BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine

by Lisa Jervis

  Bisexual Resource Center (www.biresource.org) The online presence of this Boston-based organization features articles, online resources, a bi bookstore, and more. It’s an organizing tool, a force for change, and a source of affirmation.

  The Girl Wants To: Women’s Representations of Sex and the Body, edited by Lynn Crosbie (Coach House, 1993) Fiction, poetry, drama, drawings, and everything in between, brought together to explore the female sex drive from a million and one angles.

  Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore The celluloid story of suburban teen misfit Jane finding her clit for the first time would be a cult classic if only it were more widely available. Screenings and copies are hard to come by but worth seeking out if at all possible.

  No Fauxxx (www.nofauxxx.com) This alternaporn site truly lives up to the promise of breaking the boring, narrowly constructed molds of bodies and genders that mainstream porn has made. It’s hot, it doesn’t categorize content by gender or sexuality, it features genderqueer models aplenty, and its creators openly address their own conflicts and shortcomings (check out their notes about gender and cultural appropriation).

  Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carole S. Vance (Routledge, 1984) Taking as its starting point “the notion that women cannot explore sexuality until danger is first eliminated is a strategic dead-end,” the questions this collection speaks to are as relevant today as they were when it was first published.

  Chapter 5. Domestic Arrangements

  Alternatives to Marriage Project (www.unmarried.org) The AtMP advocates for folks who, like Joni Mitchell, don’t need no piece of paper from the city hall keeping them tied and true. The organization believes in the diversity of unmarried relationships and is committed to fighting all forms of discrimination—from family disapproval to workplace stigma—faced by the nonhitched.

  East Village Inky (www.ayunhalliday.com/inky) This profoundly hilarious, 100 percent done-by-hand zine chronicling author Ayun Halliday’s life as an urban-dwelling, video-reviewing mother of two is indescribably brilliant. Get yourself some copies.

  Hip Mama and its sister websites (www.hipmama.com) The print version of Hip Mama is the parenting magazine for anyone insulted by most parenting magazines: It’s fiercely political, bitingly funny, and radically inclusive, and it never tries to sell you on the latest diaper genie. Its online incarnation is a thriving community that has spawned teen-mom site Girl-Mom.com, artist/writer/musician mom site Mamaphonic.com, and politics site YoMamaSays.org. Whether or not you’re a parent, they are not to be missed.

  The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women, by Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels (Free Press, 2004) A pointed and resonant analysis of our culture’s Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship with mothers and mothering, and its effects on politics, pop product, and all women—breeders or not.

  Single Mothers by Choice (www.singlemothersbychoice.org) A membership organization that provides support and information for women who are either tired of waiting for Mr./Ms. Right or prefer to go it solo.

  Welfare Warrior’s Voice (http://my.execpc.com/-wmvoice) This quarterly newspaper by, for, and about mothers in poverty provides the perspective sorely missing from all the punditry, reportage, and politicking about welfare we’ve all heard so much of. Get the real story here.

  Chapter 6. Beauty Myths and Body Projects

  About-Face (www.about-face.org) Founded by contributor Kathy Bruin (see “Please Don’t Feed the Models,” page 331), this San Francisco— based organization combats negative media images of women through media literacy workshops in schools, actions like its “I don’t need a makeover because …” letter-writing campaign in response to Fox’s The Swan, and a web-based gallery of offenders, complete with contact info for your complaints.

  Adiosbarbie.com This vibrantly designed and sharply written site from Ophira Edut, the editor of the excellent Body Outlaws: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity (Seal Press, 2000), features articles, book recommendations, rant opportunities, and resource links aplenty.

  Fat!So? Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size!, by Marilyn Wann (Ten Speed Press, 1998) A book from the long-dormant zine of the same name, Fat!So? is a big fleshy antidote to antifat messages, skinny-folks-only images, and dieting propaganda, all done up with personal stories, sharp analysis, and health-myth debunking.

  Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture, by Kathy Peiss (Owl Press, 1998) An engaging, enlightening history of the billion-dollar-and-growing U.S. beauty industry that will shed some light on your susceptibility to perfume ads.

  Our Bodies, Ourselves, by the Boston Women’s Health Collective (Touchstone, 2005) This überbook of women’s health information came out in 2005 with a spankin’-new, totally revised and redesigned thirtyfifth-anniversary edition and a frequently updated web companion (www.ourbodiesourselves.org).

  Phat Camp (www.morethanjustphat.com) This Chicago-based organization “provides safe, non-judgemental space for youth to foster positive relationships with their bodies and debunk beauty myths” through discussion groups, trainings, activist retreats, and more. Issues like racism and trans discrimination are as much a part of their programs as fattheir mission is to “link beauty, bodies, and self-esteem through an anti-oppression lens.”

  Chapter 7. Confronting the Mainstream

  The Media Project (www.themediaproject.com) A kick-ass nonprofit that encourages TV networks to use their power for good and promote healthy, realistic attitudes about teen sexuality. The group honors two shows per month for honest depictions and accurate information about teens and sex.

  Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop, and Rap, edited by Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers (Cooper Square Press, 1999) The first—and we hope not the last—collection of women-penned music criticism.

  Turn Beauty Inside Out (www.mindonthemedia.org) A campaign to “promote healthy body image and expand the definition of what makes people beautiful,” TBIO is a girlcentric program of leadership training, media literacy, and media protest that focuses on a different media sector (e.g., advertising or the music industry) each year.

  Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, by Susan J. Douglas (Three Rivers Press, 1995) One insightful woman’s story of growing up amid contradictory pop cultural influences from I Dream of Genie to the Shirelles.

  Chapter 8. Talking Back: Activism and Pop Culture

  Center for International Media Action (www.mediaactioncenter.org) A powerful movement-building force in the media justice world, CIMA offers robust research, organizational development resources, activist manuals, and a much-needed forum for networking and information sharing.

  Downhill Battle (www.downhillbattle.org) A collaboration among musicians, fans, and others working on assorted copyright issues and other aspects of major-label music-business monopolies.

  The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism, edited by Vivien Labaton and Dawn Lundy Martin (Anchor, 2004) This diverse anthology is incredibly valuable for how it enlarges the definition of feminist activism to include vital work on issues—prison abolition, foreign policy, and immigration are just a few—that are too often left out when feminism is assumed to be only about traditional “women’s issues.”

  Free Speech TV (www.freespeech.org) Available through satellite networks and public access channels, FSTV is the nation’s first and only progressive TV station. It airs documentaries, underreported news stories, video zines, and much more that you won’t see anywhere else.

  Isis International (www.isiswomen.org) Founded in 1974 to “create opportunities for women’s voices to be heard, strengthen feminist analyses through information exchange, promote solidarity and support feminist movements across the globe,” the Manila-based Isis works with activists in more than 150 countries to promote feminist and social justice viewpoints in all channels of communication.

  Media Report to Women (www.mediareporttowomen.com) A quarter
ly news journal monitoring industry trends and conducting in-depth research, MRTW takes on such topics as whether female reporters covering the White House are overlooked at press conferences, how girls are positioned in ads in Seventeen, and more.

  PR Watch (www.prwatch.org) In October 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that the Bush administration had illegally used public funds to promote its agenda via “covert propaganda”; instead of a national citizen/media outcry, the company that masterminded the whole thing got another fat government contract. These are the kinds of stories covered by the more-essential-than-ever PR Watch, a quarterly journal on the public relations industry published by the Center for Media and Democracy.

  Well Connected (www.openairwaves.org) A project of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit organization that conducts investigative journalism in the public interest, Well Connected is an ongoing investigation of the corporations and government agencies that control the information industry. Find out who owns which media outlets in your area, which companies spent how much on campaign contributions or lobbyists, and much, much more.

  Women in Media & News (www.wimnonline.org) A feminist media analysis, education, and advocacy organization that gives public education presentations, trains social-justice organizations on media outreach, and works to expand the range of public debate by connecting working media producers with female sources.

  Youth Media Council (www.youthmediacouncil.org) An organizing, leadership development, media capacity—building, and watchdog project aimed at developing youth-led strategies for media justice.

  about the contributors

  DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL (“What Happens to a Dyke Deferred?”; “I Kissed a Girl”) was the founder and former editor of the magazines Girlfriends and Alice, and her work has appeared in dozens of magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. She edited the critically acclaimed but poorly selling anthology Becoming: Young Ideas on Gender, Identity and Sexuality. At thirty-eight, she’s been in publishing for a full twenty-five years (yeah, you do the math) and is very, very tired. Check out her new venture, www.quirkygirls.com.

  GUS ANDREWS (“The, Like, Downfall of the English Language”) is working on a doctorate in literacies, video games, and education at Teachers College of Columbia University. This article arose from research she did on the subject at Hampshire College, where she completed a BA in public screaming. Her freelance writing has been published in Salon, City Limits, and The Village Voice. She maintains an online journal at www.dancingsausage.net and entertains herself by code-switching in the streets of New York City.

  LAURA BARCELLA (“Refuse and Resist with Jean Kilbourne”) is a writer living in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, Bust, and Time Out New York.

  BETH BERNSTEIN and MATILDA ST. JOHN (“Your Stomach’s the Size of a Peanut, So Shut Up Already”) live in the San Francisco Bay Area. They’re not as cranky as you might think. They believe everyone, regardless of size, has the right to feel good about herself.

  AUDREY BILGER (“On Language: You Guys”) teaches literature, gender studies, and yoga at Claremont McKenna College in California. She is the author of Laughing Feminism: Subversive Comedy in Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen (Wayne State University Press, 1998) and the editor of Jane Collier’s 1753 work An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting for Broadview Literary Texts (2003). Her work has appeared in, among other places, Rockrgrl, the Los Angeles Times, and The Paris Review. She and cowriter Eberle Umbach are currently working on a cookbook based on excerpts from novels by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women writers, to be titled “Jane Austen’s Muffins and Louisa May Alcott’s Buns.” She lives near Los Angeles with her partner, record producer Cheryl Pawelski. They’re probably backstage at a show right now.

