Bitch Media

For Realz?: It's A Noun, It's A Verb, It's The Amazing Race Next Week

TV post by Rita Hao on April 12, 2009 - 10:11pm; tagged reality TV, The Amazing Race, the word bitch.

As your feminist reality TV blogger, I've got the standard (short) list of complaints about The Amazing Race to run through: why hasn't an all female team ever won in the 14 seasons the show's been on, are the women being unfairly edited to look more shrewish under pressure than the men, etc etc., but I've got a new one for you: looks like we're going to have a discussion over the impact of the word "bitch" next week!! You can hear the whole staff now: "AGAIN?" [Note: I would have linked to Andi's awesome CNN snippet on the same topic with Rick Sanchez, but I can't find it on YouTube! Well worth watching.]

Read

0 comments

To Porn or Not to Porn

DigiBitch post by Malori Maloney on April 11, 2009 - 2:39pm; tagged documentary, porn, sex industry.

Porn may well be one of the most divisive issues among feminists today. Personally, I have an incredibly difficult time deciding where I stand. Like most feminists, I am all for the healthy expression of sexuality, which may manifest itself in a variety of forms. However, it's pretty darn hard to conceptualize a hierarchical sexual interaction as 'healthy,' particularly when it eroticizes violence and/or humiliation.

Anyway, no matter your take on porn, it is an undenaiably feminist issue and definitely worth examining as such...which is why I'm super-excited about the Media Education Foundation's new documentary The Price of Pleasure, which takes an in-depth look at the porn industry. The film includes voices from critics and supporters alike, from Female Chauvinist Pigs author Ariel Levy to award-winning pornographer Joanna Angel.

Here's the (strangely short) trailer (contains some explicit material)...

Madea, Tyler Perry, and Church-Going Black Women

Movies post by Deesha Philyaw on April 10, 2009 - 11:25pm; tagged black women, Madea, Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, race, Tyler Perry.

According to a recent Entertainment Weekly article:

'''Tyler Perry understands that much of his audience is African-American women — the most ignored group in Hollywood — so he's doing movies that speak to them,' Bogle says. 'You could see these films as parables or fables. There's a black prince figure who shows up for black women who've been frustrated, unhappy, or abused.' That's the real reason critics don't like Perry's movies, says Nelson George: They're made for churchgoing, working-class black women, not urban hipsters (or tenured professors)."

I'm neither an urban hipster nor a tenured professor, but I'm not a fan of Tyler Perry's movies either. Are you?

Read

8 comments

BitchTapes: Under Pressure(s)!

Music post by Briar Levit on April 10, 2009 - 3:34pm; tagged BitchTapes, David Bowie, david byrne, De La Soul, Dizzie Rascal, Erykah Badu, Komeda, Peter Gabriel, The Who, Tribe Called Quest.

I've been feeling kinda stressed lately—and it shows with my BitchTapes mix. I collected a group of tracks about the external pressures we deal with day-to-day. You know, stuff like: Am I pretty enough? Tough enough? Smart enough? and on and on. The genres I've chosen are each so different, but the themes all come back to same stuff we all deal with at some point in our lives. Have a listen:

Read

1 comment

For Realz?: What Happens To A Queer Quiverfull?

TV post by Rita Hao on April 9, 2009 - 11:14pm; tagged Duggar Family, gay, Quiverfull movement, reality TV.

Read

42 comments

Crazy Like A Feminist

Love / Shove post by Kelsey Wallace on April 9, 2009 - 1:20pm; tagged Crazy Love, domestic violence, Leslie Morgan Steiner, Linda Hirshman, Slate, XX Factor.

There is an article by Linda Hirshman on Slate's women-centric XX Factor today entitled "Crazy Love, Crazy Choices" that deals with domestic violence. In it, Hirshman posits that present-day feminists are too easy on domestic violence victims because "the current love affair with understanding stops feminists from calling victims on taking responsibility for their own well-being."

I have to disagree.

Read

4 comments

Sarah Maple Will Make You Think

DigiBitch post by Malori Maloney on April 8, 2009 - 10:22pm; tagged female artists, gender, Islam, political art, sexuality.

Sarah Maple isn't afraid to be provocative or stir up a bit of controversy now and then. Born to parents of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds (her mother is a Muslim from Kenya and her father is a Christian from the U.K.), much of her work deals with her own identity. From Islam to race to gender and sex, Maple's works touch on everything you aren't supposed to talk about at dinner.