Bitch was published by the nonprofit feminist media organization Bitch Media. The magazine included analysis of current political events, social, and cultural trends, television shows, movies, books, music, advertising, and artwork. Its print magazine had about 80,000 readers.[7][8][9] The magazine's publisher, Kate Lesniak, estimated that it had an online readership of 4.5 million.[10] On April 12, 2022, it was announced that Bitch Media would cease operations in June 2022.[11][12]
History
Founding
The first issue of Bitch was a ten-page feature, Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, which started as a zine distributed out of the back of a station wagon in 1996, published in January 1996 in Oakland, California.[13][14][15] The founding editors, Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler, along with founding art director Benjamin Shaykin,[16][17] wanted to create a public forum in which to air thoughts and theories on women, gender, and feminist issues, interpreted through the lens of the media and popular culture.[18] In a 2008 interview Zeisler stated that the zine published content of interest to the editors and which wasn't available elsewhere.[4] Prior to founding the magazine, Jervis and Zeisler had worked as interns at Sassy, another feminist magazine.[18][19][20]
Later speaking about the decision to name the magazine "Bitch", Zeisler stated that it was inspired by reclamation of the word 'queer' by the LGBT community.[8][21][22] The editors viewed the word 'bitch' as associated with a derogatory description of outspoken women so thought it best to claim the word in advance."[8] Other reasons for the name included its capability to intrigue people, and the word's use as both a verb and a noun.[23] Zeisler stated that: "Having the word 'feminist' in the magazine subtitle has been far more controversial than having the word 'bitch' in the title... the word 'bitch', for better or worse, has become part of our cultural lexicon. Yet 'feminist' is still one of those words that people find very hard to understand."[24]
Expansion
In 2001, a loan from San Francisco's Independent Press Association allowed Jervis and Zeisler to quit their current jobs and work on Bitch full-time and the magazine officially became a non-profit.[25][26] Around that time, Shaykin left the magazine.[6] By the early 2000s, the magazine had achieved a readership of about 35,000, which grew to 47,000 by 2006.[19][23]
The magazine was the subject of an obscenity controversy when it published a dildo advertisement on its back cover for its Fall 2002 issue.[27][15][19] Responses to this were mixed, and Bitch later published varying opinions about the incident from letters sent by readers.[27] Later interviewed about the events, Zeisler expressed that there had been a certain naivety about the impact of placing the advert on the back cover. The U.S. Postal Service contacted the magazine and stated that copies of the issue would be considered obscene literature and would have to be distributed in black polybags.[15]
Bitch celebrated its 10th anniversary in August 2006 by publishing a Bitch anthology entitled BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine. Edited by Bitch founders Jervis and Zeisler, BITCHfest includes essays, rants and raves, and reviews reprinted from previous issues of Bitch magazine, along with new pieces written especially for the anthology.[28]
In March 2007, Bitch relocated from its offices in Oakland, California, to Portland, Oregon.[15] In 2009, the Bitch nonprofit changed its name to Bitch Media, covering expansion beyond publication of the magazine.[26][8] The magazine's 50th issue was published in 2011. That same year, Bitch won an Utne Reader Independent Press Award for Best Social/Cultural Coverage.[29]
In 2011, Bitch partnered with feminist media criticAnita Sarkeesian to create the video series Tropes vs. Women. The series examined common tropes in the depiction of women in media with a particular focus on science fiction.[30][31] As of 2012, Bitch hosted the Bitch YA Book Club for young women and girls, which focused on young adult literature. The reading group's online blog included a forum for club participants.[32]
Bitch Media also hosted podcasts, and a college speaker series, "Bitch on Campus".[33][34][35] "Popaganda" was hosted by Amy Lam and Sarah Mirk, who discussed politics, news, and media.[36] "Backtalk" was hosted by Amy Lam and Dahlia Balcazar, who reviewed and discussed the week in popular culture through a feminist lens.[36]
Decline and closure
Bitch Media experienced difficulty funding its magazine in its final years.[37][38] On April 12, 2022, Bitch Media announced they would be shutting down the publication after 26 years.[5][11] The magazine's last issue was released in June 2022, for its Summer edition.[39]Bitch Media ceased all operations the same month.[12][11] According to Bitch Media, its website would keep archives of its publications available for the "foreseeable future".[26][5]
Jervis, Lisa and Zeisler, Andi, Harpo eds. (2006) BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN0-374-11343-2
External links
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Misandry is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men or boys.
Bitch is a pejorative slang word for a person, usually a woman. When applied to a woman or girl, it means someone who is belligerent, unreasonable, malicious, controlling, aggressive, or dominant. When applied to a man or boy, bitch reverses its meaning and is a derogatory term for being subordinate, weak, or cowardly.
Femme is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian woman who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. While commonly viewed as a lesbian term, alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, notably some gay men, bisexuals, non-binary, and transgender individuals.
