especially not athletic skills. [Feministing]
• Check out Jay Smooth's video about those terrible Adidas "shackle shoes," a criticism of thoughts about intentionality, and how racism doesn't come just from overtly racist intent. [Animal New York]
• Alyssa Rosenberg wrote an open letter to the creators of Tomb Raider for their horrific insensitivity and perpetuation of rape culture. [Think Progress]
• In Palestinian solidarity, Alice Walker declined a request to publish an Israeli edition of The Color Purple. [The Guardian]
• Oy gevalt, True Blood! There are respectful ways to tap into Jewish culture and religion, and this is definitely not one of them. [Tablet]
• Here's what went down at the End Stop-and-Frisk silent march against racial profiling. [Colorlines]
• Portland update: Bitch's own Kelsey Wallace is a judge at this year's Offkey Karaoke (a benefit for the YWCA). Come help her cheer on (or heckle, if need be) the contestants this Saturday!

Well, this has been a week. Are you outraged yet?

• Can you smell the transphobia in the air? Developments in the CeCe McDonald case state that she is to be housed in a male prison, and to top that off, the media continues to ignore assaults on transgender women. [Colorlines/The Daily Beast]
• Dita Von Teese is nothing short of a hot mess with her brand spankin' new, orientalist burlesque show, now with extra cultural appropriation! [Racialicious]
• Speaking of Yellowface, has anyone seen that new terrible video by Coldplay, featuring Rihanna? Nothing like hypersexualized ambiguously "Asian" bodies. And y'all thought Nicki Minaj and R. Kelly were as bad as it could get. Nope! Rihanna and Chris Martin take the cake. [YouTube]
• Is the effectivity of single-sex schooling a myth? Scientifically, maybe, but socially, couldn't it be a great thing? Was my high school education a lie? [Jezebel]
• Check out the trans feminist bloggers roundtable on transfeminism(s). [Ms. Blog]
• Leslie Feinberg was arrested in solidarity with CeCe McDonald, and charged with property damage. Not such a sweet start to Pride Month. [Original Plumbing]
• War on drugs, or war on women? Gender-based violence in on the rise in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Increased militarization certainly isn't helping the matter. [Feministing]
• Sexual libertines don't understand the nature and purpose of sex? Because they don't understand religious liberty??? Chill out, Helene Alvare. We want our contraceptives, and we don't want to pay for them, so back off! [Salon]
• Looking beyond the Western World, defending the relevance of feminism(s). [fbomb]
• D-List male celebrities looking for dates, faceless female voices, spinning chairs, and dramatic button pushing? Is this for real? That doesn't sound like something I want to watch either. [Feminists For Choice]
• Mainstream cinema, female action heroes, and why they're not good role models. [IndieWire]
• Wayne Coyne is being a jerk. Erykah Badu is disgusted. We're not surprised. [Vulture]
• Um, what? Some men are secretly filming women breast pumping at work. Is this really a thing? Can it not be?  [Mommyish]

What have you been reading, musing, raging, or raving about? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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• Libby Copeland on why fashion models keep getting younger [Slate]
• We Are All S.E. Cupp, the Conservative Pundit Bullied by Hustler says Lindsay Beyerstein [In These Times]. If you agree, sign the change.org petition.
• Remember that racial discrimination lawsuit against the Bachelor/ette franchise? Bitch contributor Jenn Pozner breaks it down. [Daily Beast]
• No one knows what's next for Community, but Arturo R. García has some thoughts on the show's depiction of geekdom and race. [Racialicious]
• We haven't heard it yet, but the new radio show Cabinet of Wonders sounds amaaazing. [NPR]
• A Gallup poll released this week showed that the percentage of Americans who identify as “pro-choice” is at an all-time low of 47 percent, while 50 percent identify as “pro-life.” Jessica Valenti wonders, "Does it really matter?" [The Nation]
• If you haven't been reading Bitch contributor Anne Helen Peterson's "Scandals of Classic Hollywood" series, this entry on Marlene Dietrich is a good place to start. [The Hairpin]
• Once you see the cast of Game of Thrones out of character, you can't un-see it. [Vulture]