roundup

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.

It's Friday the 13th! We're not superstitious or anything, but these links are bound to bring you good luck (or at least some weekend reading material):

• Bitch editorial director and co-founder Andi Zeisler was on Chicago's WBEZ this week talking about...the b-word!
• The Guardian covers how female-centered television dramas are becoming increasingly popular in the UK.
• At Rookie, Jamia Wilson shares her story of how she came to stop dreading her dreads. 
• PBS is making a new documentary on the life of Gone with the Wind author, Margaret Mitchell.
• Vulture interviews Teyonah Parris about playing Sterling Cooper Draper Price's first black employee. And here's another interview with her for the LA Times! 
• On the Awl, Lucy Madison talks about How 25 National Magazine Award Nominations Went To 25 Male Writers.
• Hey girl, Rachel Maddow is speaking this Sunday here in Portland!
• Roxane Gay has a moving piece at The Rumpus on strong women and The Hunger Games (trigger warning for sexual assault).
• Eleanor Ray deconstructs RISUG/Vasalgel, the best male contraception you've never heard of, on The Hairpin.
• "A writers' retreat for hackers?" Yes please! Check out Etsy's Hacker School, a 3-month long program (with grants available!) for women hackers. 
• Rebecca Traister talks female friendships on HBO's Girls.
• Beyoncé posted a hand-written open letter to Michelle Obama commending her on being an "example of a truly strong African American woman" on her Tumblr. FLOTUS responded with an adorable tweet. 
• Speaking of Bey's Tumblr, Anne Helen Peterson has some thoughts on what makes it so compelling.

Still recovering from your Dinah Shore weekend? Here's some reading to get you caught up:

• The American Society of Magazine Editors announced their finalists for the National Magazine Awards, and their numbers are pretty lacking when it comes to gender diversity. On Feministing, Maya lists some great magazine journalism that should have been included—including Emi Koyama's piece "Trade Secrets: The Tough Talk of the New Anti-Trafficking Movement" from Bitch!
• Also on Feministing, it's the one year anniversary of slutwalk and victim-blaming is still not okay.
• Diamond engagement rings were originally insurance policies for jilted brides for having lost their virginities—Matthew O'Brien looks at how far the tradition has come in the Atlantic . 
• On the Ms. Blog, Barbara McCaskill traces the history of black women turning grief into activism.
• How many hours a week does someone need to work making minimum wage to make rent? (Surprise, surprise, 40 hours doesn't cut it ANY state!)
• Nichelle Nichols (that's Lieutenant Uhura to you) met President Obama this week and took this amazing photo. 
• Catharsis: Trans Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence is seeking written submissions from trans women who are willing to share their experiences of sexual violence and assault. 
• The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert makes a case against kids. 
• Ann Powers explores how Madonna and Nicki Minaj have to balance both feminine and masculine gender roles as pop stars. 
• Alyssa Rosenberg has a couple answers to the question "What’s Wrong With This Picture Illustrating Vanity Fair’s Women In Television Article?"at Think Progress.
• If you couldn't see Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue in San Francisco over the weekend, don't worry! Emily Manuel's talk is up on Tiger Beatdown, where you can find links to the other speakers on Vimeo. 

Tell us what you're reading in the comments!

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.

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

• Remember these awesome pics of punk band Pussy Riot at the Kremlin? Two alleged members have been detained and face imprisonment. Helen G reports at the F-Word.
• Tami Winfrey Harris is running a great series about Writing While Marginalized at What Tami Said. 
• If you're a big of fan of Sonja Sohn (a.k.a. Detective Kima Greggs from The Wire), you'll want to read the two interviews that went up with her this week at NPR and at Mother Jones. 
• Think Progress covers how some women are using Facebook to call out politicians on their bullshit views on reproductive health. 
• Remember the Feminist Ryan Gosling and the Hey Girl, It's Rachel Maddow tumblr blogs? Now there's a Feminist Harry Potter tumblr for all you Hogwart fans. 

Tell us what you're reading in the comments!

• Take a look at Disgrasian's piece on the awful racist customer service at Chick-Fil-A earlier this week.
• As if there wasn't enough d-baggery in the corporate world already, the Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project has a piece on a transphobic Macy's employee's "activism."
• Tech blogger Laura Klein wrote an excellent rebuttal to TechCrunch writer Penelope Trunk's claim that women just don't really want to be in the tech biz (Thanks Sarah Y.)
• Portland-based radical plus-size vintage boutique Fat Fancy needs your help! Check out the fundraiser page here!
• Racialicious posted a recap of the dialog (and lack of apology) between Issa Rae and the Awkward Black Girl team, the Crunk Feminist Collective and fans regarding the transphobic comments in the last episode.
• New Black Man pointed out this totes-rad video of Angela Davis speaking with Barbara Becknell (Stanley "Tookie" Williams' representative) at the Occupy Oakland branch of the West Coast Port Shutdown.
• Youth power! A group of Native American youths made a video in response to Diane Sawyer's disheartening portrayal of their reservation on 20/20.

What have you been reading this week?

If you live in the US, you're probably celebrating Thanksgiving today. And if you're online right now, you probably need some links and video clips to distract you from whatever the holiday has brought your way (canceled flights, conservative relatives, overcooked yams, etc.). Here are some things we're reading/watching/suggesting today to help stuff your Thanksgiving with pop culture and criticism (the best stuffing there is, except for the kind my mom makes). Be sure to share what you're reading in the comments! Happy Thanksgiving!