On Our Radar: Responding to the Hunger Games Racists, Boycotting Katy Perry, and META mag!

Bitch HQ post by Morgan Hecht on March 30, 2012 - 11:22am; tagged links, roundup.

Here's what we've been reading this week:

Issa Rae responds to racist tweets following her web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl's Shorty Award win on xoJane. (Read Rae's Bitch interview here.)
Bim Adewunmi at Comment is Free tackles the racist response to The Hunger Games and why sadyly, she isn't surprised.
META magazine is a new digital publication from the UK covering trans and genderqueer issues—get yours on iTunes!
Feministing wonders if Facebook enabling eating disorders.
Latoya Peterson has posted a requiem for the website Sepia Mutiny at Racialicious and also reflects on the state of independent blogs.
SNL has hired a new female castmember, Kate McKinnon. You might recognize Kate from her sketch series Vag Magazine a web series where a group of feminists take over a woman's magazine.
Andrea Plaid reminds us the importance of abortion rights and awareness for women over 40 on RH Reality Check.
Buzzfeed has a "lady dictionary" to help define the necessity of placing the word "lady" in front of everything.
Melissa Harris-Perry comments on the acceptable dress code for black men following Trayvon Martin's death, and at Colorlines, Kai Wright has a must-read on being a black male in America.
Naomi Wolf is calling for a ban on Katy Perry. What?
Bitchflicks has a list of some of the best woman-centered film biopics ever made.

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Comments

6 comments have been made. Post a comment.

glorifying the military is worse than homophobia?

Posted by garconniere (not verified) on March 30, 2012 - 12:46pm

of ALL of the reasons to oppose katy perry, naomi wolf speaks out against that? what a joke.

A joke indeed

Posted by anotheranonymousone (not verified) on March 30, 2012 - 5:22pm

Just more evidence of Naomi Wolf being more delusional, out-of-touch, and irrelevant.

THE WARRIOR

Posted by ash966 on April 1, 2012 - 1:28pm

Damn, Naomi Wolf must've HATED Scandal's "The Warrior" back in the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9t5nkZn8I

Encouraging kids to want to dance-fight in a post-apocalyptic Kabuki warehouse. What's up with that?

*****************************************************************
"Oh don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong
And isn't your life extremely flat
When you've nothing whatever to grumble at?"

--W.S. Gilber

Um, What?

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 31, 2012 - 8:30am

I wonder if Naomi Wolf is smart enough to realize that Marines (and all those in the military) are the ones who are risking their lives, and dying, in order to defend her asinine comments made against the Marines. I will never understand why some people feel the need to bash the military. It's ridiculous quite frankly, and I hope some veteran tells her off and lets her know just how stupid she is for her comments. Her comments lead me to believe she has never met anyone in the military or any veteran or understands exactly what the military does. Does she realize that without a military, our country would not exist? SMH.

Regarding Facebook and eating disorders, I think it's silly to blame Facebook. It's not Facebook's doing, it's society. The reason why is that girls and boys have had issues with eating disorders for years and years, before Facebook came about. Without FB, girls and boys would be comparing themselves to their peers at school, in public, on TV, in magazines, etc. Should we blame all of those? It's the unrealistic expectations and standards that are to blame, not FB. Yes, I can look at a photo of someone thinner than me on FB and feel bad, but that's not FB's problem,.

Agreed on Facebook

Posted by anotheranonymousone (not verified) on April 1, 2012 - 3:54pm

You are right. It really is society's problem, but it doesn't help when the advertising-industrial complex and the media-industrial complex produces advertising and other media depicting super-thin models wearing underwear that looks like it's emphasizing the severely underweight bodies, rib cages and all. It's fodder for the impressionable, triggering the disease that is anorexia that continues being a deeply problematic problem in our society. A better society that discourages people to become super thin at the expense of one's health would pressure the advertising and media industrial complexes to stop producing and circulating these terrible ads and images, and not tolerate any endorsement and encouragement of anyone battling this disease. Advocating for the encouragement of people to suffer from ANY disease just cannot be acceptable. At. All.

I completely agree. I

Posted by bee (not verified) on April 3, 2012 - 6:53am

I completely agree. I suffered from bulimia for nearly 5 years, and FB certainly didn't help matters. I wasn't able to read the article at work, but the concept of facebook encouraging eating disorders doesn't seem too far-fetched to me. There are plenty of girls who may not be adversely affected by such images - or at least not enough to spark an eating disorder - but for those of us who are already vulnerable to ED's (depression, childhood trauma, sexual abuse, etc.), seeing skinnier peers/ads all over FB becomes a nightmare.
I agree with the idea that we really need to push harder to stop circulating such ridiculous images. Not that personal pictures are a big deal, but throwing the ads in there on top of it? I haven't been on facebook in a while simply because there was just too much pressure.. Not only to look good, but to say exactly the right, witty things.. God forbid 20 people don't like your status, or a comment you made on a different status, or a picture..
Again, not everyone would feel this way, but those of us who are vulnerable to EDs and the like.. Well. It just makes it seem like there's no 'safe' place.