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Q&A with Actress Mink Stole: "If Anyone's Going to Judge Me, Go Away."

Movies post by Sarah Mirk on May 1, 2013 - 9:31am; tagged John Waters, women in film.

Mink Stole as Taffy, leaning over in a tutu

You know Nancy Stole as a horrible person. She's performed under the nickname Mink Stole in sixty films, but her morally corrupt roles in John Waters' outrageous films are the ones that burn themselves into your brain.

Read my interview with Mink below the cut!

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On Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup

Bitch HQ post by Hannah Siobhan ... on May 1, 2013 - 7:29am; tagged Ci Ci Dove, comics, female athletes, India, Ms. Fit. Latina feminist, rape, tokenism.

Happy May Day everyone! Here's what's on our radar.

"Latina feminist," not just "feminist." On why today's modern, "mainstream" feminism has yet to prove its commitment to anti-racist projects and transnational movements. [The Feminist Wire]
Five-year old girl in India is killed by rape. Trigger Warning.[The Guardian]
For more extremely depressing news, read here about the recent murder of Ci Ci Dove, a trans women in Cleveland.[Advocate]
Have you been looking for a body-positive magazine written by feminist, queer-friendly women who don't take themselves too seriously? Welcome to Ms. Fit. [Autostraddle]
Ok, we're still talking about it cause it's so ridiculous. Female athletes have been out for decades: and here's a timeline to prove it. [BuzzFeed]
The pursuit of more representation of diversity in comics - an admirable, intersectional attempt or just plain old tokenism? [Policymic]
Help back this project and kickstart Assigned Sex, a documentary film tackling gender role stereotypes from trans perspectives. [Kickstarter]

Tune in tomorrow morning for more feminist news!

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Here is What's Scary About Being a Female Stand-Up Comic.

Comedy post by Barbara Holm on April 30, 2013 - 2:36pm; tagged women in comedy.

Barbara Holm onstage

Recently I told some jokes a stand-up show and as I was getting off stage, the host said, “Go give her a hug after the show!” I shuddered back into my seat and pulled my beer in front of my chest like a protective shield.

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Oh Joy Sex Toy: Comic Review of the Classic Hitachi

Sex and Sexuality post by Erika Moen on April 30, 2013 - 8:44am; tagged comics, Oh Joy Sex Toy, sex toys.

Erika Moen riding a hitachi

For the first installment of my comic series reviewing sex toys, I started with the classic: Ye olde Hitachi!

Read the COMPLETELY NSFW comic below the jump!

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On Our Radar: Feminist News Roundup

News post by Kjerstin Johnson on April 30, 2013 - 8:30am;

Here's what's on our radar!

As you probably heard, Jason Collins is the first openly gay NBA player. But he's only the first openly gay professional athlete if you completely ignore women. [Sin City Siren]

Monica Bartyzel says it's time retire the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl." [The Week]

NPR profiles Sarah Allen, the programmer who led the team that designed Flash. Speaking of programming, the Linux Foundation is funding three Linux kernel internships through the Outreach Program for Women—apply today! [NPR, Linux.com]

Leigh Kolb discusses the rarity of seeing infertility and pregnancy loss in pop culture. [Bitch Flicks]

The latest frontier of prison criticism....Yelp? [Washington Post]

Film critic and writer Kartina Richardson discusses the "white default" of narratives, and how that plays out in Spring Breakers and Girls. [Salon]

Share what you're reading in the comments!

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A Brief History of "Women Aren't Funny"

Women Aren't Funny post by Gabrielle Moss on April 29, 2013 - 2:19pm; tagged Adam Carolla, Christopher Hitchens, Comedy, Jerry Lewis, John Belushi, Lizz Winstead, New York Post, Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey.

a woman wearing a funny hat

As long as there have been jokes, there have been people saying that women can’t tell them.

It can be tempting to dismiss recent “women aren’t funny” firestorms as yet another by-product of our internet era, where we are instantly alerted the second that anyone—from Adam Carolla to some yahoo with a Reddit account—makes an inflammatory statement about anything.

But the claim that women aren’t funny isn’t just new to our times. Here I've compiled a brief, totally incomplete history of people publicly peddling this line bull. Though the idea that women aren't funny hasn't changed much, public reactions to it have steadily changed.

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Dystopian Book "Partials" Imagines a Society of Forced Pregnancy

Girls of Color in Dystopia post by Victoria Law on April 29, 2013 - 12:05pm; tagged dystopian, reproductive justice, reproductive rights, women of color, YA fiction.

Partials cover

I've never been attracted to books set in a world in which women have been stripped of their reproductive rights and function mainly as breeders. After all, I live in a very real society in which women's rights over their bodies are constantly being eroded. The right to family seems to not apply to those who are poor, of color and/or incarcerated. So why escape to a world in which all of these injustices have been magnified?

The cover of Dan Well's Partials depicts the back of a dark-haired girl of ambivalent skin color looking out over a wasteland. Nothing in the summary indicates that there are people of color in the book. To the jaded reader, Partials might very well be yet another book in which people of color have not survived the apocalypse. I wouldn't have picked up Partials for this blog series on race and gender in dystopia had my twelve-year-old daughter not read and recommended it, letting me know that the main character is <gasp> a girl of color. And she's not the only girl of color who's survived dystopia.