roundup

Regardless of political leanings, gender, religion, or creed, you'd think we could all agree that what happened last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a national tragedy that deserves our sympathy and respect. You'd be wrong.

Another Friday, another links roundup! Here's what we've been reading this week:

• It's Banned Book Week! Read a banned book to celebrate. If you need suggestions, check out Anna Clark's piece on how Beloved is taught in schools. [Daily Beast]
• What's missing from the national conversation about birth control? Here's a hint: Says Chloe Angyal, "We are having a national discussion about birth control, without ever mentioning the basic human activity that can lead to birth." You guessed it! (Sex.) [The Guardian]
• Everyone is up in arms over what Mitt Romney said about Big Bird, but Levar Burton wants to remind you that cutting funding for PBS would hurt more than just our giant yellow feathered friend. [TMZ]
• We usually hate Disney Princess stuff, but this "I Am a Princess" video is surprisingly touching. Damnit! [YouTube]
• Roxane Gay would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. That. All the way. [Virginia Quarterly Review]
• That photo of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day captured more than just the end of the war: It is also a depiction of sexual assault. [Crates and Ribbons]
• Tracey Ross reviews Iconic, Lakesia Johnson's book about how negative stereotypes have followed black women throughout history. [Racialicious]
• In case you missed it: This video of a news anchor calling bullshit on the viewer who thinks she's too fat is awesome. [Upworthy]

What's on your radar this week? Let us know in the comments!

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another links roundup! Here's what we've been reading this week:

• "Fauxcahontas"? Really? Deb Merskin dissects the media's offensive use of racial slurs in the Brown-Warren election. [Name It Change It]
• Fifty years after Silent Spring was published, Amanda Hess argues that science is still sexist. [Slate]
• We doubt you have the stomach for an Ann Coulter video, but just in case... "Ann Coulter Tries To Tell Whoopi Goldberg How Black People Feel About Things. It Does Not Go Well." [Upworthy]
• Did you read that story about the Sikh woman and the reddit user who made fun of her and then apologized? You should. It will (temporarily) restore your faith in the Internet. [Feministing/Jezebel]
• You know when your "Racist Iconography in Fashion" Google alert goes off, it can't be good. The New York Times reviewed the latest Dolce & Gabbana collection and didn't think to mention its racist and dehumanizing imagery. [Fuck You, Grey Lady]
• Alyssa Rosenburg lists her "Six Best Kids and Teenagers On Television." Shania from New Normal did kill that Grey Gardens impression. [Think Progress]
• Have you been keeping up with Vulture's Pop Culture Memory Lane video series? That one where Casey Wilson met an understudy from RENT was pretty good, but this Garfunkel and Oates Meet Oates one might be the best yet. [Vulture]
• New site NoHomophobes counts how many times we use homophobic language on Twitter each day. It's a lot. [NoHomophobes]
• Bitch guest blogger Caitlin Wood was hilarious and informative in her Q&A "Ask a Woman in a Wheelchair." [The Hairpin]

What have you been reading this week? Let us know in the comments!

T.G.I.O.O.R.! Let's hit the links!

• Have you seen The Mindy Project yet? Nisha Chittal breaks down the backlash against Kaling for being "smug" (read: successful, not white, and not a dude). No one puts Mindy in a corner! [Racialicious]
• Kickstarter millionaire Amanda Palmer has agreed to pay her musicians, but Mary Elizabeth Williams argues that she still doesn't get it. [Salon]
• If you've already had lunch, you might want to avoid this slideshow of parents sexualizing their kids on social media. It's a hurl-inducer. [Mommyish]
• It's safe (and fun!) to check out riese's 150 years of lesbians slideshow whether you've eaten recently or not. [Autostraddle]
• Chris Brown may be a certified douche, but he's not the only celebrity with a history of abusing women. Sian underscores how important it is to acknowledge this, because "it's never okay for men to beat women, no matter how famous or talented they are." [sian and crooked rib]
• Why is "Gangnam Style" so popular? Max Fisher argued that it was the song's subversive message, but refresh_daemon says it's also because Psy is "one of the things the Western mainstream wants to see from its Asian people: a funny guy who doesn't pose any threat of making Asian men seem sexually desirable." [The Atlantic, Init_Music]
• If you were wondering whether Romney's remarks about "the 47%" had anything to do with race, here's a hint: they did. In fact, Imara Jones thinks they had "everything to do with race." [Colorlines]
• Excited about Schmidt from New Girl's new book? Read an interview with the Man Behind the Douche, Max Greenfield. [Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair]
• Bitch contributor Spectra Speaks has some more thoughts on that Nina Simone biopic, on the media coverage it's getting, and on race and Hollywood in general. [Spectra Speaks]
• Carolyn suggests you put down that copy of Fifty Shades and pick up The Awakening instead. [Shameless]

What have you been reading this week? Let us know in the comments!

