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Bitchtapes: Groundhog Day Was Yesterday

February 3, 2012 at 1:42pm

While brainstorming for this week's mix (too early for anti-Valentine's Day songs and too late for Squirrel Appreciation Day?) Kelsey came up with something brilliant: a mix inspired by the 1993 movie Groundhog Day featuring the same song played over and over again (Bill Murray's character in the film experiences, inescapably, the holiday every day). But because the utter...

Project Runway All Stars: A-muse-balls

by Kelsey Wallace

February 3, 2012 at 1:12pm

Last night, our All Stars hit the streets to find inspiration (and innocent bystanders willing to donate the clothes off their backs) for an a-muse-ing runway challenge.

They’re all titillated, but only one of them got his number.

On Our Radar

by Mac Pogue

February 3, 2012 at 12:19pm

Is it Puppy Bowl weekend yet?

How genuine is the Susan G. Komen backtracking and apology? Here are a few excellent links on recent developments.
Check out this Feminist Wire article on the intersections and manipulations of anti-Palestinian occupation protestors and LGBTQ protestors by the Israeli government.
Transgriot has a report on awful transphobic actions going on...

Double Rainbow: Tony Attwood tells us to “make lemonade.”

by Caroline Narby

February 3, 2012 at 12:07pm

Well, he tells non-autistic people to make lemonade, specifically. Guess who the “lemons” are in this metaphor.

Popular fiction both shapes and reflects cultural attitudes. In a previous post, I picked apart the film Adam and expressed concern over the film’s troubling conclusion that people with Asperger syndrome—and by extension all autists, since Asperger’s is...

Bechdel Test Canon: Pumzi

by Alyx Vesey

February 3, 2012 at 10:41am

In a recent interview with Samantha Burton for Bitch, Kenyan writer-director Wanuri Kahiu recalled a lovely endorsement she received from a film festival attendant in Zanzibar. Speaking of her 2009 short Pumzi, he said:

“If you ask everybody here, ‘What exactly happened in that film?’ they wouldn’t be able to tell you. But if you ask everybody here, ‘What was...

Pop Pedestal: Two Fat Ladies

by Kelsey Wallace

February 2, 2012 at 1:25pm

Clarissa and Jennifer could be seen making impressive meals on the go for their Two Fat Ladies cooking show on the BBC in the late ’90s, and you can currently catch them (in reruns) on the Cooking Channel.

Douchebag Decree: Jan Brewer

by Mac Pogue

February 2, 2012 at 12:07pm

“Finger wagging” doesn’t really sum up the tense moment on the tarmac: Brewer is using her white privilege to mask her anger, in an attempt to assert power over Obama. The little power play at the Phoenix Airport speaks to the age-old stereotype of black men being seen as a threat to white women, and the fact that Jan Brewer took advantage of that earns her this week’s...

The 99%: The (Class) Difference Between

by Gretchen Sisson

February 2, 2012 at 10:18am

Harry and Katniss are very different heroes because they live in very different worlds. But if I had to guess whether most people felt their world more closely resembled the private boarding school with clear-cut lines between good and evil, or the dystopic district with frustrated and struggling neighbors, I’d say there’s a real reason Katniss’s mythology has captured...

10 Quotes From “Girl Land,” Made Palatable by Cat Photos

by Kelsey Wallace

February 1, 2012 at 3:20pm

I have combined choice Girl Land quotes with cat photos here to both illustrate the ridiculousness that is this book and to keep you from having to read it yourself. Plus, everything—even rage-inducing Flanaganisms—is easier to handle when accompanied by a cat photo.