feminist blogosphere

It's that time again! What time, you ask?! Why time to round up some of the most interesting things we read this week, of course!

• Renee Martin opines on the racist and classist implications of 'foodie' culture on her great new blog with Holly Ord, Women's Eye on the Media.
• Sara Haji of Muslimah Media Watch writes an open letter to Maureen Dowd about her orientalist trope "A Girls Guide to Saudi Arabia," appearing in the August issue of Vanity Fair.
• In other Wow-Those-New-York-Times-Writers-Sure-Are-Douche-Bags news, Lisa Harvey of Questioning Transphobia takes on The Ethicist's Randy Cohen's supposition that trans folks must out themselves on dates.
• Just in case you can't get enough of those New York Times writers' douchebaggery, Melissa McEwan takes down David Brooks and his "fundamental misunderstanding of human dignity" on Shakesville.
• But enough of the New York Times hate: do take the time and read Emily Bazelon's piece on the future of abortion care in the New York Times Magazine—it's long, but it's worth it.
• On Feministe, Aminatou Sow expands on Naomi Wolf's excellent piece on sweatshop labor and the rise of "fast fashion".
• Writing on the series finale of MTV's psuedo-reality TV series The Hills, Chadwick Matlin makes the case that former cast member Lauren Conrad "has quietly become our country’s most famous advocate for media literacy." Conrad's two thinly-veiled novels expose the extent to which the "reality" on the show is actually, well, real.
• Just in case you weren't so sure: on Anna North let's us know that "relentless stalking is not romantic" on Jezebel.
• On Broadsheet, Tracy Clark-Flory writes on the French businessman who has pledged €1 million for the proposed fine against women wearing burkas. The ban is expected to pass in September against the estimated 1,900 in France that wear Burkas.
• Jos Truitt of Feministing reviews last week's Friday Night Lights episode, the first time television has dealt with abortion since the 1970's.
• On Sociological Images, Lisa Wade highlights a series by photographers justine Graham and Ruby Rumié of images of maids and their employers.

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read this week in another installment of On Our Radar!

• On Salon, Madeline Holler writes on the downsides of radical homemaking.

• Amanda Hess of The Sexist breaks down the creepy manipulation of television personality Olivia Munn during her Playboy photo shoot. Munn writes in her memoir about the photographer and stylists' attempts to coerce her into posing nude.

• In the wake of the election of women heads-of-state in Finland and Australia last week, Haley Cohen offers up a neat little round-up of the world's female leaders.

• Over at Womanist Musings, Renee Martin makes an excellent case for why the public, black women in particular, shouldn't forgive singer and domestic abuser Chris Brown.

• On Shakesville Melissa McEwan starts a discussion thread on the new Bravo TV show, Work of Art. The most recent episode saw the artists creating "controversial" works.

• Nisha Chittal expands on The Awl's post on the differences between men and women's writing pitches on Feministe.

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

It's that time again! We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read this week in the another edition of On Our Radar.

• With the release of Forbes' list of the top 100 Websites For Women, Renee Martin of Womanist Musings writes on the incredible lack of blogs by women of color, trans women, and disabled women.
• Shelby Knox reflects on body image and feminism after modeling for a mainstream women's magazine.
• Over at Racialicious, Safa Samiezade'-Yazd writes on the politics of curly hair.
• Bitch contributor Tammy Oler reviews the fantastic-sounding new science-fiction film Splice. The film, about a pair of scientists that secretly engineer a "gene splice, mutant test-tube baby" win's Oler's praises through, among other things, its strong female lead and its interesting evocation of gender.
• U.S. Social Forum National Coordinator Adrienne Maree Brown talks to Democracy Now!'s Mike Burke about the forum and science-fiction writer Octavia Butler.
• Irin Carmon investigates the "boy's club" that is The Daily Show on Jezebel.
• For more on sexism in comedy, take a look at Lisa Wade's analysis of "comedy as a masculinized, heterosexualized space" on Sociological Images.
• Watch out, non-dude citizens of Charlotte, North Carolina! Misty at Shakesville presents us with America's Manliest City, brought to you by the extensive research of Combos Snacks.
• Via Feministing: Katie Couric interviews Gloria Steinem and Women's Media Center president Jehmu Greene on her CBS News web show @katiecouric.
• Threadbared has a call for submissions for the exhibit An Other Fashion: Claiming America through Dress, which seeks to find "hidden histories stashed in the basements and attics, in the backs of closets, and in lesser-known personal and institutional archives of and about women of color."

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

We're back again with another edition of On Our Radar - bringing you some of the most interesting things we read this week!

