I've rarely felt the need to review an entire magazine, but I've rarely felt that an entire issue of any magazine was this fantabulous. So if you don't subscribe (and shame on you!) you must go out and get the current issue of Bitch magazine. Let's take this in order, shall we?

* dear bitch: This is ALWAYS the first thing I read. I love hearing from other feminists on how they felt about past issues. And thankfully Bitch publishes not just the praise letters, but also the WTF letters. I especially love it when someone writes a letter that I wrote in my head, but was too lazy to send it in.

* Ads: Did you know that in the next issue, #35 a.k.a. the Super Issue, Bitch will be accepting business-card ads on the cheap? So if you have that small business and needs a plug, check our Bitch.

* Love it/Shove it: Doesn't hurt to see my fave Jennifer L. Pozner featured again. It was sad to read that the goddess, Ani, has a guy on her label that has a song with the line: "I think Ann C0uler's got a c*nt that stinks." That's not very feminist.

* on trends: I knew that I needed to blog this review when I cited Bitch in an email exchange on 2-3 different topics earlier this week. This piece by summer wood on Oprah-philanthropy is *the* best critique of Ms. Winfrey I have ever read. It sums up almost everything that I've ever disliked about the Church of Oprah. Add to that, I live in Chicago, and have yet to see Oprah at a NOW or Planned Parenthood event. And I know locals who have written to get a tiny slice of the Oprah pie for very worthy feminist events (even topics she has covered!) without a note. It might be petty, but we're Chicago damnit! Think globally, Act locally.

* An interview with Katha Pollitt: I think I've blogged many times before how much I admire Katha. This interview has some awesome lines in it and make me love her even more. I really should have kissed her when I met her over the summer. Oh, well...there's always next time!

"Becoming a parent is much too important a life event to letit ne decided by a missed pill or a split condom."
"I am so sick of [the so-called mommy wars]! It's always discussed as an individual moral choice, made by the woman in a vacuum. Where is society? Where are the men?"

* Knot in our name: A piece on activism beyond the knitting circle. It is a great critique of the crafting community - at least from this outsider's view. I went to see Cinnamon on a panel last year and some of these issues were brought up and I don't feel like they were fully addressed. Particularly the dissing of 'country crafts':

"Why does this recasting have to rely on its practitioners' distance from the previous generations, and thus from knitters' own history?"
"Not only does this ironic approach distance contemporary knitters from previous generations, it's often used as an elitist maneuver to distance crafting among younger urban folks from crafts done in rural areas."

* Green Heard: A WONDERFUL piece not just on the feminizing of eco-activism, but also on Al Gore as well. The Al Gore featured here is the Al Gore I voted for, not the man who kept showing up at the debates in 2000.
* Friend or Food: A fairly good piece. But one that I thought was full of contradictions, especially about women & sexuality. OOH, Aimee Dowl tsks (righty so) that groups like PETA and NOW don't work together, but does point out that PETA uses women in lettuce wraps as advertising. Then tsks NOW for not boycotting meat processors for using sexist advertising. The best part of this article was this explanation of why food is a feminist issue:

Anything that is so massive in its economic impact and so essential to our daily lives has implications for women in particular: Just like gasoline, housing, and childcare, meat - and meat production - is a feminist issue.

* Troop Therapy: As a former Girl Scout and someone who can't wait for her daughter to be one, I really enjoyed this critique of the modern GS movement. The need to be everything to everyone seems to have watered down the GS and their feminist ways.
* Sweet Nothings: This interview with Lyn Mikel Brown and Sharon Lamb comes at just the right time. Miss Ella is learning from the media around her and it alarms her mommy & daddy. The fact that the only Latina role model for 3yos is selling out to the princess movement is even more scary.

So there is a peek into the issue. You gotta read it yourself. So get off your tush and use your holiday money at the bookstore. NOW.

Labels: feminism, latina, magazines, misc