a feminist response to pop culture power ISSUE #88 FALL 2020 power ISSUE #88 FALL 2020 Thank you for your purchase of this digital issue of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, we rely on the direct support of our readers to produce award-winning, independent feminist media. If you enjoy this issue, please consider becoming a member of The Rage, our monthly giving program: bitchmedia.org/rage. Check out more daily feminist content by reading Bitch online at bitchmedia.org and by following us on Facebook at facebook.com/BitchMedia, Twitter @BitchMedia, and Instagram @BitchMedia. This digital edition is a PDF, best viewed in Adobe Acrobat or in your web browser. Please note that while it will be readable in a number of e-reader formats, these technologies are evolving quickly and graphics may be less reliable. We’ll do our best to respond to changing technology as we develop new issues for download. Some layout designs are best viewed in a two-page view. If you have any issues accessing or viewing the magazine, please contact us at [email protected]. © 2020 Bitch Media thanks to our sponsors GET AHEAD WITH On-the-job Making a living training while learning Debt-free Free college education accredited courses Professional Equal pay for mentorship equal work Unique career Earning a living pathways wage with benefits IT’S YOUR CAREER General Carpenters • Exterior Interior Systems Millwrights • Piledrivers/Divers • Floor Layers Insulators • Tradeshow • Scaffold •Millwork Learn more at nwCarpenters.org/build opeiu8aflcio a feminist response to pop culture All thaT’s lEft tO do Is tHroW oUt The stoRies pOwer tellS— anD wrIte Our owN. PADMINI PARTHASARATHY PAGE 48 ThE powerIssUE DispAtcHes Flipping the Focus: The Reclaimers Are Fighting the Vacant Housing Crisis Zoie Matthew 16 Reflecting Strength: Therapists of Color Unravel Power from Whiteness Christal Yuen 18 Lessons in Defiance: Homeschooling Lets Black Girls Learn in Peace Jaelani Turner-Williams 20 24 FeaTurEs No New Normal: Who Will We Be After This Nightmare Is Over? FirSt of All Kim Kelly 24 About the Art Palatable Love: Seeking a Happily Ever 6 After in a White Publishing World Letter from the Editor Madhuri Sastry 7 32 Snaps or Scraps The Cautious Gene: Genetic Testing 8 Inherits a Legacy of Distrust Marissa Evans Get In, Loser: Claiming Power with Janis Ian 38 10 Love and Surveillance: Dating Shows 7 on Power Channel More Than Reality 11 Imran Siddiquee Feminist Fill-In: Megan Giddings 44 13 Trolling in the Deep: Deepfakes Are the Bitch List Latest Innovation in Online Shaming 14 Padmini Parthasarathy 48 2 16 CuLtURe Let It Burn: Transgender Cooks Are Changing Kitchen Culture Stacy Jane Grover 64 Poor Unfortunate Goals: Disney Villains Are the True Queer Icons Marina Watanabe 68 BOOKS From thE hQ All Together Now: Novels Fight the Myth of the Mean Girl Rachel Charlene Lewis 70 Letter from the HQ BitchReads 72 54 What We’re Reading: Aria Fellowship Frequency: Padmini Parthasarathy Hillary Gerber 74 56 SCREEN Rage Report Talking Kink with Mistress Velvet 75 57 Quid Pro No: Women Approach Power from a New Direction Community Focus Joshunda Sanders 76 58 Bosses Beware: Bringing the Fight for Fairness to the C-Suite 78 Staff Sound Off 60 What We’re Watching: Westworld Maurgea Albert-Adams 79 55 Color Obsession: Jade Purple Brown Brings Boldness and Blackness to Art Rachel Charlene Lewis 80 MUSIC Hold Up: When Music Treats Softness as a Superpower Erica Campbell 82 What We’re Listening To: girl in red Rachel Charlene Lewis 84 3 Pleasure Podcasts Offer Fresh Takes on Intimacy 85 Lyrics We Love 86 BitchTapes: A Playlist by Vanessa Newman 87 Adventures in Feministory: Judith Heumann 88 3 in print Bitch: Feminist bitch media is a nonprofit, independent, Response to Pop Culture feminist media organization dedicated online at bitchmedia.org on campuses around the world via to providing and encouraging an engaged, Bitch on Campus we offer writing fellowships and thoughtful feminist response to mainstream other opportunities on a quarterly WhOmedia and popular culture. basis. Find out more at bitchmedia.org Board of Directors Alisha Bhagat, President; cofounder Andi Zeisler Leesa Allmond; Veronica Arreola; Manolia Charlotin, Vice President; Kate Ertmann; editor-in-chief Evette Dionne Jazmyn Henry; Ginger Hintz, Secretary; Megan Kovacs; Megan Light creative director Jessica de Jesus Thank you to our founders design director Veronica Corzo-Duchardt Lisa Jervis, Benjamin Shaykin, Andi Zeisler senior editor Rachel Charlene Lewis Bitch (ISSN 1524-5314), Issue 88 Fall 2020, is published quarterly by Bitch Media, P.O. senior social media editor Marina Watanabe Box 11929, Portland, OR 97211-3857, U.S.A. Periodical postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing offices. publisher Soraya Membreno Postmaster: Please send address changes director of fundraising Alison Vu to Bitch, P.O. Box 11929, Portland, OR 97211-3857 director of data and operational systems Korin Lykam B-Word Worldwide, d/b/a Bitch Media, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, tax ID no. community programs manager Patricia Romero 94-3360737. