Bitch HQ

• Feministing tackles the media's coverage of Whitney Houston's death which showed another successful female artist's death related to drugs and fame: the age-old "narrative that as a woman, you can’t have it all." 
• The Athena Film Festival wrapped up this week: check out Huffington Post's take on the festival and the importance of women and filmmaking.  
• Chris Brown performed at the Grammys on Sunday: what does it say that pop culture is so ready to forgive domestic violence?  
• Are you/do you know any LGBTQQIA youth who love rock music? Check out the website, sign up for Queer Rock Camp, and read our previous Q&A with the camp's organizers. 
• The Mamafesto responds to the ridiculous absence of women on the congressional panel on birth control. 
• Don't forget that Black Herstory month is ongoing at the Ms. Blog.
• At Global Comment, Bitch contributor Chally reflects on normative love for Valentine's Day.
• This Bay Area event looks amazing! Tickets now available for Girl Talk: A Trans and Cis Woman dialogue curated by Gina de Vries, Elena Rose, and Julia Serano.
• At the Feminist Wire, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Darnell L. Moore, & Kenyon Farrow write about who isn't calling out Roland Martin for his homophobic tweets (and who is, but doing it wrong). 
• Gawker calls Virginia's New Ultrasound Law "sexual assault" as it would force women to get "transvaginal ultrasounds" before abortions. 
• Check out Melissa Harris Perry's new show which starts on Saturday on MSNBC. 
• Slate covers one woman's experience of post-natal care in France. 
• Know any female journalists? GOOD has suggested a campaign to fight the growing gender gap for women in media by asking people to promote women through networking. Check out the twitter response: #promotewomen

Tell us what you are reading in the comments!

Read articles from the latest Bitch magazine—the Frontier issue!

Before you even get your copy in the mail, you can read "Better Homes & Bloggers" by Holly Hilgenberg, on ideas of authenticity and lifestyle blogging; "Target Market," J. Victoria Sanders' first person account of getting a handgun license in Texas and the race, gender, and personal issues involved; and "Protest, Desire, and Cheap Dildos" a great Q&A with British journalist Laurie Penny by Emily Manuel (that has my favorite description of vajazzling EVER).

Click, read, and share! And if you aren't a subscriber yet, now's the time to sign up: We're having a big sale and you can save up to 20%! Subscribe and save today!

• CNN suspends Roland Martin for his homophobic tweets during the Super Bowl. 
• Civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due died at 72 this week. 
• NPR Fresh Air's interview with Meryl Streep covers her latest role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. 
• Oklahoma Democratic State Senator Constance Johnson offered up a "spilled semen" amendment to the Personhood Bill to "draw attention to the absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women." 
• Racialicious covers the new reality show, Shahs of Sunset, which follows the lives of Iranian-Americans. With the show's producer Ryan Seacrest, it is purpoted to be the "Persian Version" of Jersey Shore. 
• Ellen DeGeneres stands up to One Million Moms who have pressured JC Penny to not use her as a spokeswoman because of her sexual orientation. 
• Nichelle Nichols speaks out about what it was like to be black actress on Star Trek in the '60s. 
• Delta had the first all female African-American flight crew last week. 
• California Proposition 8 was struck down by the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 
• End on a Good Note responds to the backlash M.I.A. received from flipping the bird during her Super Bowl halftime performance. 

Tell us what you have been reading in the comments!

• How genuine is the Susan G. Komen backtracking and apology? Here are a few excellent links on recent developments.
• Check out this Feminist Wire article on the intersections and manipulations of anti-Palestinian occupation protestors and LGBTQ protestors by the Israeli government.
• Transgriot has a report on awful transphobic actions going on at a Tennesse retail store.
• n+1 posted a nice history of ladyblog sites, from Jezebel to Rookie (where does Bitch fit in all of this? We're not really a "ladyblog," right?).
• If you're having trouble following the fight over trans inclusion in the Girl Scouts, read this neat Mother Jones recap of the whole debacle.
• On Comment is free, s.e. smith tells Rick Santorum why all disabled people deserve the care his daughter receives.
• At the Border House, Apple Cider Mage discusses sporting a "slut plate."
• Obama announces theme of this year's Black History Month is "Black Women in American Culture and History."

Tell us what you've been reading in the comments!