The sex-positive movement is a social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality as a natural and healthy part of the human experience and emphasizing the importance of personal sovereignty, safer sex practices, and consensual sex. It covers every aspect of sexual identity including gender expression, orientation, relationship to the body, relationship-style choice, and reproductive rights. Sex-positivity is "an attitude towards human sexuality that regards all consensual sexual activities as fundamentally healthy and pleasurable, encouraging sexual pleasure and experimentation." It challenges societal taboos and aims to promote healthy and consensual sexual activities. The sex-positive movement also advocates for comprehensive sex education and safe sex as part of its campaign. The movement generally makes no moral distinctions among types of sexual activities, regarding these choices as matters of personal preference.
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists generally agree that prostitutes themselves should not be criminalized.
Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X third-wave feminists born in the 1960s and 1970s embraced diversity and individualism in women, and sought to redefine what it meant to be a feminist. The third wave saw the emergence of new feminist currents and theories, such as intersectionality, sex positivity, vegetarian ecofeminism, transfeminism, and postmodern feminism. According to feminist scholar Elizabeth Evans, the "confusion surrounding what constitutes third-wave feminism is in some respects its defining feature."
The term postfeminism is used to describe reactions against contradictions and absences in feminism, especially second-wave feminism and third-wave feminism. The term postfeminism is sometimes confused with subsequent feminisms such as fourth-wave feminism and xenofeminism.
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society is a peer-reviewed feminist academic journal. It was established in 1975 by Jean W. Sacks, Head of the Journals Division, with Catharine R. Stimpson as its first editor in Chief, and is published quarterly by the University of Chicago Press. Signs publishes essays examining the lives of women, men, and non-binary people around the globe from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as theoretical and critical articles addressing processes of gendering, sexualization, and racialization.
Antifeminism, also spelled anti-feminism, is opposition to feminism. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, antifeminists opposed particular policy proposals for women's rights, such as the right to vote, educational opportunities, property rights, and access to birth control. In the mid and late 20th century, antifeminists often opposed the abortion-rights movement and, in the United States, the Equal Rights Amendment.
Lipstick feminism is a variety of feminism that seeks to embrace traditional concepts of femininity, including the sexual power of women, alongside traditional feminist ideas. The concept emerged within the third-wave as a response to ideals created by previous movements, where women felt that they could not both be feminine and a feminist.
Lisa Jervis is an American writer, editor, publisher, and information technology professional. She is one of the founding editors and publisher of Bitch Magazine, established in 1996.
Andi Zeisler is a writer and co-founder of Bitch Media, a nonprofit feminist media organization based in Portland, Oregon.
Shameless is a Canadian magazine with a feminist and anti-oppressive practice perspective for girls and trans youth. It is published three times a year and also maintains a website featuring a blog, web stories and audio content. Shameless is a registered not-for-profit.
Fat feminism, often associated with "body-positivity", is a social movement that incorporates feminist themes of equality, social justice, and cultural analysis based on the weight of a woman. This branch of feminism intersects misogyny and sexism with anti-fat bias. Fat feminists advocate body-positive acceptance for all bodies, regardless of their weight, as well as eliminating biases experienced directly or indirectly by fat people. Fat feminists originated during third-wave feminism and is aligned with the fat acceptance movement. A significant portion of body positivity in the third-wave focused on embracing and reclaiming femininity, such as wearing makeup and high heels, even though the second-wave fought against these things. Contemporary western fat feminism works to dismantle oppressive power structures which disproportionately affect working class poor people or poor people generally. It covers a wide range of topics such as diet culture, fat-phobia, representation in media, ableism, and employment discrimination.
Shira Tarrant is an American writer on gender politics, feminism, sexuality, pop culture, and masculinity. Tarrant's books include When Sex Became Gender, Men and Feminism, Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power, Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style, and the forthcoming New Views on Pornography. She is described as an "unconventional feminist" redefining gender rights, and is considered "a national leader in working with younger feminist men". She was identified in 2010 as an "extraordinarily accomplished thought leader" by the national Women's Media Center. In 2012, she was named a Glidden Visiting Professor at Ohio University.
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement that combines feminism, punk music, and politics. It is often associated with third-wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as having grown out of the riot grrrl movement and has recently been seen in fourth-wave feminist punk music that rose in the 2010s. The genre has also been described as coming out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a movement in which women could express anger, rage, and frustration, emotions considered socially acceptable for male songwriters but less common for women.
On the Issues is an online-only progressive feminist news and opinion magazine founded in 1983 as a print magazine: On the Issues: The Progressive Woman's Quarterly.
TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term TERF was originally used to distinguish transgender-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists and social conservatives who reject the position that trans women are women, including trans women in women's spaces, and transgender rights legislation. Trans-inclusive feminists assert that these ideas and positions are transphobic and discriminatory towards transgender people. The use of the term TERF has since broadened to include reference to people with trans-exclusionary views who are not necessarily involved with radical feminism.
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