On her first day of work back in 2004, Debbie nearly knocked the water cooler over and onto cofounder and then-publisher Lisa Jervis. Luckily no one held it against her, and in fact she was handed the publishing reins in 2006 when Lisa stepped down from the staff.
Prior to joining Bitch, Debbie was, at various points, involved in sexuality and reproductive justice work, union organizing, queer youth counseling, and racial- and economic-justice work. Way back in the day she also used to answer emergency road service calls from stranded Minnesotans in the dead of winter, which led to her fear of phones.
Debbie has a Master's degree in Publishing/Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which sounds much fancier than it is, 'cause most of her time there was spent working on the collectively run, community-supported, endearlingly-titled Madison Insurgent newspaper and and helping organize the first successful unionizing effort at the Whole Foods Market chain.
She returns to her hometown of Minneapolis occasionally to help her grandma host tea parties. She also likes practicing yoga, playing the accordion, rearranging furniture, talking to animals, and adjusting the lighting.
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.
One of the people hard at work behind the scenes here is Kyla Wagener, AKA Bitch webmonkey. I'm sharing this for two reasons. First because Kyla recently started her own blog. She's wicked smart. You should read it.
I also share this because in her role as webmonkey, Kyla's wrangling all the content from past issues to be posted here. Our plan is to make available all content from issues that are sold out, and selected content from issues that are still available for purchase (get them while they last!).
Please spread as far and wide as you possibly can...
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Here at Bitch, we're in search of a perfect someone to join our tiny but dedicated staff as a program director (full-time) at our office in Portland, Oregon. Someone bright, with a deep talent and love for analyzing media/pop culture from a perspective rooted in social/economic justice, who's passionate about both print publishing and newer (to us, at least) forms like online, audio, and video, someone excited about helping shape the future of the work we do at Bitch (and who recognizes Bitch's potential), someone committed to DIY/grassroots operating, who understands Bitch's role as both critiquing what's crappy and praising what's good, who's as excited about Bitch as a multimedia organization as Bitch as a magazine…
The Milwaukee Zine Fest is this weekend, Friday through Sunday, July 18-20. Workshops, films, tables of zines and other printed matter.
It's free!
Friday night: BBQ, baseball, kickball, and music
Saturday and Sunday: Zine fair, dialogues, and workshops, plus more music at night
Bitch (and Make/Shift!) will be represented by the wonderful Joy Zuccarello, so please visit her table and attend the discussion she's facilitating about feminism on Sunday from 1-1:45.
Several months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Gruver, founder of New Moon, a magazine aimed at girls ages 8 to 12. New Moon is great – they're ad free, have girl editors and writers. They have a girl blog. Oh, and they're also based in Minnesota.
Today in my inbox was a message from Nancy sharing the news that on September 1, they'll be launching New Moon Girls web community – like the magazine, it'll be ad free, girl-driven content. In the meantime, they're trying to raise money.
Help them out, won't you? It's a rare thing to find media aimed at building up girls' self-esteem rather than tearing it down.
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