• If you're bummed out at Oscar nominating five white guys for Best Director yet again, check out Cannonball's list of five women that should have been nominated instead.
• Break out your see-through visors and cigars and support this Kickstarter campaign for feminist playing cards.
• From inter-office email: "We're probably all sick of Doucho Schwyzer, but this Global Comment piece is pretty good."
• Check Colorlines' wonderful obituary for Etta James.
• We all know Pariah's pretty darn good, but did you know the twenty-year history of black lesbian filmmaking?
• Today in Rick Santorum: pregnancies from rapes are God's will. Cue the sound of a thousand long, drawn-out sighs.
• Here's what Charlize Theron was missing when she silenced Viola Davis at the Oscar roundtable last week.
• Here's something: Ice-T predicts Hillary Clinton will be president in 2016.

Tell us what you've been reading in the comments!

• We need to be careful not to let our talk of Paula Deen slip into schaudenfreude.
• You know, the whole "Shit [blank] Says to...[blank]" meme has proven to be a pretty smart examination of prejudice and microagressions, and we ought to give it more credit.
• West Coast readers! Check out the West Coast Rally for Reproductive Justice tomorrow, at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. 
• Attention student activists! Apply to get funding for progressive social change with the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund.
• Andrew Ti of Yo, Is This Racist? takes some time to sit down with 2 Broke Girls. Answer: it's really racist.
• The title of crunktastic's latest for the Crunk Feminist Collective says it all: Disrespectability Politics: On Jay-Z’s Bitch, Beyonce’s ‘Fly’ Ass, and Black Girl Blue
• Tami Winfrey Harris takes apart 30 Rock's discomforting apology retraction of an episode about Tracy Morgan's homophobic comments earlier this year.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

Since you are currently online, you've no doubt noticed that SOPA (don't worry, you can click on the link—it's one of the only Wikipedia sites that isn't blacked out today) is the talk of the Internet. More specifically, people are speaking out against SOPA and PIPA and the threat it poses to a free(ish) and open Internet.


Us too, pal. Us too.

• This week's homework: check out an excerpt from Professor Melissa Harris-Perry's Sister Citizen on Michelle Obama and the gendered and racialized conceptions of her role as first lady. Extra credit for tying it in to current political discussion!
• Margaret Cho defends any "strong language" she might use on Twitter.
• Peep the new anti-rape culture campaign that focuses squarely on men preventing rape.
• Check out this piece on women leaders in the civil rights movement and see if the museum exhibition is coming to your town.
• Residents of Minnesota state district 61B, say hello to Susan Allen, the first openly gay American Indian woman elected to any state legislature.
• Where's the news coverage of the New Year's Florida abortion clinic firebombing?

Tell us your thoughts or what you're reading in the comments down below!

• Soraya Chemaly's responds to the Iowa caucuses with a piece on the incredible inequality for women in US politics.
• s.e. smith looks at the ridiculous bootstrap argument as applied to mental health.
• Watch Francesca Ramsey's excellent turnaround of the "Shit [blanks] Say" meme, "Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls."
• He may a stone-cold fox, but Tim Gunn's disappointing fat-negativity will always be out of style.
• Get your fill of LOLs with this collection of feminine-associated products being rebranded "for men."
• There's a million things worth watching in this roundup of an excellent year for indigenous peoples' media.
• We still can't ignore Chris Brown's history of domestic violence, and we need to address these issues with people who listen to his music unequivocally.
• Greta Christina writes about why "Yes, but..." is not an acceptable response to misogyny.

Tell us what you think in the comments!

• Portland-based plus-size boutique Fat Fancy needs your help with their fundraising campaign–donate now!
• Kate Harding writes about the Internet's sexist response to the sexism on Reddit's atheist community.
• According to Slate's L.V. Anderson, the new movie about Margaret Thatcher doesn't try to dig into the woman's deeper motivations, it's mostly just sexist.
• Carly A. Kocurek talks about the importance of the Gamer Girl Manifesto.
• Check this interview with Pariah director Dee Rees on the experience of coming out.
• The Carrie Brownstein feed just spat out two new profiles–one in the New York Times and one in the New Yorker!
• Nicole at Where Is Your Line? blogs her top five stories in reproductive rights from the last year.
• s.e. smith looks at the appalling conditions that detained immigrants with disabilities face.