Hello cuties,
Election season and all its depressing, futile rhetoric is killing my soul bit by bit. I’m tired of issues being swept under the rug. I’m tired of people complaining about gas prices. I’m tired of the lack of discussion about the criminal justice system, the prison-industrial complex, and the cradle to prison pipeline.
One thing that makes me feel a little bit better are the smart, thoughtful articles written at Bitch Media. You are probably familiar with it, but if not, I’ll quote their website:
-Word Worldwide, doing business as Bitch Media, is the nonprofit organization best known for publishing the magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. Bitch Media’s mission is to provide and encourage an engaged, thoughtful feminist response to mainstream media and popular culture.
We seek to be a fresh, revitalizing voice in contemporary feminism, one that welcomes complex arguments and refuses to ignore the contradictory and often uncomfortable realities of life in an unequivocally gendered world. We seek to forge connections between the messages we get through the media and pop culture and the commercial agendas of the corporations behind them, and we hope to foment an ongoing dialogue for readers that continues beyond the pages of the magazine, the blog posts, and the podcasts episodes that we produce.
Bitch has a diverse audience, which keeps the dialogue and the movement we’re a part of dynamic and strong. But Bitch is also uniquely situated to draw in young readers who are at a critical moment in their lives—a moment when they are discovering feminism and activism, finding answers to who they are, and questioning the definitions of gender, sexuality, power and agency prescribed by the mainstream media. Bitch not only plays a role in exploring these topics, it also provides a toolkit for engaging in analysis that promotes activism and impels social change.
So, in an effort to support Bitch Media and their great work, as well as introduce a new person to their magazine, I’m going to buy a gift subscription for a lucky reader!
In order to enter the contest, please comment below about why you are interested in receiving Bitch, what is making YOU tired in this election, and what issues would you like to see brought to the forefront of the debate. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator, but the winning comment must address the questions above.
If you’d like to comment and let someone else win, please still comment! Just say as much. I love commentz!
Contest ends Monday, October 22nd at 5pm.
Enter away!
xoxo,
krissie the feminist
Nothing about this election is making me tired at all. In fact, elections put me on a constant emotional swing between pride and anger, so it’s actually really fun. I mean, I get that some people only care about a few issues, so if they are not brought up in the national discussion, they get pissed, and that’s totally fair and right. But I care about all these issues a lot, so I’m just as interested in this whole China shitshow as I am in womens’ health issues. And I don’t know, honestly? I think at this stage, I almost would rather have these undecided voters (who do exist, because I live around a LOT of them) vote with their wallets rather than their hearts, because I still think a lot of people in this country are capable of separating church and state and I don’t want to force the issue with them. Like, if you are moderate, I think there’s a good chance you’ll swing towards Obama since Mitt is such a anti- New Deal clown, but if we make it about abortions, you may just decide not to vote this year. My mother is one of those.
I guess not everyone has to be tired of something. I certainly am, not only because of topics that are considered off-limits in the national mainstream discussion, because even the problems they do talk about (the economy, jobs, budget) – neither candidate is really putting forth any real plans as to what they would do differently. Obama is defending the past four years, and Mitt is attacking the Obama presidency. Mittens has an elusive tax plan and I really don’t know what Obama’s plans are.
I’d feel weird about you buying me a Bitch subscription but I want it… which probably means I should just stop being a lazy-face and buy one myself.
I want them to talk about climate change and the economy as though I’m capable of hearing bad news. That the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a good thing to keep around because some day we might have a big-ol’ supply disruption (war maybe?), not just a bunch of people who whine about how much it costs to drive all the time. That the president’ can’t magic down the price of gas because our economy doesn’t exist in a freaking vacuum. Same with jobs. The government doesn’t have a magic wand to fix problems and they never ever ever will. They do, however, have the ability to show favor to things that are in our long-term best interest like OH I DUNNO wind turbines and solar projects. (People like my dad hate solar and think it’s a waste of time and they will probably be loud if any big solar projects ever get off the ground but nbd.)
Unrelated note: while scrolling, I definitely mis-read your sign-off as “krissie, hired feminist” like “hired assassin” but promoting equality and justice.
47%? Binders of Women? Nothing about this election is making me tired of it (other than that pesky Hatch Amendment, but that’s another story…) I’d love to rekindle an affair w/Bitch, given we broke up when I started grad school… sigh.