Bitch Blogs

Feminist Rapper: A Lady Made That!

Kelsey Wallace — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:49:36 -0400

It's somewhat of a running joke in feminist circles that, while awesome, a PhD in Gender Studies doesn't exactly bring in the big bucks. Well, Jenny Hagel is looking to change that (or at least the character she plays in her new web series, Feminist Rapper is). In the first episode, "A Lady Made That," a frustrated Gender Studies professor learns how to rap to try and get her students excited about the historical contributions women have made to society. A catchy rap that rhymes a'ight with Margaret Knight? A clueless student who confuses Judge Sandra Day O'Connor with Judge Dredd? A freestyle rap over the credits about Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony? (Seriously don't skip the credits because that freestyle is awesome.) I am already anxiously awaiting the next episode.

Reproductive Writes: Giving Blood Part 2: Interview with Chris Bobel

Holly Grigg-Spall — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:36:55 -0400

University of Massachusetts professor Chris Bobel is the author of the soon to be released book New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. In the second part of this two-part interview she unpacks periods and the activism, advertising and controversy that makes them so very personal and so very political.

How does the marketing for Lybrel and Seasonique manipulate women's understanding of their periods?

I think it takes advantage of women’s ignorance. How many women understand how conventional birth control works? The difference between menstruation and the withdrawal bleeding that comes with oral contraceptives? (Take a look at this study of 20 something men and women) It is pretty clear that most of us are in the dark.

Menstrual cycle researchers think of the menstrual cycle as the fifth vital sign, but how many woman grasp how the menstrual cycle functions and how it’s related to more than the shedding of the uterine lining? Big Pharma breezes right into this knowledge void. As the beauty industry feeds on insecurity, the menstrual care industry feeds on ignorance and shame.

But I want to take a minute to acknowledge the many menstruators who experience periodic menstrual misery. There are women whose cycles are horrendous. But I wonder how many of them know why this is the case. Are they getting high quality health care? Do they suffer alone? Celebrating the cycle discourse may never resonate for women in pain. I want to be sure that in our critiques of the pharmaceutical and FemCare industries, we don’t snuff out their voices, because menstrual activism is about them, too, and actually, they have the most to gain when we get talking, challenging and learning.

Have these pills opened up a discourse on menstruation that was previously not there?

Maybe. There’s that potential. But what’s happening is that we start pointing fingers at each other: Flaky Moon Worshippers vs. Corporate Dupes. I’d like to get past this as much as I’d like to get past a menstrual discourse limited to products and pills.

Really, the only acceptable menstrual discourse is complaint and joking (with women as the butt of the joke). But there's little-to-no cultural support for dealing with hormonal changes throughout the lifespan so there’s appeal to 'shut up and take a pill and be done with it'. There's no room for a messy middle ground that acknowledges the menstrual cycle can be difficult and it is a vital sign. When you went to the doctor to get help, were you immediately given a prescription and that was it? Were other options explained? Were you given an adequate explanation of risks and benefits? If not, you got lazy health care.

I think many women are drawn to the conventional birth control pill and will take Lybrel or Seasonique because they are not aware of other options to deal with their misery. Who can blame ‘em? Let’s not fall into that old trap of horizontal hostility—where we see a problem and point at each other instead of those enduring culprits: capitalism, the medical-industrial complex and rigid gender hierarchies.

How can we address this knee-jerk sense of the 'icky' that is so pervasive in discussion of periods?

We have to start with the contradictions we live with. Assessments of what’s icky or inappropriate are, like all assessments, subjective and shifting. Here’s one: menstrual blood is taboo, but semen is sexy. Semen, of course, makes the 'money shot.' Fellow writer for the re:Cycling blog Elizabeth Kissling points out that there’s blood everywhere, excepting menstrual blood. The hugely popular crime show genre loves to put tortured dead bodies on display.

Me? I find stylized violence pretty icky. Whenever there’s a knee-jerk reaction to anything, my impulse is roll it back and put it in slow motion. What, precisely, are we pushing away and why? What cultural values are working beneath the surface here and whom do they serve? What’s at stake?

The Biotic Woman: Vegans of Color

Brittany Shoot — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:50:46 -0400

People unfamiliar with veganism—and hell, even people within animal rights movements—tend to think of vegan and animal advocacy issues as predominantly white concerns. It's a fair accusation that white privilege is rampant in AR movements and that many animal rights groups are constructed in homogeneous ways—because generally speaking, it's true.

