Andi Zeisler

We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement

Examines the reciprocal relationship shared between feminism and popular culture from the 1940s to the twenty-first century; and discusses representations of women on television and in films, music, advertisements, and other medias.

Seal Studies

Feminism and Pop Culture

Lisa Miya-Jervis

Lisa Jervis

A collection of essays and articles from the alternative magazine's first ten years is complemented by new pieces written specifically for the collection and includes coverage of such topics as the pre-scandal Martha Stewart, the reclamation of female virginity, and parenthood as experienced by gay couples. Original.

Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine

BITCHfest

Feminism has hit the big time. Once a dirty word brushed away with a grimace, "feminist" has been rebranded as a shiny label sported by movie and pop stars, fashion designers, and multi-hyphenate powerhouses like Beyoncé It drives advertising and marketing campaigns for everything from wireless plans to underwear to perfume, presenting what's long been a movement for social justice as just another consumer choice in a vast market. Individual self-actualization is the goal, shopping more often than not the means, and celebrities the mouthpieces. But what does it mean when social change becomes a brand identity? Feminism's splashy arrival at the center of today's media and pop-culture marketplace, after all, hasn't offered solutions to the movement's unfinished business. Planned Parenthood is under sustained attack, women are still paid 77 percent -- or less -- of the man's dollar, and vicious attacks on women, both on- and offline, are utterly routine. Andi Zeisler, a founding editor of Bitch Media, draws on more than twenty years' experience interpreting popular culture in this biting history of how feminism has been co-opted, watered down, and turned into a gyratory media trend. Surveying movies, television, advertising, fashion, and more, Zeisler reveals a media landscape brimming with the language of empowerment, but offering little in the way of transformational change. Witty, fearless, and unflinching, We Were Feminists Once is the story of how we let this happen, and how we can amplify feminism's real purpose and power.

From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement

We Were Feminists Once

Feminismus ist hip. Beyoncé und Emma Watson bekennen sich zum »F-Wort«, Taylor Swift sowieso. Eine ganze Marketingindustrie schreibt sich »Empowerment« auf die Fahnen, um damit so gut wie jedes Produkt, von Unterwäsche bis Frühstücksflocken, an die Frau zu bringen. Was als politische Bewegung für soziale Gerechtigkeit begonnen hat, scheint heute kaum noch mehr als ein Shoppingtipp in einem großen, bunten Markt zu sein, der uns Lösungen für Probleme und Problemzonen verkauft, die erst das System zu solchen macht. Der Feminismus als Marke setzt individuelle Selbstverwirklichung über kollektive Solidarität. Andi Zeisler, Gründerin und Herausgeberin des *Bitch Magazine,* nimmt in ihrem höchst unterhaltsamen Buch eine schillernde Reihe von Beispielen aus Popkultur, Medien und Werbung unter die Lupe und zeigt, wie der Feminismus vereinnahmt und verwässert wurde. »Ermächtigung« ist in aller Munde, auf der anderen Seite hat die Wahl Donald Trumps zum US-Präsidenten gezeigt, dass Sexismus auf erschreckende Art salonfähig ist. Unerschrocken und mit beißendem Witz erzählt dieses Buch, wie wir es dazu haben kommen lassen, und es erinnert uns daran, dass mit Feminismus eigentlich einmal etwas anderes gemeint war.

Vom Riot Grrrl zum Covergirl – Der Ausverkauf einer politischen Bewegung

Wir waren doch mal Feministinnen

In the wake of Sassy and as an alternative to the more staid reporting of Ms., Bitch was launched in the mid-nineties as a Xerox-and-staple zine covering the landscape of popular culture from a feminist perspective. Both unabashed in its love for the guilty pleasures of consumer culture and deeply thoughtful about the way the pop landscape reflects and impacts women's lives, Bitch grew to be a popular, full-scale magazine with a readership that stretched worldwide. Today it stands as a touchstone of hip, young feminist thought, looking with both wit and irreverence at the way pop culture informs feminism—and vice versa—and encouraging readers to think critically about the messages lurking behind our favorite television shows, movies, music, books, blogs, and the like. BITCHFest offers an assortment of the most provocative essays, reporting, rants, and raves from the magazine's first ten years, along with new pieces written especially for the collection. Smart, nuanced, cranky, outrageous, and clear-eyed, the anthology covers everything from a 1996 celebration of pre-scandal Martha Stewart to a more recent critical look at the "gayby boom"; from a time line of black women on sitcoms to an analysis of fat suits as the new blackface; from an attempt to fashion a feminist vulgarity to a reclamation of female virginity. It's a recent history of feminist pop-culture critique and an arrow toward feminism's future.

Andi Zeisler

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