As coverage of this horrendous woman-hating event unfolds, it is important to continue to focus on the misogynist nature of Sodini's actions. This was a hate crime against women, and should be labeled as such. More coverage of the sexist nature of the shooting and the ways in which we as feminists can begin to process it (and encourage the media to do the same), as well as some historical context for gendered hate crimes, can be found by visiting the following links:
This shooting (one of the many violent crimes targeting women over the past several years) is a tragedy, but also an opportunity for issues of misogyny and violence to be addressed in the media. How do you feel about the coverage of this event so far? Is the gender-based nature of Sodini's actions being properly highlighted? What are you hoping to see from the media in terms of future coverage? Please share your thoughts in the comments section, and continue to do so as more information is released.
Love Sarah Haskins' hilarious critiques of media aimed at women? Check out comparably witty Bryan Safi's analysis of homosexuality and media in another infoMania segment aptly titled, That's Gay. In this one, Bryan examines gay and lesbian characters in TV commercials...
Thea Lim at Racialicious started an open thread to revisit this spring's feud between Eminem, Mariah Carey, and her husband Nick Cannon. What seemed like another petty celebrity feud has turned ugly with Eminem's new single "The Warning," which features personal attacks on Mariah Carey that make his other misogynistic crap look tame...
When Hardee's (known to us West Coast-ers as Carl's Jr.) launched a new dessert last month and called it biscuit holes, no one was shocked that the product inspired yet another offensive ad campaign. After all, Hardee's has made a name for itself by shilling gross food with even grosser commercials (usually complete with a bikini-clad woman covered in ketchup). However, apparently this most recent campaign-o'-unbelievable-bad-taste has gone too far for Hardee's largest franchisee. But why on earth could that be?
Not to give you an excuse to expand your carbon footprint or anything, but did you know that every time you forget your cloth bags at the grocery store you're probably making use of a woman-invented product? That's right; the flat-bottomed paper bag was invented by none other than feministorical innovator Margaret E. Knight, seen here in sketch-drawing form (unless this is how people actually looked in the 19th century):
Image courtesy of the children's book Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became An Inventor
Though her life began as a child laborer in a cotton mill factory, Margaret Knight made a name for herself through engineering ingenuity. Read on for more!
It's not too late--get four redesigned issues of Bitch at the old price and support us directly by subscribing! In fact, if you subscribe by this Friday, you'll be entered in a drawing along with the rest of the Bitch 500 to win a free Bitch tote full of goodies, including Snarky Cards, a Flapper Girl coffee cozy, fiction by Alexandra Leggat and more! It's our way of saying thanks!
But we're not done yet--encourage your friends or family to subscribe (or buy them one yourself)! For those of you who say you love to buy Bitch on the newsstand, here's a little pop quiz for you: How many cents of every dollar you spend on an issue of Bitch at the bookstore or newsstand goes toward paying expenses like our staff, writers, and rent?
Is it: A) 90 cents B) 75 cents C) 15 cents D) less than 1 cent
If you guessed "D," you're right.
Depressing but true: After paying for printing, postage, and distribution, Bitch gets less than 7 cents for each issue we send to stores. That's just $.009 of each dollar you spend.
Lots of you have told us you love to support Bitch by buying it at your favorite local bookstore or magazine shop. And as much as we love that you support independent book and magazine sellers, the fact of the matter is that buying your magazine at the store benefits the newsstand industry much more than it does Bitch.
But! If you subscribe to Bitch, almost all your money goes directly to pay for the production of your favorite magazine. No middle people, no random surcharges. And what that means is a better-funded magazine with a stronger future. More subscribers today means more issues of Bitch in the future.
And that's why we're coming to you today — to ask you to join the Bitch 500. As many of you know, Bitch is relaunching this September with an awesome revamped design, great new features, and lots more to come over the next year. We're also raising our subscription price from $19.95 for four issues to $24.95. But before we do that, we're striving to snag 500 new subscribers at the old price. Subscribe or renew your existing subscription by August 17, and you'll get a year of the new, improved Bitch at the old, wallet-friendly price.
It's a deal, right? Right! So don't just subscribe for yourself — tell a friend. Tell two friends. Tell all the friends you've got.
It's the weekend again, and while in some cultures that might mean a well deserved break from work and an afternoon of drinking beer on the porch, here at the Bitch blog it means FEMINIZT LOLz! (You know you love 'em.)
And this bitch has been catcalled dogcalled one too many times this summer:
Have a great weekend, feminizts! And as always, we lovez it wen u makez ur own feminizt lolz. You can do just that by visiting the I Can Has Cheezburger LOL builder and sending your creations to us here. kthxbai!
I couldn't help but share this clip from last night's Colbert Report.
In his 'Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger' segment, Colbert talks about
new efforts to de-gender language found in textbooks. (more after the jump)
As devoted readers may be aware, Dov Charney and his hip-tastic empire, American Apparel, have irked a Bitch blogger or two over the years. From the company's racist Afrika campaign to Charney's infamous victim-blamingstatement to the company's appropriation of a political movement for profit, it becomes increasingly difficult to expect anything positive--save for the generous use of lamé--or even inoffensive from American Apparel and its smarmy CEO. Nevertheless, AA still sometimes fails to meet our low, low expectations. Case in point:
Okay, okay. Before you and your platonic best friend get all up in arms, in no way does this week's Douchebag Decree have anything to do with friendships between people of any gender. Friendship is super and in no way douche-y, obviously. However, this week's dishonorable honor is being awarded to the term"bromance," which is on everyone's lips this summer (and for the past year) and is not doing male (or female) friendships any favors. For evidence of this, check out this CNN person-on-the-street video:
Finally platonic male relationships are getting media attention, right? Because it's not as if practically every single movie made for the past four decades has been about that very topic. Also, it's great that we as a culture have coined a precious term for this relationship, because it is not already revered enough by everyone. Also, IT'S TOTALLY NOT GAY AT ALL YOU GUYS. SERIOUSLY. REMEMBER THAT MEN WHO HAVE FRIENDS ARE NOT GAY. You know, because guys can't have close relationships that don't involve sex unless they can call it something that indicates its so-not-gay-ness. Sheesh.
Of course, men openly expressing their love for their platonic friends is a great thing, so maybe the term bromance isn't all that bad after all? If it takes a cheesy pun to encourage emotional openness, then so be it. Bromance is a complicated thing, right? Of course, it's still getting the Douchebag Decree, but maybe there is more to it than meets the eye. Read on for more bromantic info and to take a super bromantic poll!
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