Of course, though sadly not apparent to many, veganism is anything but monolithic. That doesn’t stop a lot of white AR activists from speaking/writing/acting in ways that alienate people of color. For many, being vegan is doing away with one more -ism that is pervasive in our lives: speciesism. That we—white and otherwise privileged vegans like myself—fail to examine the ways that our desire to end the suffering of animals may also be classist, racist, transphobic, or even sexist is deeply problematic at best. The animal rights movement is no more uniform than feminism is, and assuming so is tragically myopic.

One of my favorite blogs has always tackled issues of animal rights and race in tandem, as their tagline explains, "Because we don’t have the luxury of being single-issue." Johanna Eeva, founder of the increasingly popular, always informative, and thought-provoking Vegans of Color blog, recently corresponded with me about the site and the challenges of deconstructing interlocking oppressions in an online forum.

What were some of the reasons you started the Vegans of Color blog?

I started the blog shortly after I became vegan, because in exploring the vegan blogosphere as I was contemplating the switch, I found it soaked with unexamined white privilege: whether it's food bloggers bewildered by what they deem as "exotic" food (which in many cases meant food not generally associated with white, usually U.S. folks) or playing into stereotypes and colonial histories when campaigning on issues in other parts of the world (again, this most often means parts of the world other than the U.S. but particularly nations that aren't predominantly white & with which the U.S. often has a history of exploitation).

I was griping about this to two of my friends, also vegans of color, & I asked if anyone knew of any online community that centered the experiences of vegan people of color. They said they would join a blog if I started one & they did!

There were two really egregious things that I saw that actually kicked my butt into starting the blog. The first was someone on an animal rights mailing list spewing venom about how humans had the legal system to protect them, while animals didn't. The implication was that people were in prison for a reason & that prison advocacy wasn't worth doing. This showed amazing ignorance about the racist, classist ways that the prison industrial complex works—I mean, who is most likely to be protected by the criminal justice system? And who is most likely to be victimized by it?

The other incident was seeing a thread on a vegan message board about unique ways to promote veganism. Enthusiastically touted by one person was the idea of white vegans adopting children of color & raising them vegan, so that when people said that veganism was just a white thing, they could pull out these kids as examples to the contrary. Again, the complete ignorance of how problematic that is—to use children of color as means to your own ends, to have no idea about the complexities & problematic nature of transracial adoption—was just astounding. And no one was really responding to that post with that critique, which was even worse—I think by the time I saw that thread, there were several more pages of comments after that one post (almost none reacting to it), & sorely lacking was the sense of outrage & offense with which I responded. To me that highlighted how white most online vegan spaces are, because I don't think any of the vegans of color I know would have thought that adoption idea was a good one!

I wanted the blog to be a place where vegans of color could address things like these, & also discuss how other forms of oppression interact with veganism. I also simply wanted the blog to serve as evidence that vegans of color exist. We don't always blog specifically about political issues connected to veganism (although that happens to be the bulk of the blog); I wanted the site to be, also, simply vegans of color blogging about veganism. I knew it wouldn't be a totally safe space for vegans of color—partly because safe spaces are impossible to guarantee anywhere, but also because talking about race & asserting a position that isn't white-centric are contentious things to do, & the blog is public. But I hoped that at least vegans of color—whether as readers or bloggers—could gain some understanding & validation for the uncomfortableness that many of us feel in predominantly white vegan spaces.

How have people responded to your work?

It's varied. We get all the trolls you might expect: some of them are angry white vegans, who think that we are somehow damaging the cause by refusing to allow the ethic of care to only be extended to animals. Some of them are angry speciesist people of color, who resent us giving the same care & consideration to nonhuman animals. Many see us as too angry & taking things too seriously: the sorts of things used regularly to belittle people talking about social justice.

We do get a whole lot of genuinely thoughtful & supportive commentators, of course. When I see our posts linked elsewhere as part of good faith, thoughtful discussions about privilege & veganism, I'm really happy that the conversations we have on the blog are becoming part of a larger conversation about these issues, & that we are disrupting the dominant narrative of vegans as white.

And other vegans of color reacting positively to the blog is wonderful. I started the blog because I felt very alone as a vegan of color, so when others in the same position say that things on the blog make them feel not as isolated, that makes my day.

