roundup

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!

Happy first week of a new decade, y'all! Here's what we've been reading at Bitch HQ as we dive into the 20-teens.

• Gender Focus has up a nice list of their favorite things of 2010. Like an NPR Top Ten list, but with more True Blood and trans rights!
• Feminists With Disabilities (FWD) announced that it has ceased production, and will be maintained as an archive and blogroll site. Big love, FWD. We'll miss you!  
• Racialicious points out some...er...problems with the new Grouplove music video. Up and coming band? Yes. Lynching, warpaint, and headdresses? Not so much. 
• Yesterday was Nancy Pelosi's last day as Speaker of the House, and Ms. has a reminder to her replacement John Boehner that she's still on the feminist-agenda clock. 
• Taking a page from Kelsey's book, Sociological Images has a round-up of advertising that plays directly to close-minded, normative masculinity as a marketing tool for men. 
• Surprise! Teenagers are actually fabulous people that care about things! F Bomb wrote about "Teens and Technology," and how social media might not actually be the death of all that is good and proactive in the world.  Rock on, F Bomb!

It's Friday, which means it's time for a look back at what blipped onto our radar here at Bitch HQ this week!

• Amanda Hess posted a take-down of the New York Times' latest fashion trend: transexuals! 
• Sady Doyle at The Awl wrote about feminism, pop culture, and Aliens. Needless to say, it caught our attention in all the best ways. 
• It's "My Little Pony Week" on the Ms. blog, and yesterday this post by Kathleen Richter called out homophobic and racist messages being sent via Pony Express (don't blame her for that joke. That was all me.).
• Slate published a piece by Connie Schultz, a fellow political spouse, in memoriam of Elizabeth Edwards.
• In being interviewed by Barbara Walters this week, Oprah Winfrey cried when asked about her relationship with her best friend, Gayle King. BUST wants to know: Why the tears, Oprah?
• TED (Technology, Education, Design) launched its first TEDWomen conference this week in Washington, D.C. Read about the TED Fellows chosen to attend, watch videos, read transcripts, and join the discussion here. 
• And here's a review of the TEDWomen Conference by Carla Thompson at Sharp Skirts. Says Carla, "I think I was just privy to one of the most fascinating and inspiring weeks of the year. And I think an opportunity was missed to blow the conversation out of the water around women in business and women in life."

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

• With the celebration of the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States in full swing this week, Womanist Musings' Renee Martin reminds us that not all women gained the right and access to vote in 1920.

• Following lesbian cadet Katherine Miller's resignation from West Point due to her sexual orientation, Corey Kilgannon investigates the underground gay culture at the military academy for the New York Times.

• On Jezebel, Dodai Stewart tallied up the number of black models in the September issues of fashion magazines.

• Check out all the great posts in the "This is What a Young Feminist Looks Like" blog carnival!

• All kinds of messed up: Sociological Images' Lisa Wade highlights an NPR report on a scale of evil developed by a forensic psychologist. The graphic used to explain this scale eerily matches the range of human skin color, with the darker the color being the worse the psychopath. WTF.

• After Sally was caught masturbating on Mad Men this week, Feministe Guest Blogger Monica looks at the assumption that she must have been sexually abused.

• On Racialicious, Bitch contributor Andrea Plaid writes on Montana Fishburne, the daughter of famed actor Laurence and a sex worker.

• Carrie Polansky focuses on the popular discoursse surrounding disability and sexuality on Gender Across Borders.

• Via PostBourgie: Loryn Wilson takes a closer look at internet meme Antoine Dodson.

• Minh-Ha T. Pham hashes out the beauty in "eco-disaster chic" on Threadbared.

• ADI makes the case for net neutrality as a feminist issue on Women's Glib.

• Dennis Baron discovers the long history of the use of "ms." on, well, the Ms. Magazine blog!

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

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

• Muslimah Media Watch's Ayaan Hassan introduces us to the latest character from the Marvel Comics Universe: Faiza Hussain, a British Muslim super heroine!

• SKM ponders why Google didn't have a doodle to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 19th Ammendment on Shakesville.

• One for the bookmarks: our fabulous TelevIsm blogger RMJ offers a great primer on cis, cissupremacy, and cissexism on Deeply Problematic.

• The title says it all: Sandip Roy writes on "Why 'Eat, Pray, Love' Makes Me Want to Gag" on Alternet.

• Gwen Sharp uses a karate studio's rejected advertisement featuring the gender policing of a young boy as a springboard to discuss the murky world of "unofficial/unreleased ad campaigns" on Sociological Images.

• Gebe Martinez, Ann Garcia, and Jessica Arons look at the "birthright citizenship debate" as a "thinly veiled attack on immigrant mohers" at the Center for American Progress. Take a look at Michelle Chen's piece on Colorlines for more about the debate.

• Amy Larocca profiles figure skater Johnny Weir for New York Magazine.

• Spoiler Alert: Carrie Polansky reviews the gender politics of the new film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Gender Across Borders.

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