1940s

From the village bobby on his bicycle to elaborate games of cops and robbers in mid-20th century America, detective fiction often harks back to the past. From a feminist perspective, this is a can of worms.

Another week, another bunch of thought-provoking articles. Here's some of what we've been reading:

• ColorLines celebrates the U.S.' first integrated all-female band.
• Also at ColorLines, Kai Wright reflects movingly on the still-far-off mountaintop MLK described.
• Jessica Valenti talks about the glorification of basic fathering in The Daily.
• Ms. and NPR each report and discuss Joe Biden's address of sexual assault in schools; what did YOU think?
• Bitch contributor Sady Doyle manages to write smartly (while being, as she puts it, "not-just-totally-mean") about Phyllis Schlafly's influence at Global Comment.
• Bitch Flicks lends their feminist snark to an analysis of Total Film's so-called "40 Greatest Movie Posters" list.
• Futrelle unpacks comic artist Scott Adams' recent douchery—and his bizarre attempts to fix the situation—at Feministe and man boobz.
• Bitch contributor s.e. smith blogs at this ain't livin' about the ageist implications of a younger Miss Marple.
• Vulture goes over the vitriol around Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark and actor Harry Lennix's piece asking why only Julie Taymor is trashed for a show many hands put together.
• In the same vein, 90s Woman looks at the pop phenomenon "Friday" and wonders "WTF is so scary about an ambitious thirteen-year-old girl?" (via feministified)
• Chloe at Feministing speaks out about last week's Slutwalk and the victim-blaming such events protest.
• Greenier at RH Reality Check talks about "Why Insurance Coverage for Abortion Matters;" the piece was then picked up for AlterNet.
• Bad news: Canadian blog Gender Focus is shutting down. At least we'll have Jarrah's upcoming board game projects to follow!
• Liz at Our Turn comments on documentaries about masculinity.
• At Racialicious and Muslimah Media Watch, Diana shares her feelings on the CNN special Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door.
• On HuffPo, Payne explores how derogatory language feeds classism.
• Miss the queer teen drama South of Nowhere? Heaven knows I do! AfterEllen interviews star Mandy Musgrave about playing lesbians and her new webseries, Cowgirl Up.
• In the <3 files: "Family Dog Keeps Missing Baby Alive Overnight," from Jezebel.

Your turn to share!

Although Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, came out nearly a year ago, it remains to date on the New York Times Top 10 Bestselling Fiction list… Forty weeks of its shelf life in fact, it has spent jostling with other titles on the list, still sitting comfortably at No. 4 as of January 11th. In this list-watching way, I waited patiently, patiently for my copy to move to number 1 on the library holds list. When I finally had the massive 444-page, hard bound copy in my hands, I grabbed a blanket, made cup after cup of tea and spent nearly two days on the couch plowing through Ms. Stockett’s tale of black domestic servants in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, and the white privileged woman who wants to write about them.