The blog exists to discuss how other issues, in many instances race & racism, intersect with veganism. However, this doesn't mean that we are obliged to teach people. This comes up fairly frequently: people who clearly have no idea about race 101 (despite having a link in our sidebar with starting points) & who, instead of being willing to do the work to read & learn themselves, bring up all the tired derailing arguments you might expect. People of color are very often expected to lead white people by the hand & do all the heavy lifting in terms of explaining white privilege & racism to them—over & over again. This is not our job. We're generally happy to discuss things on the blog but we expect readers to at least have a basic understanding of how racial privilege works. Hand-holding is not our responsibility.

We have the right to stop the conversation. Those with white privilege frequently act as if POCs are obliged to explain anything a white person wants to know about race, in depth, whenever the white person wants. Even when discussions happen separate from that expectation, talking about race is very draining. We have the right to stop talking about it whenever we want; we have the right to keep ourselves safe & to make sure we're not burning ourselves out. White commenters on the blog tend to be the worst about that sort of thing, but there have been POC commenters too who adopt that very aggressive style of Internet debating where you always have to have the last word & everything you say has to receive a rebuttal from the other person, otherwise they've "lost." Often they're male, as well, which is telling.

Members of any oppressed group (& I'm not talking about vegans here) face this: this incessant demand to teach, to serve as an audience for any drivel a privileged person feels like spouting. And especially the expectation that we can only express ourselves in a certain way: we can't be emotional—especially not angry, the horrors!—we're expected to pander & to tolerate the same trite crap over & over.

The Biotic Woman: A Profile of Celeb Chef Katie Lee

Brittany Shoot — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:00:00 -0400

The New York Times Magazine (I know, my fave) has a piece on celebrity chef Katie Lee today, and former Times food critic Frank Bruni details her rise to celeb chef fame. The article also describes how Lee supposedly traded culinary school to be married to Billy Joel, but to assume that the connections made were not perhaps more invaluable is disingenuous. Perhaps this wasn’t what Bruni meant to imply, but I do get weary of the "she gave up her dreams for her other dream—a man" narrative.

When I was a kid, my mother had a habit—at least on a memorable few choice occasions—of criticizing semi-famous women for "sleeping their way to the top." It was the late eighties, my mama was single after my dad cheated on her with his now-wife, and thankfully for my impressionable psyche, mom’s scorn rarely reached beyond the ranks of local television reporters. Nevertheless, she always made it sound like such a reprehensible thing. Whenever I’m faced with analyzing another woman’s choices, a career woman who is or has been in a high-profile relationship, I cringe as I remember my mom’s rather anti-feminist judgments.

With Lee, it's complicated at best because the truth is unavoidable, though to be clear, I am not suggesting Lee traded sex and love for success or vice versa. I'm just stating the facts: her career came on the heels of marrying Joel, which might even be an inconvenient truth for her to battle. Even though she’s clearly successful in her own right—she's hosted Top Chef and was an Iron Chef America judge, in addition to a substantial publishing portfolio and an Early Show gig (seen in above video)—having the right connections never hurt anyone. She's a gal from West Virginia who met Joel after literally walking into him during a trip to New York. An accompanying friend had enough sense to ask the Piano Man to lunch, since Lee didn’t know who he was, and the rest is, well, now occasionally televised.

Here’s my inevitable gripe that goes beyond this single narrative, which has its own issues at the intersections of fame and feminism. The idea of the "food celebrity" tends to annoy me for one simple reason: the folks associated with this notoriety seem to have little sense of what impact their work has on the environment. Being a vegetarian or vegan isn’t the end all solution to eating more sustainably, but it sure helps. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one Food Network vegetarian cooking show (Pick of the Day). If everyone is so obsessed with being "green," why is Pick of the Day the anomaly and not becoming the norm? (Is PotD even consistently shown in all regions these days? It doesn't even have it's own page on the Food Network website.) As Bruni points out, Lee is vying for her own comfy spot on the network that would enable a whole other level of celebrity that involves selling more cookbooks, branding products, and the ever-enviable frozen food line.

If Lee reaches her goals in her own right, I'm happy to hear it. But I would so love to see more high-profile female chefs making the connections between gender, the environment, and veg*n issues. Wouldn't you?

Further weekend reading: Peggy Orenstein's "The Femivore's Dilemma," also in the NYT Mag, which may warrant its own blog post but currently has me in such a foul mood that there's no way I can write a calm, measured analysis.