It's that time again... links roundup!

• Tami Winfrey Harris talks about what white white feminists get wrong about Michelle Obama [Clutch magazine].
• The Chicago teachers strike is a feminist issue! Dana Goldstein shares some history.
• Laurie Penny has one of the best responses to Naomi Wolf's new book. [New Statesman]
• What the hell Paul Frank? A "pow wow celebrating Fashion's Night Out"? No matter how many neon colors you throw at it, that's unbelievably racist. [Native Appropriations/Beyond Buckskin]
• Graceishuman explores the ethics of writing about child sexual abuse in regards to the recent Gawker article by Cord Jefferson. [PhD in Parenting]

What have you been reading this week? Let us know in the comments!

Another week, another roundup!

• You've read Zadie Smith's On Beauty, now read her On Jay-Z [New York Times]
• Having trouble coming to terms with Amy Poehler and Will Arnett's divorce? Bitch contributor Anne Helen Peterson explains why that might be. [Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style]
• Only two days left to help the Lakota Sioux raise funds to purchase the sacred land Pe'Sla in the Black Hills. Contribute now! [indiegogo]
• What did you think of Michelle Obama saying her most important job was "Mom in Chief"? Irin Carmon thinks you should cut her some slack. [Slate]
• Women and Hollywood has a short Q&A profile on many of the women directors at the Toronto Film Festival, happening on this week. [IndieWire]
• Victoria's Secret is going to new heights of offensiveness with a gross new collection called "Go East," inspired by an imaginary exotic and erotic "Eastern culture." Yikes. [Racialicious]
• bell hooks has a must-read response to the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. [New Black Man (in Exile)]
• Looking for music to recommend to your younger sister/daughter/niece/friend? Pop culture kid site A Mighty Girl just launched a music section! [A Mighty Girl]
• Thomas Page McBee takes on some recent problematic coverage of trans people in the media, including the New Yorker's profile of the Wachowski siblings. [SF Weekly]
• Check out these film projects that need your help! Negrita is a film exploring Afro-Latina identity and representation; Who Owns My Body? is a documentary discussing black women and body image, reproductive justice, and sexuality; Barista follows a woman who can't leave her Starbucks job after learning she has MS; Our Reality is a series of short documentaries that tell the stories of teen/young parents in their own words (and backers can get a Bitch subscription!)

What's on your radar this week? Let us know in the comments!

When we weren't wasting spending time on our shiny new Pinterest boards, this is what we were reading this week:

• Libby Copeland on why fashion models keep getting younger [Slate]
• We Are All S.E. Cupp, the Conservative Pundit Bullied by Hustler says Lindsay Beyerstein [In These Times]. If you agree, sign the change.org petition.
• Remember that racial discrimination lawsuit against the Bachelor/ette franchise? Bitch contributor Jenn Pozner breaks it down. [Daily Beast]
• No one knows what's next for Community, but Arturo R. García has some thoughts on the show's depiction of geekdom and race. [Racialicious]
• We haven't heard it yet, but the new radio show Cabinet of Wonders sounds amaaazing. [NPR]
• A Gallup poll released this week showed that the percentage of Americans who identify as “pro-choice” is at an all-time low of 47 percent, while 50 percent identify as “pro-life.” Jessica Valenti wonders, "Does it really matter?" [The Nation]
• If you haven't been reading Bitch contributor Anne Helen Peterson's "Scandals of Classic Hollywood" series, this entry on Marlene Dietrich is a good place to start. [The Hairpin]
• Once you see the cast of Game of Thrones out of character, you can't un-see it. [Vulture]

What have you been reading/writing this week? Share your links in the comments!

