On Our Radar

The week has come to a close, which only means one thing: it's time for another installment of On Our Radar! We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read this week.

• Canadian Teen Melodrama Degrassi: The Next Generation is adding a trans character to the cast. Jos Truitt of Feministing is optimistic for the potential of a "good learning opportunity".

• On Colorlines, Julianne Hing writes on the stunningly ignorant makeup collaboration between MAC Cosmetics and high-fashion line Rodarte. The collection, inspired by the "etheral nature" of Juarez, Mexico, the world's deadliest city and a free-trade zone. Hing also includes the apology issued by both MAC and Rodarte, which promises to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.

• On the Ms. blog, Kim Voss stresses that the women's pages of 1950's and 1960's weren't just about fashion and homemaking- they often included progressive political and social issues that other newspaper sections never touched.

• On Womanist Musings, Renee Martin takes a look at TLC'S child beauty pageant documentary series Toddlers & Tiaras exemplifies the "Euro-Centric standard of beauty" and its effect on girls of color.

• In response to Lorraine Ali's recent New York Times piece "Behind the Veil", Janan Delgado readdresses the myths surrounding why Muslim women choose to wear the veil on Gender Across Borders (crossposted on Racialicious).

• Via Shakesville: Fannie's room takes on the hypocrisy of 'naturally' manly-men as ideal.

• On Jezebel, Noorain Khan offers a "Complete Gudies to Bad Burqa Puns".

• NPR collected over 700 responses from women musicians about their experiences for their project, "Hey Ladies: Being a Woman in Music Today". You can read the "unedited and uncensored" comments here.

• On Wendesday, a federal judge decided that cheerleading isn't a sport. On Broadsheet, Mary Elizabeth Williams ponders why.

• Lisa Wade looks at the reasons behind the relative diversity of commercial fashion models versus the lack of diversity among high fashion models on Sociological Images.

• In the Fall, Fox will release the banned Family Guy "abortion episode" on DVD.

• 13-Year-Old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson pens an open letter to Seventeen Magazine on its latest issue's headline, "The Party Drug that Can Make You Fat & Ugly."

• Finally, we'd like to express our (belated) gratitude to Jamie Keiles for including Bitch on her list of "teen-friendly media" on the Seventeen Magazine Project!

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

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!

Is it already Friday?! We're rounding up some of the most interesting things we read this week in another edition of On Our Radar.

• Johannes Mehserle, the ex-BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Speaker's Corner offers a succinct round up of the mainstream media's (non)coverage.
• Tasha Fierce has a call for submissions up for an anthology entitled "Occupied Bodies: Women of Color Speak on Self-Image" on Red Vinyl Shoes.
• Shelby Knox offers Google some suggestions of accomplished women that the search engine could honor with doodles. Over the past 11 years, Google has featured 109 "innovators, artists, revolutionaries and creators" on their front page, only 8 of which have been women.
• Over at Broadsheet, Stephanie Hughes highlights feminist summer camp. The program, started by activists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards four years ago, brings young feminists from all over the country to New York City for a week of networking, workshops, and, of course, bonding!
• Chloe Angyal writes on "lady tool kits" on Feministing.
• Via Sociological Images: Visiting a science lab changes 7th grade students' perceptions of what a scientist 'looks' like on Restructure!
• Spoiler alert?! Sady Doyle Garland Grey reviews Twilight: Eclipse and offers some much-needed "distinction between Twilight fans and Twlight, Inc."
• On Shakesville, Melissa McEwan pans FatBooth, the new iPhone app that allows the user to upload a photo that magically makes you (assuming you're thin, of course!) look fat.
• Maya Dusenbery of RH Reality Check roots for the abortion on tonight's episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights, one of the first abortions on television since the 1972 episode of Maude.
• For those in Los Angeles, there will be a panel by MAGNET (Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People) on negative representations of trans women in the media on July 15th. Details are at Transgriot.

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!

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!