I Can Has Feminizm?

Kelsey Wallace — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:11:10 -0500

You may have seen some news this week about a new line of Mad Men Barbie dolls. Not surprisingly, the dolls are lacking in the body diversity department, even though they are supposed to be doll versions of actual women. This is annoying, and a certain LOLcat is not going to stand for it anymore:

Remember that you can make you own feminizt LOLz at I Can Has Cheezburger and send 'em our way. Baifurnao.

Raising Trouble: Just to Personalize This A Bit...

Liza Featherstone — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:05:47 -0500

There’s at least one dimension to the Harvard story that I – and the mainstream media – missed the other day. The douchebag angle! Just take a gander at these smug bozos on the links, at the Cadillac Invitational Tournament, a fundraiser for the Judge Baker Center, the cowardly group that tried to stop the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood for speaking out against corporations. (Here’s my post on this incident from Thursday, in case you missed it.)

It’s not hard to imagine why an organization supported by these appalling people might not want to call out Disney and Viacom for lying to parents and peddling sexism to kids. The list of Baker’s donors looks a lot like its board: Boston wealth-management and other finance firms.

Sure, Baker wants to avoid costly lawsuits so it can keep helping severely disabled kids, as the mother of a Baker student pointed out in a comment on Thursday’s post. I understand where she’s coming from. It’s important to provide services for children. But it’s equally important to change the toxic culture around them.

Out of the Baker Center’s orbit, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which has a new home, will be free to speak out. But the CCFC may struggle without its better-heeled parent group, so if you’re wondering what to do, a CCFC spokesman tells me that writing a check would be most helpful.

Matt Damon – yes, that Matt Damon --whose mom, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a scholar whose work on kids and media informs this blog (check out her excellent recent book Taking Back Childhood) -- is a donor to CCFC, and I’m sure he’ll continue to support the group. But celebrities – no matter how cute, left-wing and famous -- can’t do it alone.

People should also contact Disney and let the higher-ups know how crappy it is to pressure a group that helps disabled kids! And that it is unacceptable to try to silence advocates from telling the truth about its bogus products.

TELEPHONE!

Kelsey Wallace — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:36:59 -0500

In honor of the music video that is sweeping the virtual nation today, (it's Lady Gaga and Beyoncé's "Telephone," but I bet I didn't have to tell you that) a few of us here in the office got on our trusty GChat accounts and commented along with the video. Read what we had to say about transmisogyny, pastiche, and sandwiches – and leave your own comments! (Since we chatted along with the video, playing the video while you read might help to make the most sense out of things.)

Kelsey: do we have any preliminary video comments before we start?
I know we've all seen it a few times now

Kjerstin: and it starts out "county jail, prison for bitches"! did i not notice that before?

Kelsey: that should be the new sign outside our office – PRISON FOR BITCHES

Shaamini: I like this already!

Andi: I've already watched this like three times today.

Kelsey: the intro is so 70s I guess that is the Kill Bill influence?

Shaamini: her prison stripes are phenomenal!

Kelsey: modeled after a real jail, I'm sure

Andi: Are we supposed to get the idea that she's in jail after killing the dude from True Blood, from the Paparazzi video?

Kjerstin: yeah

Kelsey: so she went to jail for murdering that guy and it was supposed to be a statement about celebrity and fame and now she is sort of doing the same thing but starting in "fame jail" where there are lots of hot lesbians

Kjerstin: so she's sort of addressing the intersex rumor, but as one blogger at gudbuytjane pointed out, is it transmysoginistic to be like "see, no dick!"

Andi: That's definitely what I thought. Maybe she wants to start it up again?

Kjerstin: it also happens so early in the video

Kelsey: she has been so intentionally vague about the intersex thing, I'm surprised she'd address it like this (or maybe I'm not)

Kjerstin: it's extra shocking

Kelsey: but yeah, like gudbuytjane said, it's like "Oh thank God she doesn't have a dick now I can relax"

Shaamini: i think it works with the whole surveillance issue in prisons

Kelsey: but also they blur her crotch out, so we don't know for sure, right?

Shaamini: and the other prison guard does say "too bad"

Kelsey: but does she say “too bad” because they wanted to be more trans-inclusive? Probs not.

Andi: I don't know. I definitely see this as one for her lesbian fans, explicitly. And the no-dick thing seems like it could be part of that.

