bitch

Yesterday afternoon I found solace at a wooden table in Barnes & Noble. With the intention of drowning out my woes with instead the woes of celebrities I proceeded to indulge in the trashy magazines made available on the stacks. One by one I flipped through the glossy colored pages hoping to feel some vindication that my disappointment of a morning wasn't as terrible as the paparazzi following my every move. An hour into the attempt I felt shallow and wasteful of my brain cells, so picked up one of my guilty pleasure magazines, Bitch. This mag isn't every one's cup of tea and sometimes I feel the need to turn my shoulder from the coffee shop public due to some of the articles in it, but overall, I'm obsessed with the intelligence, perspective, and brutally honest opinions this magazine encourages and examines. It offers me a chance to escape from the idea that being skinny is what matters most and being submissive and quiet in regards to our male counterpart is our purpose in the workplace. This is one of the rare magazines I will devote to reading every single page.

Here is the mission of Bitch:

We seek to be a fresh, revitalizing voice for feminism, one that welcomes complex arguments, showcases witty and whip-smart critiques of popular culture, and refuses to ignore the contradictory and sometimes uncomfortable details that constitute the realities of life in an unequivocally gendered world.

We seek to formulate replies to the sexist and narrow-minded media diet that we all--intentionally or not--consume. It's about critically examining the images of things like femininity, feminism, class, race, and sexuality that are thrown at us by the media. And by media, we mean TV, movies, books, magazines, the music world, advertising, fashion, the web--and also the messages that are sent through the news media, in schools, and on the streets.

We seek to forge connections between the sociocultural messages we get and the commercial agendas of who's behind them. It's about creating a dialogue--making people aware that the dissenting views they hold are, in fact, shared by many. It's about asking ourselves and each other questions: Where are the places in the mass media that don't insult our intelligence? How can we get more of them?

We're about saying, We can make them.

And what's with the name??

The B Word

For as long as we've been publishing Bitch, there's one question that gets asked over and over. And over. "Why did you choose that word as the name of your magazine?" While we're aware that our title is off-putting to some people, we think it's worth it. And here's why.

The writer Rebecca West, back in the day, said, "People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat." We'd argue that the word "bitch" is usually deployed for the same purpose. When it's being used as an insult, "bitch" is an epithet hurled at women who speak their minds, who have opinions and don't shy away from expressing them, and who don't sit by and smile uncomfortably if they're bothered or offended. If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch, we'll take that as a compliment, thanks.

We know that not everyone's down with the term. Believe us, we've heard all about it. But we stand firm in our belief that if we choose to take the word as a compliment, it loses its power to hurt us. And if we can get people thinking about what they're saying and why when they use the word, that's even better.

And last, but certainly not least, "bitch" describes all at once who we are when we speak up, what it is we're too worked up over to be quiet about, and the act of making ourselves heard.

Pretty rad, right?