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The Great Cover-Up

Can High Necklines Cure Low Morals?
The Great Cover-Up
Article by Shira Tarrant, Illustrated by Liza Corbett, appeared in issue Lost & Found; published in 2008; filed under Books; tagged asking for it, fashion, modesty, moralizing, promiscuity, sexuality, sluttiness, virgin/whore, young women.

In an era when it’s possible to turn on the television on any given night and see a clutch of bikini-clad women crawling over their male prey (ABC’s The Bachelor), a sex-toy demonstration (HBO’s Real Sex), or a 9-year-old showing off her moves on her parents’ personal stripper pole (E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians), Wendy Shalit’s assertion that modesty has made a comeback seems a little, well, optimistic.

Shelf Lives

Paging Through Feminism’s Lost & Found Classics
Shelf Lives

In the 1976 cross-country race film The Gumball Rally, the late, great Raul Julia rips off his rearview mirror and tosses it over his shoulder, saying “What’s behind me is not important.” 


He didn’t win the race. 


Pop Goes the World

Looking at pop culture in the wake of 9-11
Article by Erin Keating, Skarlet Fever, Kate Baggott, Claudine Zap, published in 2007; filed under Social commentary.

It's been almost three months since September 11, and while the onslaught of the holidays (and for those of us around the Bitch HQ , the onslaught of production on a new issue) has provided a bit of distraction, it's still almost impossible not to feel that our jobs, our ambitions, and our daily dramas have been permanently dwarfed by the sadness and horror of everything that happened that day and everything that's happened since. Without a news editor or an investigative reporting staff, Bitch is at something of a loss for words.

Tears of a Clone

Why Hollywood’s Women Are All Choked Up
Article by Laura Smith, published in 2007; filed under Film; tagged crying, emotions, gender stereotyping, Hollywood.

From all the films made every year, the Academy must choose the performance that deserves its Best Actress accolade—and avid watchers of their annual awards might well conclude it has no sensible criteria. Some years, the voting body wants to show its integrity. Other years, it wants to pet its poodles. This year, it wanted to pretend that racism isn’t an industry given, and rolled out an inelegant glut of tardy tributes. And there are, clearly, yet more social and political complexities polluting the field.

How to Write a Protest Letter

Article by Jennifer L Pozner, appeared in issue Obsessions; published in 2007; filed under Activism.

You flip to your local Clear Channel station to find a shock jock “joking” about where kidnappers can most easily buy nylon rope, tarps, and lye for tying up, hiding, and dissolving the bodies of little girls. Reuters runs an important international news brief about a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for an alleged sexual infraction—in its “Oddly Enough” section, where typical headlines include “Unruly Taxi Drivers Sent to Charm School.”

Multiply & Conquer

How to Have 17 Children and Still Believe in Jesus
Multiply & Conquer
Article by Kate Dixon, Illustrated by Kris Chau, appeared in issue Singular + Plural; published in 2007; filed under Social commentary; tagged children, jesus, procreation, tv.

When she was presented with the state of Arkansas’s Young Mother of the Year award in April 2004, Michelle Duggar was 37 years old and seven months pregnant. A USA Today profile on the award ceremony noted her current reproductive status by describing with notable amusement how she “waddled” into the Capitol building to accept the honor.

Hold on—a USA Today profile? Of a stay-at-home mother receiving an award in Little Rock? No offense to the great state of Arkansas, but surely there must be more to the story. And there is: 14 other children, to be precise.

Desert Hearts

In a New Crop of Romance Novels, It's Always Midnight at the Oasis
Desert Hearts
Article by Christy McCullough, Illustrated by Catherine Lepage, appeared in issue Risk; published in 2007; filed under Books; tagged 9/11, heroes, middle east, race, racial profiling, romance, stereotypes, terrorism.

The average romance-novel hero hasn’t changed much since the genre’s development in the late 19th century—he’s dashing, arrogant, commanding, hopefully rich, possibly even a prince. But is he an Arab? More and more commonly, the answer is yes.

Feminine Protection

Feminine Protection
An interview with Julia Serano by Debbie Rasmussen, appeared in issue Risk; published in 2007; filed under Social commentary; tagged gender, julia serano, trans identity, transgender, whipping girl.

The rising visibility of trans, intersex, and genderqueer movements has led feminists—and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world—to an increasing awareness that m and f are only the beginning of the story of gender identity. With the release of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano offers a perspective sorely needed, but up until now rarely heard: a transfeminine critique of both feminist and mainstream understandings of gender.

The Cold Shoulder

Saving Superheroines from Comic-book Violence
The Cold Shoulder
Article by Shannon Cochran, appeared in issue Super; published in 2007; filed under Books; tagged activism, comics, heroes, heroins, misogyny, superheroines, violence.

There’s a new Bat in Gotham City. Like Bruce Wayne, she’s a rich socialite by day and a black-clad vigilante at night. And, also like Bruce Wayne, in both incarnations she’s apt to sweep the ladies off their feet. Kate Kane, the new, revamped Batwoman, isn’t the first lesbian character to debut in the DC Comics universe, but she might have the highest profile. Last June, DC Executive Director Dan DiDio issued a press release saying the move was intended “to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world.”

Mom's the Word

Yummy mummies, alternadads, and other literary offspring
Mom's the Word
Article by Julia Scott, Illustrated by Lauren Gregg, appeared in issue Super; published in 2007; filed under Social commentary; tagged breeding, literature, motherhood, parenting, procreation.

At the turn of the millennium, Bridget Jones and the Sex and the City girls heralded a new era of fun, fearless singledom. Chick lit, accompanied by memoirs and anthologies about single womanhood, made it whimsical for an otherwise-capable woman to be vain, proud of her missteps and mistakes, and heartbroken over her inability to find a man. Now, what happens in the next chapter after Ms. Adorably Quirky has found Mr. Right? She manifests new neuroses and fears as she enters the brave new world of motherhood.