By In a narrow, crowded room in the Multicultural Center, Bitch magazine editors Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler spoke about their new book, “Bitchfest,” Tuesday afternoon. The new book is a collection of articles printed in Bitch over the last 10 years of publication.
Zeisler was one of the founders of the magazine and was the first to speak. She read the introduction to the book and began by telling how even though 10 years have passed, nothing has really changed in popular culture in the ways that women are seen and portrayed.
“We were also obsessed with how pop culture treats – and by ‘treats’ we mean ignores, sidelines and denigrates – feminism,” Zeisler said.
She then went on to explain how many people see women in a post-feminist society, where everything is fine and that women have stopped their demands on pop culture for equal and more realistic representations in popular media.
“The term [post-feminism] was (and still is) an insult to the legacy of feminism, an eye-rolling suggestion that we need to get over it and move on already,” Zeisler said. “But post-feminism can exist only in a post-sexist world, and we just aren’t there yet.”
Jervis then took the stage and spoke about how society uses fictional characters to represent the modern day woman in the feminist movement, like with characters from “Ally McBeal” to “Sex and the City.” Women need to question and critique popular culture and not accept the “role” models that the mass media pushes down our throats.
After their initial speeches, both women read passages from the book. Jervis began with an article written by both editors of the magazine: “Ten Things to Hate about “Jane,” an article that critiques the content of Jane magazine, which was initially started on the premise that it would provide women with different content and not make women feel bad about themselves, as many women’s magazines do. Printed in winter of 1999, the Bitch article lists the issues that Jervis and Zeisler have with the popular Jane magazine.
The first issue is that even though Jane states that it is OK to be who you are and to not be ashamed of your own body, the zine contradicts its self by plugging health and beauty products, publishing how-to’s like how to fix your “Jell-O thighs” and by promoting consumerism and tips on changing women’s appearance instead of encouraging and boosting women’s self-esteem and self-worth.
The second article, read by Zeisler, detailed one woman’s experience being a 19-year-old virgin, commenting that instead of having a society that is open to different options of whether or not to be sexually active, there isn’t very much freedom for a women to choose to not be sexually active. Being a virgin has become the new taboo.
The article described how capitalism and consumerism need people to believe that they should be hypersexual and always wanting sex because they are so reliant on sex to sell products.
The authors then opened up to a question and answer session, letting people from the audience voice some of their concerns with pop culture and the representation of women, ask the authors about how they started their magazine and what problems, especially ones of ethics and self-censorship, they encounter as editors.
“[As editors] it’s important to take our perspective out of it,” Ziesler said. She continued by adding that “people respond differently to different things” and that as editors they wanted to “welcome the debate in feminism.”
Bitchfest ended with a signing of the new book, which was available in the lobby, but sold-out quickly.
Bitchfest is available at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores for $16.
