Latest Articles

The H-Word: Reflections on Sex, Power, and Speaking the Truth

October 18, 2011 at 11:31am

This weekend Sex, Power and Speaking the Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later convened to discuss women’s ability speak up against gender inequality and abuses of power, with a focus on the intersectionality of race, class and gender in defining a woman’s experience, as well as a look at women’s continuing “credibility problem.” The speakers were a parade of some of the most...

Isn't He Lovely: Male Body Image Standards Are “Virtually Non-Existent.” Q&A with Yashar Ali

by Cristen Conger

October 18, 2011 at 9:57am

Yashar Ali is the founder of The Current Conscience, which examines “politics and the personal, culture and relationship” from a progressive, feminist viewpoint. Particularly after reading his post The Key to Success: Be a Man, I was curious to mine his thoughts on how beauty and body image standards apply to men today and whether modern “masculinity” has truly reached a crisis point in...

Bringing Up Baby: Motherhood as the Dream Deferred

by Katherine Don

October 17, 2011 at 11:53am

Last month, New York Magazine published a cover story entitled “Parents of a Certain Age: Is there anything wrong with being 53 and pregnant?” The title invites the reader to answer the question with a “yes” or a “no.” The author, veteran journalist Lisa Miller, says “no,” yet the antagonistic framing invites controversy against the older moms she seeks to defend, as does the...

Preacher's Daughter: Evangelical Wedding Songs: Wifely Submission and the Cult of Biblical Womanhood*

by Kristin Rawls

October 17, 2011 at 9:14am

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

After she read my last post about sexist Christian music, my friend, Sarah Morice Brubaker of Religion Dispatches, told me I’d gotten a terrible Christian song called “How Beautiful” into her head. I’d heard it many years ago, but what I didn’t realize was that it makes frequent...

Bitch Radio: Media Literacy, Criticism, and Production Panel from GeekGirlCon

by Kjerstin Johnson

October 14, 2011 at 2:13pm

Kelsey and I traveled up to Seattle last weekend for two days of geekery at the first-ever Geek Girl Con! We went to panels on women in video games, race and gender in geekdom, women in horror fans, and way more. We were also honored to be on the panel “Media Literacy, Criticism and Production” along with some other really rad women. For this episode of Bitch Radio, here’s a good chunk...

On Our Radar

by Mac Pogue

October 14, 2011 at 12:24pm

So many links, so little time.

At Clutch, Drew-Shane Daniels asks, “Why Won’t TV Networks Let Black Actors Be Great?”
African Sexualities: A Reader, a groundbreaking anthology edited by Ugandan feminist/lawyer/academic Sylvia Tamale, is out!
Love Thursday Night ‘Lights? You can catch Kirthana blogging at MTV Remote Control now too!
At...

Bitchtapes: Sibling Solidarity Mix

by Brian Frank

October 14, 2011 at 12:18pm

My sisters and I grew up listening to tons of great music together (Hannah is already on her way to being a famous guitarist and singer at 17!). So it was an obvious choice for us to get together and do a Bitchtapes when our sister, Jesse, came to visit us from Austin. What better topic than songs about sisters, brothers, and sibling relations? Track list after the jump!

Preacher's Daughter: Anti-Feminism in the Music of the Christian Right

by Kristin Rawls

October 14, 2011 at 12:14pm

I have a confession to make. I was raised in an evangelical Christian home, and when I was much much younger… I was a fan of contemporary Christian music (CCM). Oh, yes. I reailzed just how much of an affront to music it is almost half of my life ago, but lately, I’ve been thinking about just how entrenched it is in the ideology of the Christian Right. Consider this awful 1995...

Thursday Night 'Lights: A Fun Night Out

by Kirthana Ramisetti

October 14, 2011 at 11:39am

“I want to go to there.” This Liz Lemon quote kept echoing inside my head while watching three-fourths of NBC’s Thursday comedy block this week. Almost all the shows ventured out of familiar settings, and as a result we were treated to a housewarming party, a camping trip (with candy! and puppies!), and a garden party. And then we even witnessed a marriage proposal at the end of the...

Isn't He Lovely: Male Nudity, the Final Frontier