• Riddhi Shaw takes a look at the misogynistic and homophobic undertones of Bros Icing Bros on Broadsheet. The drinking game, wherein a bro (never a female, and never gay) surprises another bro with a warm bottle of Smirnoff Ice and forces him to chug it, has garnered national media attention in recent weeks.
• Jessica Wakeman interviews the always fabulous Margaret Cho on The Frisky.
• Over at Sociological Images, Gwen Sharp writes on the the hypersexualization of Latino boys.
• South Korea's newest proposed method of psychological warfare against North Korea? According to Foreign Policy blogger Blake Hounshell, it's blasting music by all-girl pop groups into the demilitarized zone.
• Rose Afriyie at Feministing weighs the negative and postitives aspects of the new VH1 reality show "Dad Camp".
• Sady Doyle C.L. Minou opines on Tiger Beatdown about "Mr. Soon-To-Be-Faceless-Cog-In-The-Matriarchy" Ross Douchehat's (whoops, excuse me, Douthat!) New York Times' Op-Ed piece on how feminism is over or something (or, "consolidated its gains"?!) because a bunch of conservative women won U.S. primary races.
• On the Ms. Magazine blog, Ruth Rosen questions whether special "women's sections" like Salon's Broadsheet and Slate's Double X are good or bad for the success women's news.

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

Never fear, On Our Radar is here! We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read in the feminist blogosphere!

• HULK HERE TO SMASH GENDER BINARY! Audrey Bilger interviews the Twitter Phenom Feminist Hulk for the Ms. Magazine Blog.
• Speaking of interviews with internet phenoms, Jeanne Sager talks to Jamie Keiles, the high school senior undertaking a month-long project wherein she follows all of the advice offered by Seventeen Magazine.
• Tracy Clark-Flory writes on the "powerful message" about domestic violence UK Border Agency officials sent when they denied singer Chris Brown entry into the country.
• Latoya Peterson responds to a New York Times article on the impact the geography of colonialism and the transforming acceptance of women of color have on fashion model scouting in Brazil.
• Sociological Images' Lisa Wade takes us back to a time when men's magazines promoted masculinity through "tests of strength, cunning, and fighting ability" rather than consumerism.
• In a world where "pop is feminine" and "rock is for dudes" Sarah Jaffe writes on coming around to the former on Feministe.
• Steve Haruch investigates the difficulties faced by the 5% of music engineers and producers that are women for the Nashville Scene.
• Sady Doyle offers some more thoughts on M.I.A. on Tiger Beatdown.

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

It's that time again! We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read this week in the second edition of On Our Radar.

Welcome to the inaugural installment of On Our Radar, your trusty guide to the best the blogosphere has to offer. We'll be rounding up the posts that intrigued us at the end of every week.

• Thea Lim at Racialicious deconstructs Alicia Key's ill-conceived attempt at portraying interracial relationships in her latest video.


• Jessica Coen at Jezebel investigates Sorority Life, the popular Facebook role-playing game where the object is to be as powerful as possible. How do you go about doing that, you ask? Why, by throwing cool parties, buying the hottest outfits and the hottest boyfriends (seriously, you buy them!) and starting fights with other players, of course!


• Wajahat Ali comments on the "Orientalist's wet dream" that is Sex and the City 2.


• Gwen Sharp offers up some stunning examples of "male" as the neutral default in marketing at Sociological Images. Case in point: Cosmopolitan is a "Women's magazine" and Maxim is a "Lifestyle magazine".


• This time, she's serious: Jessica Valenti reminds us all, once again, why Sarah Palin really really isn't a feminist, and why the mainstream media should get the hint.


• In related Palin family news, teen mother and Candies Foundation ambassador Bristol Palin tells Harper's Bazaar about her support of abstinence until marriage and distaste for social welfare programs. Jessica Grosse fleshes out the flaws and contradictions of Palin's message at Double X.

Find something that piqued your interest this week? Leave it in the comments section!

We're exhausted here at Bitch headquarters today by all of the weirdness that's happening on Double X, the new online women's magazine that is a version of the eponymous Slate blog. Apparently, the folks over at Double X don't want to identify as being feminist, but they sure love talking about how feminism is dead. And out to get us. ZOMBIE FEMINISM!



Since Double X launched yesterday, it's been chocked full of infuriating, Backlash-y articles like "Whine, Womyn, and Thongs: How feminism has failed", and "How I Got Bored With Feminism".

We don't know about you, but we're disappointed. (And we also need to figure out the best way to fight off this new undead feminism before it eats our brains.)

image from George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968)

From the department of last minute self-promotion, Bitch is proud to announce we've been nominated for the Best International Feminist Blog in the 2009 Canadian F-Word Awards! We found out today, which is lucky since the polls are open until...tomorrow! Show us some love by visiting the F-Word Site and voting for us!

I know it's kinda cheating to just post a blog post about a blog post I like, but...

I can't help it; I really love this blog.

What blogs do you love?