Latest Articles

Project Runway All Stars: Gelato Problems

January 27, 2012 at 2:31pm

It was a gelato- and von Furstenberg-filled challenge for our Project Runway All Stars last night, but no amount of gelato could cheer us up after that judging disaster.

Joanna Coles is just as upset as we are about all of this.

"We Live in a Hip Hop Culture": Tracy Wright & Althea Hart on using hip hop to discuss sexual and domestic violence

by Kelsey Wallace

January 27, 2012 at 12:53pm

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A few months ago, I had the chance to attend a presentation at the Roots of Change conference called “Hip Hop and its Exploitation of Communities of Color” by Tracy Wright from the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Althea Hart from the Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault. The way Tracy and Althea used hip hop...

On Our Radar

by Mac Pogue

January 27, 2012 at 11:50am

Every day is a good news day when Ice-T gives you his political predictions.

If you’re bummed out at Oscar nominating five white guys for Best Director yet again, check out Cannonball’s list of five women that should have been nominated instead.
Break out your see-through visors and cigars and support this Kickstarter campaign for feminist playing cards.
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The 99%: “Finding North”

by Gretchen Sisson

January 27, 2012 at 9:55am

This is the second of three posts on films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival addressing inequality, poverty, and social class.

Finding North is a title so perfect it doesn’t fully sink in until after you’ve finished watching the film. The documentary by filmmakers Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush doesn’t allude to it at...

Double Rainbow: A Quick Look at the Savant

by Caroline Narby

January 27, 2012 at 9:18am

In popular fiction, savant skills and autism are almost synonymous. Portraying a character as a savant has become a way of driving home the fact that the character is autistic. The savant archetype is glaringly problematic because of the cultural baggage associated with idea of the “savant,” because of the roles that autistic savants are relegated to in fiction, and because the stereotype of...

Pop Pedestal: Paula Small from Home Movies

by Mac Pogue

January 26, 2012 at 12:39pm

Welcome back to Pop Pedestal, the series where we pay tribute to pop culture personalities we admire. For this round we’re celebrating Paula Small, the too-laid-back-for-words mom from Home Movies.

Douchebag Decree: Stephen “Republicans and Democrats Sitting Together is Like Date Rape” Moore

by Kelsey Wallace

January 26, 2012 at 11:55am

In the frenzy of cable news chatter that followed Tuesday’s State of the Union address, one pundit stood out in the crowd, a beacon on a douchebag hill. The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore out-douched the considerable competition by employing the age-old tactic of saying stuff is like rape when it is not even kind of like rape.

Bechdel Test Canon: An Angel At My Table

by Alyx Vesey

January 25, 2012 at 1:58pm

Jane Campion’s biopic An Angel At My Table feels far more epic in its devotion to writer Janet Frame’s small moments than courtroom scenes that turn history into playacting and battle sequences that turn soldiers into figurines. These are the films women should be making. They are often the films I want to see, particularly if they fail to receive Academy...

Bibliobitch: CALYX Journal is Still Going Strong

by Jyoti Roy

January 25, 2012 at 12:58pm

CALYX Journal begins its 36th year of publishing fine art and literature by women with its winter 2012 issue (vol. 27, no. 3). This self-described feminist literary journal allows women’s voices to be front and center, which is why its four female founders created it in 1976. Referencing a recent survey conducted by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts the...

Double Rainbow: Mattie Ross