Kjerstin: On to the exercise yard!

Kelsey: those smoking glasses are blowing my mind

Kjerstin: what's that song on the radio? Everyone is so prison glam

Kelsey: Gaga doesn't seem that into the kiss

Andi: I have watched way too much OZ because my first thought was that she was gonna turn and burn that one woman after making out with her.

Kelsey: VIRGIN MOBILE! Product placement galore. I do <3 the Diet Coke rollers in her hair though. What do you think about she's herself and her Gaga persona in the cell?

Andi: I have actually rolled my hair with orange juice cans. That's how we did it in the 80s, y'all.

Kelsey: And the brunette her doesn't seem to like the Gaga her.

Andi: Apparently it's her sister, Natali.

Shaamini: she's an onlooker

Kelsey: oh wow, they look so much the same. Oh, here is the part of the video I called "A Burlesque version of Shutter Island" in my initial notes.

Andi: I LOVE this dance break. It's so much like the Pat Benetar video for Love is a Battlefield.

Kjerstin: julie (who was a prison-rights advocate before working for Bitch) was saying that she was wary of the hot women's prison thing, but she thought it ended up being...different and not male-gazy

Kelsey: I think this is how women dress in prisons you guys

Andi: Yeah, I could see how a prison-rights activist could get wary.

Kelsey: Plenty of Fish PRODUCT PLACEMENT. I know she's postmodern, but the product placement is ridic in this video

Andi: Okay, the crime-scene tape scene freaked me out

Kelsey: What about how B and Gaga have kind of a Dom/sub thing happening? Like she’s a “bad girl” and Beyoncé feeds her and stuff.

Andi: I think Beyoncé gets short shrift here, because her breakdown in the song is the most awesome part.

Shaamini: I'm not dancing until Beyoncé starts to sing

Kelsey: Yeah Beyoncé's part of the song is the best

Andi: Seriously, it's awesome.

Kelsey: Wait! I wanted to talk about that cow line, and the mirror dialogue. It lost me

Kjerstin: I think it's supposed to

Shaamini: I’m just glad Tyrese is getting work

Andi: LET"S MAKE A SANDWICH.

Kelsey: Tyrese burger! Though I don't quite understand why they kill everyone in the diner. Is it another statement about celebrity/fame culture?

Kjerstin: I wanna know what that word is when the woman gets her butt smacked

Kjerstin: the kitchen scene is my favorite for like, this many reasons

Andi: Was this scene a Natural Born Killers reference?

Kelsey: or Pulp Fiction maybe?

Shaamini: I thought more NBK at first

Andi: Is it wrong that I was only bummed to see the dead dog, but not so much the dead people?

Kelsey: Gaga is such a pastiche-maker

Kjerstin: Tyrese is such a dick

Kelsey: She knew he'd take all her honey – that part made me think of Thelma and Louise. Or that Dixie Chicks' song "Earl"

Shaamini: Really good line!

Kjerstin: this dance scene is also crazy. Cause of the intense dying

Shaamini: the American flag decor is pretty wonderful

Kjerstin: queering patriotism!

Andi: Jai Rodgriguez from Queer Eye -- I like that he's kind of making fun of himself.

Kelsey: I know, I love that he is the newscaster. Do you think that's the Pussy Wagon from Kill Bill? Or did they make another one?

Andi: Could there be more than one Pussy Wagon? I think not.

Kelsey: yeah it has the same keychain

Shaamini: Same body work on the car

Kjerstin: those gown dresses do something to me

Kelsey: oh here comes the woman symbol wipe! Sisterhood!

Shaamini: Solidarity!

Andi: Definitely a Thelma and Louise reference. And Bonnie & Clyde, maybe, with the hats.

Shaamini: they remind me of bram stoker's Dracula, but that's obviously not the reference

Kelsey: yeah and I guess the Polaroid camera is a Bonnie and Clyde reference

Kjerstin: and a Gaga reference

Shaamini: I’m really surprised by the overall coverage this video is getting

Kelsey: I like the hype and the drama (which I think is the reason to like Gaga)

Kjerstin: I think it's practically impossible to make sense out of

Shaamini: General consensus was that the video was just fun without a "message"

Andi: I just like that she actually makes high-concept (or any-concept) videos. Who else does that these days?

