Culture

Defenders of the semicolon unite!

Our beloved punctuation mark is under attack for being 'girly'... H/T to Broadsheet for linking to the Boston Globe article:   The credit probably belongs to Trevor Butterworth, who in 2005...wrote a 2,700-word essay on the semicolon in the Financial Times. Butterworth, who had worked in the... Read more »

Ad interventions

"Basically, I just want people to see what it would be like if plus-size models were represented similarly to slim models." -- Kristin Lou Herout.  Read more »

Mary Harris Jones must be turning in her grave

I've been debating whether I should post this for a few days, but I've decided I must.   Earlier this week, I went to the Mother Jones website to find an old article I wanted to post here. But my search was interrupted when I saw an ad for... Read more »

The Yanks are ruining yet another overseas comedy series

Kath and Kim are the clueless, flamboyant, and extremely tacky Australian mother and daughter on the show of the same name. The Aussie series—whose cocreators, Jane Turner and Gina... Read more »

On a lighter note...

Since I know lots of people who like this, I thought they might also like this... Read more »

For the love of all that is good...

If I had a list of wishes, pretty high up would be that people realize that Whole Foods Market... well... sucks. Here are a few reasons to avoid them and support your local grocer instead (if you're lucky enough to have one, that is):   Whole Foods violates their workers' rights to unionize,... Read more »

Speaking of PETA

H/T to Vegans of Color...   PETA wants to advertise "Go vegan" message on border fence:  While many view the contentious border fence as a government fiasco, an animal rights group sees a rare opportunity. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans today to announce an unusual marketing... Read more »

Podcast Debate Club: Can Britney do justice to Varla?

Say what you will about the shock-schlock, soft-core oeuvre of filmmaker Russ Meyer, the man was definitely ahead of his time when it came to showcasing the hips-lips-tits-power! aesthetic that would eventually become inextricably linked to third-wave feminism. His best-known work, 1966's sinsister... Read more »

On the word bitch

Over on the post that asks folks to vote for which PETA is most offensive, someone says that by criticizing PETA, we at Bitch are just calling the kettle black. Of course I'm offended by the PETA ad campaigns. As a long-time radical lesbian feminist, I abhor the explotation of the female body and... Read more »

Specular Preserves at Reading Frenzy

I just found out about this show for first Thursday at Reading Frenzy. Looks like it's gonna be great! Read more »

Pages

The Forgotten History of the Women Who Shaped Modern Advertising

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

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

The policing of feminist cred is the real moral contradiction. Read more »

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. Read more »

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 »