  CARSON BROWN (“The New Sexual Deviant”) runs a small editing company and works at an integrative health clinic in San Francisco. After years of freelancing and freewheeling, she surprised herself by applying to medical school. Her hobbies include sleeping, karaoke, and brewing beer.

  KATHY BRUIN (“Please Don’t Feed the Models”) has two unpaid jobs: one as founder of About-Face, a campaign educating about the ways media impacts female body image while promoting alternatives through education and action, and the other as a mom. About-Face was launched in 1995, the kid in 2001. For an occasional paycheck and getaway, Bruin works as a trade-show manager and gets to go stay in hotels far from home.

  KEIDRA CHANEY (“Sister Outsider Headbanger”) lives and works in Chicago. When not working at her day job at a small nonprofit arts organization or attempting to fulfill her life’s dream of starting a Faith No More cover band, she’s a freelance writer and editor. Her publication credits include Bitch, Clamor, Colorlines, africana.com, notfortourists.com, thirdcoast press.com, and a whole slew of independent/alternative publications that, sadly, no longer exist. She whines and waxes poetic on pop culture, music, and politics daily at enjoyandexciting.blogspot.com.

  JULIE CRAIG (“I Can’t Believe It’s Not Feminism!”) is a graduate student with roots in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. Her hobbies include rocking out to alt-country music, mulling over the implications of bacterial genomics, and nitpicking George W. Bush’s grammar. She is a frequent contributor to Bitch.

  ATHENA DOURIS (“What Happens to a Dyke Deferred?”) has an MA in feminist psychology and is currently collecting hours toward licensure as a marriage and family therapist. She lives in the Bay Area with her partner and their furry, four-legged son.

  AIMÉE DOWL (“Beyond the Bearded Lady”) is a former film editor who has worked on several award-winning features and documentaries about gay, feminist, and teen issues, and, when she needed more money, on an animated television series for the WB. More recently, she became a high-school teacher at an international school in Ecuador and a student of women’s medical history. Someday she hopes to bring all her skills together by producing a cartoon melodrama about a goateed teenage lesbian called Duh, It’s a Beard!

  KAREN ENG (“The Princess and the Prankster”) is a freelance writer and editor who has worked in the magazine industry since 1991. She has published a wide range of articles, mainly about independent arts and culture, in a variety of publications, among them Wired and Publishers Weekly. She is the editor of the 2004 Seal Press anthology Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women’s Friendships, and her essays are included in the Seal Press anthologies Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food and Young Wives’ Tales: New Adventures in Love and Partnership. In 2002, she received a George Washington Williams journalism fellowship sponsored by the Independent Press Association. She lives in Cambridge, England.

  RACHEL FUDGE (“Celebrity Jeopardy”; “Girl, Unreconstructed”; “Bias Cut”) is the senior editor of Bitch. She has been involved with the magazine since its early days as a volunteer, board member, and frequent contributor. Her writing has also appeared in Clamor, AlterNet, the San Francisco Chronicle, PekoPeko, and the Seal Press anthologies Young Wives’ Tales and Women Who Eat. She was a contributing editor to the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves and is the cocreator of the zine Nebulosi.

  RITA HAO (“And Now a Word from Our Sponsors”; “Pratt-fall”) is Bitch’s attorney. She lives and writes in San Francisco.

  AMY HARTER (“In Re-Mission”) is a writer, editor, and gardener living in San Francisco.

  REBECCA HYMAN (“Full Frontal Offense”) is director of Women’s and Gender Studies and assistant professor of English at Oglethorpe University. She has written for publications such as Women’s Studies Quarterly, Women in Performance, and Clamor. She is at work on a book about conservative political strategy and the left’s renewal. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She can be reached at rebecca.hyman@gmail.com.

  LISA MORICOLI LATHAM (“Double Life”) has written humor and/or journalism for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Playboy, Men’s Health, Cooking Light, The Seattle Times, America West, B
abytalk, Babycenter.com, and many other publications. She is a produced sitcom and film writer, as well as an etiquette columnist.

  JENNIFER MAHER (“Hot for Teacher”) teaches in the Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her classes focus on popular culture, American women’s literature, third-wave feminism, and gender and the body. She was published most recently in the NYU Press anthology Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture and in Seal Press’s Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women’s Friendships. She is currently at work on a larger project focused on gender and the representation of teachers in popular culture, inspired by the drafting of the article in this anthology.

  SARAH McCORMIC c (“Hoovers and Shakers”) grew up on an island in the Pacific Northwest. She lives in Seattle, where she works as a website editor at the University of Washington. Highlights of her varied writing and editing career include encyclopedia entries about Chinese despots, a book about Elvis, and articles celebrating the highly underrated sport of dogsledding. She is grateful to the three men in her life, Ralph (cat), Wally (cat), and Ben (human), all of whom agree that vacuum cleaners are too loud for regular use and that the best laps have some extra padding.