Before you do anything this weekend, ask yourself: IS THIS FEMINIST? Then check out these links:

• Help Hollaback! in the campaign to end campus harassment.
• On Ebony.com, Michael Arceneaux calls out the hypocrisy of Chris Brown and Drake's slut-shaming of Rihanna.
• Need to explain straight white male privilege to someone? At Whatever, John Scalzi puts it in gaming terms.
• Aisha Harris deconstructs Community's Shirley Bennett for Slate.
• Foxalive zine distributor is looking for zines and art by people of color. Read their call for submissions here.
• Remember how stylish Ed Wood was? Worn Fashion Journal does. Check out their Ed Wood-inspired photo shoot.
• Laurel Fantauzza, a gay Filipina American, writes an open letter to Manny Pacquiao in light of his public comments on gay marriage for Grantland.
• Laurie Penney interviews Mona Eltahawy for the Independent.
• Anna Breslaw takes on Tina Fey at the New Inquiry.
• Speaking of Fey (kind of), am I the only one who didn't recognize Margaret Cho playing the Kim Jongs on 30 Rock? See an interview with her on the role here.
• Kind of weirded out by the prospect of seeing The Dictator? Skip the movie theater and watch Sacha Baron Cohen in this video of The Gossip performing live at Cannes instead. Everyone looks better dancing with Beth Ditto!

What have you been reading/writing this week?

Here's what we're reading this week:

• Unite Agains the War on Women is tomorrow! Visit UniteWomen.org to find a march or rally near you.
• San Francisco is buzzing about the recently opened antique vibrator museum. These vibrators are featured in the new film Hysteria (to be reviewed in our next magazine issue!)
• North Carolina pledges "atonement" for forced sterilizations.
• Think Progress compares the racism of Lesley Arfin of HBO's Girls to that of John Derbyshire, former National Review columnist.
• This week was Toronto's Feminist Porn Awards; the Daily Beast asks the age-old question, can porn be feminist? 
• Radical, feminist band Pussy Riot is still detained in jail by Russian authorities.
• Tamara Winfrey Harris calls out Steve Harvey's book-turned-movie which probes black women to "act like a lady; think like a man." 
• Britni Danielle has some words for People magazine and its whitewashing of Beyoncé.
• James B. Golden remembers Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes and her musical legacy ten years after her death at Clutch. 
• Tasneem Raja reports on the deeply ingrained sexism of the tech world at Mother Jones. "Brogrammers" and "hogrammers," really?!
• Check out this Q&A with the women behind the indie film Farah Goes Bang at Racialicious (and get ready for the most adorable Kickstarter video ever!) 
• DJ Kuttin Kandi spoke with Colorlines' Akiba Solomon on her activism, fat discrimination, and the medical industrial complex. 
• At Vivir Latino, Bianca Laureano and Maegan Ortiz review Zoé Salicrup Junco's independent film Gabi and its representation of Puerto Rican women and sexuality.

Let us know what you've been in the comments!

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

• Today is the 16th annual National Day of Silence, when students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.
• Raw Story's Megan Carpentier writes about what getting a transvaginal ultrasound is really like. 
• Julia Serano responds to Aviva Dove-Viebahn's post the on the Ms. Blog with "Trans Feminism: There's No Conundrum About It."
• A group of Nashville residents are filing a class-action lawsuit against ABC series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette for racial discrimination. Looks like the shows' utter lack of diversity wasn't just an "accident."
• Portlanders: This weekend, check out Rebooting Democracy and see Bitch's own Andi Zeisler and Kelsey Wallace on the "War on Women" panel!
• Portlanders: Next weekend, check out Disability Art and Culture Project's festival: there will be performances and panels of such topics as the intersections of race and disability.
• Did you read our recap of HBO's Girls? Colorlines responds to the show's story editor's racist tweets from earlier this week and how we don't need another TV show about a group of 20-something, white women living in NY. 
• Actress Vanessa Williams is unapologetic and honest about getting an abortion in her new memoir. 
• If you haven't seen it yet, this Funny or Die video on Rick Santorum "aborting" his presidential campaign is worth a watch.
• Bianca Laureano pens "An Open Letter to White People in the Sexuality/Sexology Field" at RH Reality Check. 
• Are you a female cyclist? On May 13 the organization Girl Bike Love is holding CycloFemme, an event to celebrate women bikers in Boulder, Colorado. 
• Getting pumped for the weekend? Allow us to recommend "QueenS", the newest video from THEESatisfaction, to put you in the party mood.