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law! bookkeeper and operations support manager Danny Fish Copyright 2020 Bitch Media. Copyright in each contribution is separate from the editorial assistants copyright of the work as a whole and is vested with the author of the contribution. Maurgea Albert-Adams, Hillary Gerber, Ellie Sharp Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited. 2020 writing fellows As ever Opinions expressed are those of Padmini Parthasarathy, Sexual Politics their respective authors, not necessarily those of Bitch. We Nora Salem, Global Feminism Letters P.O. Box 11929, Portland, OR Vanessa Taylor, Technology 97211-3857; [email protected] Trimble, Pop Culture Criticism Submissions bitchmedia.submittable.com/submit copy squad Address Changes Katie Chase, Esa Grigsby, Haili Jones, bitchmedia.org/change-of-address-request Gail O’Hara, Kelli Pate, Jenna Portnoff Subscription and Membership Questions Email us at [email protected] or call (503) 922-1435. interim executive director Rachel Sample Newsstand Circulation Information consulting CFO Vega Tom Please contact P.O. Box 11929, Portland, OR 97211-3857; [email protected]. web consultant Congruity Works Archives Bitch’s papers are archived at Duke University’s Sallie Bingham Center Writers in this issue for Women’s History and Culture. Maurgea Albert-Adams , Erica Campbell, Marissa Evans, Hillary Gerber, This issue is set in Bayard by VocalType, Stacy Jane Grover, Kim Kelly, Rachel Charlene Lewis, Zoie Matthew, Futura PT, Lelo, Optima LT Pro, and Tiempos. Padmini Parthasanathy, Joshunda Sanders, Madhuri Sastry, Imran Siddiquee, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Mistress Velvet, Marina Watanabe, Christal Yuen Artists in this issue Tara Anand, Destiny Belgrave, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Kennedi Gabrielle Carter, Veronica Corzo-Duchardt, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Dura, Anita Hatchett, Elizabeth Keith, Meech McConnell, Bekezela Mguni, neonhoney, Partes, Mwanel 1_L Pierre-Louis, Bolu Sowoolu 4 Featured Contributors ERICA CAMPBELL (“Hold Up,” page 82) is MARISSA EVANS (“The Cautious a music journalist, video producer, and host Gene,” page 38) is a journalist based in based in New York City. Her stories about Minneapolis. Her reporting has appeared entertainment, lifestyle, and culture have been in O, The Oprah Magazine, the Atlantic, featured in Playboy, Nylon, and HuffPost, and Civil Eats, NBCBLK, Kaiser Health News, she’s the former music editor of Consequence of the Washington Post, and other outlets. Sound. You can follow her @ericacxmpbell and She won a 2018 ONA Online Journalism read more of her work at campbellerica.com. Award for her reporting on maternal mortality in Texas. HILLARY GERBER (“What We’re Reading,” page STACY JANE GROVER (“Let It Burn,” 74) is a recent graduate of Reed College in Portland, page 64) is a transgender writer from Oregon, but she’s originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Appalachian Ohio. Her essays have She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology appeared in Belt magazine, Entropy and Russian and wrote her thesis on the effects of magazine, the Grief Diaries, Heart political action in literature. Aside from school, Online, and Inside Higher Ed. She she has been a peer reviewer and editor of Reed’s received her Master of Arts degree student-run anthropology journal, Radicle. in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from the University of Cincinnati. Find her at stacyjanegrover.com and on Twitter @stacyjanegrover. ZOIE MATTHEW (“Flipping the Focus,” MADHURI SASTRY (“Palatable Love,” page 16) is a journalist page 32) is a writer with a background in who covers housing, human-rights law. She is the marketing houselessness, and director at Guernica. Her writing has grassroots organizing in appeared in several publications including Los Angeles. Her writing Slate, Guernica, Catapult, and Wear Your has appeared in Los Angeles magazine, Curbed Voice. She’s an amateur but dedicated LA, The Cut, and more. She’s a graduate of the home cook, and lives with her partner, a corgi mix, and about 20 University of California, Irvine, where she studied plants in a concrete jungle. Find her on Twitter @chicks_balances. literary journalism and urban studies. Find her We musings about landlords, Los Angeles, and literature @disc0nap. JAELANI TURNER-WILLIAMS (“Lessons in Defiance,” page 20) is a writer based in Columbus, Ohio. She’s a contributing IMRAN SIDDIQUEE (“Love and Surveillance,” senior writer at (614) magazine and has page 44) is a writer, filmmaker, speaker, and also written for Billboard, MTV News, Vice, activist challenging systems of domination. and more. Inspired by Columbus writing Their writing on white supremacy, patriarchy, veterans Hanif Abdurraqib and Jacqueline and popular media has been published in the Woodson, Jaelani focuses strongly on cultural pieces, especially Atlantic, Bitch, Literary Hub, Longreads, and within music, sexuality, feminism, and social criticism.