Kelsey: The video is interesting because I think she is trying to make statements about LGBTQ issues and women's issues but I don't quite get what those statements are

Andi: Oh, I thought of another reference: Freeway! Another amazing movie.

Andi: I actually didn't think she was trying to make a statement other than, "I'm making a crazy-ass pastiche video with Beyoncé."

Kjerstin: Yeah you could just say "i don't even know who or what this is about" when gaga kisses the butch in the prison yard, when actually it's like, "when do you see to non femmes kissing on mainstream tv?"

Kelsey: I think it's about doing something sexy and different and getting attention. MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED.

Andi: I do think it's about acknowledging her lesbian fans, rather than just the gay men, like Johnny Weir, who have embraced her. I think she wants to go beyond being the new Madonna.

Kelsey: I do hate the product placement though. Like, I know you're all about pastiche and postmodernism Gaga, but I don't buy it that you needed the money from PlentyofFish or Virgin Mobile for this video.

Kjerstin: I like how Beyoncé got to have non-Beyoncé fun and use bad words but still not be the over-the-top one. I keep wondering if the Obamas have seen the video yet

Kelsey: Ooh I wonder if they have! They love Honey B.

Andi: Yeah, the product placement with the winking is really done.

Kelsey: I would have preferred all fake products like the pretend Miracle Whip

Kjerstin: oh man i didn't know plenty of fish was real

Andi: Oh god it's horribly real.

Kelsey: so do you think her gay fans (à la Johnny Weir) will embrace this video? Or will they feel like she's abandoning them for her lesbian fans? My thinking is that if you're a Gaga fan you like this video, and if you aren't you might hate it

Andi: It's campy enough for everyone, ultimately. It's not as artsy as the Bad Romance video, but it's more fun.

Kjerstin: quickie poll says yes

Kelsey: yeah the phone made of hair and the "Let's Make a Sandwich" dance are for everyone

Shaamini: I would agree and the level of entertainment might be enough to win some fans over too

Kelsey: the song itself doesn't have much to do with this video, though I guess there are a few phone references

Andi: That's what's nuts to me. Now whenever I hear the song I'm going to think of a prison yard, rather than just, like, a club and trying to hear someone on the phone. That would have been a really boring video, though.

Kjerstin: i like that...and then it just throws phones in willy nilly because it's called "telephone." like, in your hair for example

Shaamini: I like the idea of her saying 'stop trying to access me!'

Kelsey: but overall the lyrics and the video are really different, since I read the song as being about wanting people to quit calling you so you could dance, like the PSAs at thatsnotcool.com -- stop texting me while I'm dancing!

Kjerstin: totes

Kelsey: Beyoncé agrees! We just want to dance! and murder people in a diner! and dance more!

Shaamini: haha. I think Beyoncé and her MJ-inspired outfit are worth noting too

Kelsey: yeah I love her epaulets – the jean shorts I could live without

Shaamini: too cut-up

Kjerstin: there's another MJ reference when she leaves prison and dances with the zombies

Andi: Loved that little dance move.

Kelsey: I wonder if they are referencing him because he was a pioneer in the high-concept music video world. He pretty much invented it.

Andi: Bad Romance had that too. Totally an homage to Thriller.

Kelsey: yeah definitely, it's nice that they are recognizing but still doing something new with it. I think MJ would like this video.

Kelsey: OK, any final thoughts?

Kjerstin: I think it will polarize feminists more

Kelsey: which is funny because I don't think she is all that much of a feminist icon or anything

Andi: Will we be able to rest until we've definitively decided if Lady Gaga is good for feminism? Probably not.

Kelsey: She is interesting, and she is a woman, but that doesn't mean feminists have to go to the mattresses over her

Andi: I think Gaga studies will become as big in academia as Madonna studies once were.

Kelsey: And the fact that her name is Gaga makes that way funnier. I am a Gaga-ologist! I have my PhD in Gaga Studies!

Shaamini: She makes some interesting political statements that appear as non-statements

Kelsey: I agree with you Shaamini on the statements, except sometimes I think she actually isn't saying anything but she's good at seeming like she's saying something

Kjerstin: I'm excited to see how the story "is continued" and if it will be an entirely different genre

Kelsey: I hope Honey B is still in it

Shaamini: Can you start calling me Honey S?

Kjerstin: maybe johnny weir will be in it

Kelsey: Let's Make A Sandwich!!!

Andi: I have nothing else to add, except that this video has made me happier than I've been in days. It's an antidepressant, practically.

