Culture

Very Online: You Can’t Escape Death on TikTok

The TikTok logo and the words, “death becomes inescapable.”
by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 22, 2020 at 1:00am
We’re still learning what to do with death, both online and off.
Fathia Youssouf portrays Amy, a Black child with a red shirt, stands with three other children on a train track in Migonnes

Pausing the Panic Button: Can Religious Scholarship Teach Media Literacy?

by Rebecca Epstein-Levi
October 21, 2020 at 12:49pm
Moral panics about sexually disturbing or explicit media are hardly new or uncommon. Read more »
Lily James plays Mrs. de Winter, a woman with shoulder-length blond hair looking over her shoulder, in Rebecca

Female Trouble: Why Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca” Still Possesses our Imaginations

by Kerensa Cadenas
October 21, 2020 at 9:37am
What makes Daphne du Maurier’s prose feel fresh and unique to this day is just how real it is in capturing the way women observe. Read more »
meme image by Instagram user @gay_girl_inc featuring Beyoncé walking onto a yacht and Jay-Z crouching behind her

Meme and My Squad: The Teens Tagging their Way to Queer Utopia

by Peyton Dix
October 20, 2020 at 9:30am
Memes can offer familiarity, freedom, and levity in a world that, more often than not, flattens and invalidates queer experience. Read more »
Black and white collage with photocopier texture, disembodied female eyes, discarded female doll on the ground.

Trolling in the Deep: Deepfakes Are the Latest Innovation in Online Shaming

by Padmini Parthasarathy
October 19, 2020 at 9:40am
The deepfake is a form of public shaming. Read more »
A Black woman sits on a windowsill in a kitchen wearing sunglasses.

Mind Interrupted: The Horrifying Manipulation of Black Women’s Psyches

by Jordan McDonald
October 19, 2020 at 8:37am
The traumatic spectacles of these transformations often reveal so little about the interiority of the fictional Black women who experience them. Read more »
A thin white woman wears an elaborate wedding gown.

BitchWatch: 15 Shows Feminists Should Watch This Fall

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 16, 2020 at 10:04am
This list has it all, from scary shows to calming ones. Read more »
A black and white portrait of Nikki Giovanni, a Black woman with short, blond hair, holds her hand up to her chin

BitchReads: 11 Books Feminists Should Read in October

by Evette Dionne
October 16, 2020 at 9:14am
For those updating their fall reading lists, we have books for everyone. Read more »
Billie Eilish, a white young woman, has black-dyed hair and is very pale. She leans out of a trailer and wears an oversized, pastel-colored outfit.

Billie Eilish’s Body Is Not Ours to Claim

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 15, 2020 at 2:33pm
“I feel you watching, always. And nothing I do goes unseen.” Read more »
Janelle Monáe plays Veronica, a Black woman with short, black hair, holding a torch in a dark field, in Antebellum

Trauma Loop: “Antebellum” Mishandles Its Message

by Vanessa Willoughby
October 15, 2020 at 9:39am
The film is fixated on racism as an act of overt violence, but racism is so monstrous because it can appear so deceptively normal. Read more »
a Black man with short, black hair, and a blue shirt sits on a concrete bence reading a book

Personal Connection: #OwnVoices, Outing, and the Ongoing Quest for Authenticity

by s.e. smith
October 14, 2020 at 9:00am
Not all authors feel safe, comfortable, or interested in being out to readers about their identities. Read more »

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Best of Bitch

It's Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women

by Tina Vasquez
February 17, 2014 at 1:26pm
The marginalization of transgender women in feminism is not new, but the decades-long debate has taken on new dimension thanks to social media and the ease of finding strangers’ personal information online. Read more »

All Hail the Queen?: What Do Our Perceptions of Beyoncé's Feminism Say about us?

an illustration of a Black woman with long, flowing, blonde hair
by Tamara Winfrey Harris
Summer 2013 • Micro/Macro
The policing of feminist cred is the real moral contradiction. Read more »

Where My Girls At: Meet Two of Ferguson's Black Queer Activists

by Erica Cardwell
April 27, 2015 at 3:26pm
Amid national discussions of police brutality and systemic racism, Black women have been the loudest and most consistent voices demanding change. Read more »

Will Filming the Police Keep Us Safe?

by Victoria Law
February 5, 2015 at 10:31am
There’s a cultural idea that having someone looking over our shoulder makes us behave better. From fake security cameras to Elf... Read more »