Culture

A person on a train with black hair and short bangs and a face tattoo reads a book.

BitchReads: 9 YA Books Feminists Should Read in November

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
November 2, 2020 at 3:14pm
Through it all though, I’ve found a lot of solace in books. Read more »
a close-up shot of Vanessa Kirby, a white woman, holding Shia LeBeouf, a bearded white man's face in her hands in Pieces of a Woman

Shot to Pieces: “Pieces of a Woman” Is a New Take on a Well-Worn Trope

by Jourdain Searles
November 2, 2020 at 1:46pm
What does it mean to make an “authentic” film about tragedy? Read more »
Luciano Garbati’s Medusa With The Head of Perseus is a naked gold statue with long snake-like hair holding a gold man's head

Monstrous Men: The Medusa #MeToo Monument Has an Oedipal Complex

by Erin Thompson
October 30, 2020 at 11:28am
The statue embodies is the long historical pattern in which male competition plays out in the exploitation of female suffering. Read more »
A white woman with stringy blond hair and huge blue eyes looks at the camera. Behind her, a handprint stains glass.

BitchWatch: 11 Scary (and Not-So Scary) Films to Watch This Halloween

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 29, 2020 at 11:20am
Feminist horror is often overlooked, but we’re here to highlight some of our favorites. Read more »
Elle Lorraine plays Anna, a dark-skinned Black woman with long, Black hair, sits horrified on a bed in in Bad Hair

“Bad Hair” Makes a Tangled Mess of Black Women’s Woes

by Cate Young
October 27, 2020 at 12:48pm
In his quest to create a fable about Black women’s hair, Justin Simien overlooks the actual function it plays in Black women’s lives. Read more »
The TikTok logo and the words, “death becomes inescapable.”

Very Online: You Can’t Escape Death on TikTok

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 22, 2020 at 1:00am
We’re still learning what to do with death, both online and off. Read more »
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 »

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Best of Bitch

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 »

Dear Bear: My Partner Makes No Money. Is That a Problem?

by S. Bear Bergman
February 2, 2016 at 4:47pm
Our advice columnist offers a lesson in anticapitalist self-care. Read more »

In a Bizarre 1976 Comic Book, Spider-Man Fought the Villain of Misleading Sex Education

by Sarah Mirk
April 23, 2014 at 3:52pm
Last week, I came across a very strange comic book: in 1976, Planned Parenthood teamed up with Marvel to publish a one-off comic in which... Read more »

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

a blue and white illustration of a woman in Amish attire standing next to a fan and a chicken
by Audrey deCoursey
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
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 »