Consider this: Now is the perfect time to think about our legacies. Though climate change is accelerating, racial inequity is ever-increasing, and the pandemic is raging without a true end in sight, we must now face realities that we have attempted to avoid: mortality, inequality, and systems rigged to enrich the wealthy at the expense of the impoverished. So now we must ask: Who do we want to be as a society? And how can we get there? Our Legacy issue, which commemorates Bitch Media’s 25th anniversary, attempts to answer these questions from multiple angles, exploring the legacy of Black-owned fashion brands, the ways in which journalists cover immigration, the past and future of restaurant criticism, the evolution of the rom-com, the prison-industrial complex harming incarcerated women in more ways than one, and so much more. As we consider our own legacies, this issue pushes us to explores how our own individual footprint fits within our larger world.
FIRST OF ALL
Letter from the Editor | Evette Dionne
Then and Now
Bending Your Goals with Jess Bhamra
7 on Legacy
Feminist Fill-In: Mikki Kendall
Bitch List
DISPATCHES
Survival of the Fits: Black Fashion Has Always Been Liberatory | Brooklyn White
Boomer to Zoomer: Grim Generational Relations Aren’t An Accident | Mary Retta
Silicone Sham: Will Sex-Doll Brothels Change the Future of Sex Work? | Naseem Jamnia
FEATURES
Objective Harm: Bad Immigration Reporting Worsens Bad Immigration Policy | Tina Vasquez
The Only Gaze Is Ours: Tracing the Evolution of Black Women’s Stories | Deesha Philyaw and Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Stripping Point: Nipplegate Exposed Our Deep Fear of Black Women’s Sexuality | Vanessa Willoughby
Let Us Live: What Does Loving Black Women Really Look Like? | Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
Her House: Queen Latifah Recreated the Rom-Com in Her Image | Cate Young
FROM THE HQ
Letter from the HQ
Fostering the Next Generation of Feminist Thinkers
Feminist Discourse in the Pages of Bitch
CULTURE
Chef’s Kiss: Soleil Ho Doesn’t Want to Be the First and Only | Bani Amor
Accidents Still Happen: Revisiting Degrassi’s Infamous Abortion Episode | Marina Watanabe
BOOKS
Righteous Spirit: Indigenous Horror Authors Tap Into Tribal Traditions | Abaki Beck
BitchReads
What We’re Reading: What’s Mine and Yours
SCREEN
The Indelible, Eclectic Impact of Whoopi Goldberg | Cate Young
Singleminded: The New Rom-Com Heroines Go Solo | Joshunda Sanders
The Movies That Made Cicely Tyson a National Treasure
What We’re Watching: Belly of the Beast
MUSIC
Fanning the Flames: How Far Will Stans Go to Declare Their Love? | Roslyn Talusan
What We’re Listening To: Black Belt Eagle Scout | Rachel Charlene Lewis
3 Podcasts That Illustrate the Asian Experience in America | Aditi Natasha Kini
BitchTapes: A Playlist by Greisa Martínez Rosas
Your Legacy