Kelsey: Do you have a favorite part?

Andi: Um, SANDWICH.

BitchTapes: I heart Kim…aka Rockin’ with Kim

Jaymee Jacoby — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:04:14 -0500

It’s gray and rainy here in the Northwest today, following some beautiful glimpses of spring…not very inspiring when you’re ready for winter to end. But on the way to work, Cannonball came on the radio, immediately shedding some light on the gloomy day, which started a listening trend that made the day better…rockin’ with Kim. I love Kim Deal, whether she is just singing, or playing bass, or wrote the song, or all of the above. Here are some rocking Kim tunes to put a little light in your day…

1) Cannonball – The Breeders
Yes, it was overplayed when released, but still so, so wonderful.

2) Gigantic – The Pixies

Frank Black/Black Francis (or whatever name you choose to use) didn’t let her write much for the Pixies, but he should have. Example A: Gigantic.

3) Iris – The Breeders

The Breeders, in all of their Pod glory.

4) Silver – The Pixies

Example B: Kim co-wrote Silver, which is from one of my all-time favorite albums ever, Doolittle.

5) Tipp City – The Amps
There is too little of The Amps in the world.

6) Little Trouble Girl – Sonic Youth

Kim lending her awesome voice to another awesome band.

7) Bam Thwok – The Pixies

Example C: This song was meant for Shrek 2, of all things…but is much better than that.

8) Fate to Fatal – The Breeders

The Breeders most recent effort doesn’t have much content, but this song alone makes it worthwhile for me.

Reproductive Writes: Giving Blood: An Interview with Chris Bobel

Holly Grigg-Spall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:52:11 -0500

University of Massachusetts professor Chris Bobel is the author of the soon to be released book New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. In this two-part interview she unpacks periods and the activism, advertising and controversy that makes them so very personal and so very political.

How did you come to see menstruation as more than a personal matter?

A slogan menstrual activists use is 'We’re Making Bleedin' Everyone's Issue.' As women, we are expected to keep our periods hidden and silenced. We internalize this attitude, and police each other: Women learn to hate their bodies, seeing them through racism, ageism and sexism as problems to be fixed through constant 'improvements' - that too big nose, too-dark skin, too-narrow eyes, tiny breasts, fat butt. And now we can 'improve' the body even more - we can eliminate menstruation altogether with pills such as Lybrel and Seasonique.

I think our only hope of resisting these messages and slowing down if not stopping this body hating is to develop body literacy. But we don’t do this beyond encouraging girls to make their bodies thinner, harder, sexier. When girls (and later, women) lack this knowledge, they are vulnerable to exploitation, especially when it is cleverly packaged as 'liberation.'

Why should we care about menstruation?

We are all impacted by menstruation, even if we don’t menstruate. Menstruation touches us all. Menstrual talk is gross, impolite, much too personal. At the same time, there are huge ecological implications related to the single-use products that most Western women use. Mountains of waste - both in the making of the products and their disposal - are produced. That’s everyone’s problem. And there’s real questions about the safety of these products, questions that can’t be easily answered by industry-sponsored research. So we should be talking.

But there’s another resistance. Those who claim not to be grossed out ask, Aren’t there more pressing issues to take up? What about breast cancer or violence against women or sex trafficking? But these topics are intertwined. At the root is the same story of the control of women’s bodies.

Can you explain your use of the word 'menstruator' in the book?

Some radical menstruation activists use it to signal that not all women menstruate and not only women menstruate. Think of post-menopausal women (who don’t) or trans men (who do). Menstruator is more than gender-neutral (like the term firefighter). Because it is related to a biological process, it gets folks thinking: What makes a woman a woman and a man a man? And why? This little word troubles the category 'woman’ and the gender binary that facilitates gender-based oppression. If we eliminate the binary, we can slowly undo the problems gender makes.

Feminist spiritualist menstrual activists do not refer to menstruators. Rather, they emphasize and celebrate gender differences, including women’s capacity to menstruate. They do not want to detach menstruation from gender. Instead, they want to strengthen the connection.

The radical menstruation activists, on the other hand, discourage menstrual shame and secrecy, but don’t necessarily promote period love. The message is: you decide how you feel about your period - not tampon manufacturers, not your 5th grade health teacher, not your Mom, not pharmaceutical companies - you. The problem is, you can’t authentically decide what you feel and think about something if you don’t have good information.

