Culture

The Body Electric-Bodies as Weapons: When the G20 Comes to Your Hometown

    You know what? I get it. The G20 is a symbol of everything that's wrong with globalized capitalism. Protesting their gatherings makes a lot of sense to me. This year the G20 is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and we are once again awash in apocalyptic images of police-state riot gear and angry... Read more »

Douchebag Decree: Beauty Supplies

Just when you thought there were no more reasons to hate the beauty industrial complex, right? I mean, first they shove the idea down our throats that as women we need painted nails, painted lips, processed hair, perfumed skin, and even... Read more »

She Pop: Fame Kills. So Does Trying To Understand Lady Gaga.

The forthcoming Kanye West and Lady Gaga tour/collaboration/alliance/bizarro-pop-Voltron makes sense for so many reasons. Primarily: Kanye and Gaga are both famous because they do weird things in public. Do you like their music? Do you not like their music? It doesn’t matter! What did you... Read more »

Carrie Mae Weems and the politics of photography

  “My responsibility as an artist is to work, to sing for my supper, to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless; to shout bravely from the rooftops and storm barricaded doors and voice the... Read more »

Tube Tied: Oh, Oprah.

Today, Oprah will be airing an interview with Mackenzie Phillips.  Who is that, you say?  She is a former child actress who also, coincidentally, happens to be one of the many children of the late John Phillips of The Mamas and Papas.  Like most former child actresses, her personal life has been a... Read more »

Bed, Bitch & Beyond-Readers Strap On!: Your Response to "Rear Ended by Porn"

  The reader response to "Rear Ended by Porn" was big and vocal, and frankly, pretty awesome, with plenty of you bitches bringing up aspects of the debate that I didn't write about in the original post. There was hateration, too, but I chalk that up to the fact that when you encourage women to take... Read more »

Insurance Companies Need Our Help (Calling Them on Their Shenanigans)

From Joe Wilson to that death panel lady, everyone has healthcare on the brain lately (or at least we think they do – who can afford a CAT scan these days?). This includes the folks at... Read more »

The Body Electric-Tattoo Part II: Big Beautiful

Not "Inked": one stunning tattoo story. Read more »

Adventures in Feministory: Jazz hands, for real

 Like speed metal and banda music, jazz is one of those musical genres where the presence and contributions of female artists never quite mitigates the overall sense that it's a dude's world. For Toshiko Akiyoshi, crashing the... Read more »

The Body Electric: Tattoo Magazines and the Big Dumb

That's my arm. I thought it only fair, if discussing the representation of tattoos, to be up front about my own. This one, taken directly from a life science textbook, falls in line with most of the work I've had done: science-y and metaphorical: half-directive, half-reminder.  I like getting... Read more »

Pages

Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »

The Forgotten History of the Women Who Shaped Modern Advertising

It's easy to dismiss advertising as an anti-feminist industry. Read more »

Oh Joy Sex Toy: How I Realized I'm Asexual

Artist Kiku H shares her personal experiences learning what it means to be asexual. Read more »

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

Amid national discussions of police brutality and systemic racism, Black women have been the loudest and most consistent voices demanding change. Read more »