5.12.2009

A Personal Endorsement Born of a Love Affair

Today I received a wonderful, amazing package in the mail from my mother. Before I go into that, let me go a little into one of my favorite sources of information and entertainment: bitch magazine. I stumbled across this while reading the book that started my own personal feminist journey, Courtney Martin's "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters", where she mentioned her transition from COSMO to magazines like bitch and BUST. After being inspired by her book to become a more conscious participant in my identity as a woman and a human being, I immediately went out and bought the newest additions of both. BUST is a fantastic mag, and I would never want to rag on something that promotes hip, savvy, feminist culture, but it is bitch that has truly captured my heart. I've invested in every issue since my first, which was the Lost and Found issue from Winter 2008. When bitch went through a financial crisis last semester, I pledged that as soon as I was no longer saving for my time in Estonia, I would put my money where my mouth is: in the recycled pages of bitch.
I found soon after coming to Estonia that, not only is bitch not distributed here, but I can't even get the magazine shipped. This I blame on my decision to come to a former Eastern Bloc country and not on bitch. Anywho, surprise of surprises when I find out that my new status as a bitch sustainer (although on the lowest rung of that ladder) got me the new issue of bitch at my mother's house! This was the package I got today, and it could not have come at a better time. Though I have been keeping up a constant stream through the twitter page of bitch, I'd been dying for something to really sink my teeth into.
Every issue challenges my thought and opens my mind, and the magazine has led me to find new authors, organizations, and ideas that have since become indispensable in my life. I highly encourage anyone looking for a shot of hard-hitting, quirky, feminist lit to pick up this season's issue of bitch. bitch endeavors to tackle topics both tame and controversial in the feminist conversation which can lead to some hot discussion (which is always fun to read in the first pages of each issue), and it is just this thought provoking character that has me hooked!

You can grab a copy of bitch at the borders on westgate, or if you'd like to support a local endeavor, just drop by MonkeyWrench Books to get your copy. Not in Texas for the summer? Check this nifty list for a bookseller near you.

Stay Shiny!
-feministish

2 comments:

Rachel said...

BookPeople carries it as well as BUST :) I do love me some Monkeywrench Books, though!

Awesome post. Bitchlove!

Emma said...

I believe Book Woman carries both Bitch and BUST as well. I went to their new store up north recently and it's tiny but fantastic.