How has stopping menstruation with continuous-use contraceptives, or menstrual suppressants, like Lybrel and Seasonique, come to be welcomed as modern, as progress?

These pills promise a chance to, in a sense, transcend the body. They cleverly promote liberation (get it? Lybrel/Liberty?) from our unruly, messy, uncooperative bodies that get in the way. Cycle-stopping contraception gets framed as the hip and modern lifestyle choice. 'Periods are so outdated', says Big Pharma, based on pretty flimsy evidence. The implication is that cycle-stopping contraception puts you in charge. That’s seductive pseudo-feminism. But there’s a fascinating paradox here. Going beyond the body is—actually--all about the body, just a different one, an 'improved' one. The body freed from menstruation is cleaner, more appealing, and always ready for sex.

There’s an advert that depicts big 'granny' panties hanging on the clothesline next to a thong. Want to be sexier and more fun? Get rid of your period! Want to be dull and frumpy? Keep menstruating. It’s ageist and it transparently plays to women’s deep anxieties about their desirability. Wait a minute: can’t I be a sexy menstruator? Is menstruation really the foil for satisfying sexuality?

Let me be clear: everyone has the right to use cycle stopping contraceptives. There are certainly many women who should take advantage of this option to address serious menstrual cycle complications. But that’s not the target market for these pills; the pill makers are going after every woman. This is packaged as a ‘lifestyle drug,’ yet the research on long term safety is inadequate. I urge women to get to know their menstrual cycles, how continuous contraception works and then consider why menstruation is so terribly inconvenient and embarrassing (and even painful) in the first place. Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider this: Janette Perz from the University of Western Sydney conducted a study about the connection between women's experiences of PMS and their intimate relationships. She found women with supportive partners were better able to manage their symptoms.

Just because we can change something, should we? This brings me back to slogans. The Reproductive Rights slogan 'My body, my choice' is powerful but I don’t think it goes far enough. It makes for a catchy slogan, but perhaps it should be revised to say: 'My body, my right to information, my choice.' Until we have access to good information, we can’t make truly liberatory choices.

Douchebag Decree: Howard "You Finally Wore Us Down with Your Douchiness" Stern

Kelsey Wallace — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:46:44 -0500

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.

Stern has been douching it up for years now, so it's not a surprise that he did it again on his shitfest show Monday by fat-shaming the crap out of Academy Award nominee Gabourey Sidibe (with the help of his Douchemistress sidekick, Robin Quivers, of course). What really pushes this particular rant over the line between expected drivel and oh-no-you-didn't, though, is the way in which he frames his hate speech as "helpful advice." Take a listen (I'd set down any sharp objects first, though):

"Oh hey, Gabby? It's me, Howard. Howard Stern, that's right. I just wanted to let you know that you are fat and gross and you should lose weight if you want to continue working or even existing on this planet (which you are the size of, btw). What? Go fuck myself? But I'M HELPING YOU!!!"

Of course, as is necessary for all fat shamers, Stern thinks he's being helpful by telling Sidibe she's fat (omg I bet she had no idea) and that she should "look around her" and see what real actors should look like. Never mind that she was nominated for a frickin' OSCAR, or that, contrary to what his douche-filled brain believes, she has three new projects lined up already. He just couldn't let this opportunity to display his fat phobia pass us by!

Bitch Media isn't the only outlet giving Stern the business for this bullshit (thank goodness for that). Whoopi Goldberg had some truth bombs of her own to drop:

Thank you, someone, for pointing out the obvious: No one would be talking this shit (not even Stern) if Sidibe was a man. Fat men are A-OK (for certain roles, anyway) but a fat woman who can act scares the bejeezus out of a lot of people. (Do they think she's going to attack them? What's the deal?) Therefore, instead of just accepting her existence, they have to attempt to bully and shame her out of their little club where all women look the same. Stern is leading this bully pack, right into Doucheville.

So well done, Stern. In more than a year of Bitch awarding weekly Douchebag Decrees, you've managed to avoid the dubious honor (probably because we prefer to pretend you don't exist). However, with Monday's ill-informed, hateful, fat-shaming diatribe, you finally did it. Gabby Sidibe may not have won her Oscar yet (though you think she should have because she won't ever work again because she's too fatty-fat-fat), but you most certainly won this Douchebag Decree. Now stop hating on Gabby, you fucking douche.