Blogs

Oh, hi, Monday. Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today: 

• A string of new movies write a greedy new American Dream: AO Scott writes a great piece on The Great Gatsby, The Bling Ring, Spring Breakers, and Pain and Gain as "fables of acquisition." [New York Times]

• A Greenwich Village hate crime: A man in New York gunned down a stranger this week, apparently because the victim was gay. [The Advocate] 

• Female artists took home a pile of prizes at the Billboard Music Awards, including big wins for Taylor Swift and Rihanna. [Guardian] 

• Spelling out the specific stigmas against women in power saying they have mental illness. [The Frisky]  

• How do you challenge censorship in prison? [The American Reader] 

• A Yale scholar offers a new, in-depth look at rape during the Civil War. [Women Under Siege] 

• Is tree-sitting terrorism? Proposed laws in Oregon would make certain non-violent environmental protests a felony. [Vice] 

• Feministing has a rundown of ways anyone can support domestic workers who are organizing themselves for rights. [Feministing]

• Sailor Moon turned femininity into a literal weapon: In praise of "magical girl" TV shows. [Autostraddle]  

• Boobs on Facebook: They're only banned if they're real, says Facebook. [Daily Beast] 

What's on your radar? Post other good reads to the comments. 

A few weeks ago, I was at a party, talking to a guy I'd never met. I told him I work for a feminist magazine. He got very sincere. 

"You're a feminist," he said. "Does that mean you hate men?" 

This is a persistent myth. There are plenty of things in the world that hate men, but I'm not one of them. Instead of fearing feminism, dudes should fret over the genuine maneaters: Sharks. Tigers. Godzilla. 

For this Friday's BitchTapes, I put together this playlist of songs about maneaters. Now, instead of having to counter the man-hating question with a reasoned response, I'll just press play. 

MANEATER from BitchTapes on 8tracks Radio.

Song list below the cut! 

People of color are often seen as the exceptions in predominantly white societies' mass media, like US literature. Let's look at race and gender in two dystopic young adult scenarios in which the exceptional group is not people of color, but clones they've created.

For four years, reporters swarmed the ancient Italian town of Perugia, wrestling one another like dogs to be the first to break each rumor in the titillating murder case of British woman Meredith Kercher. In the vapid analysis of most news bites, headline painted roommate Amanda Knox as a perfect girl-next-door with a dark side: a vengeful seductress killer.