A few months ago I had the privilege of interviewing the cofounder and editorial director of Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture magazine, Andi Zeisler, about her latest book.

In November, Seal Studies (an imprint of Seal Press) published Andi’s “101-style” textbook called Feminism and Pop Culture. It’s a lovely complement to their other feminists texts such as Women and Violence, A History of U.S. Feminisms, and Transgender History.

I spoke with Andi (full disclosure: I’ve written for Bitch in the past) for the American Prospect’s web site and I urge you to read the full interview.  She discusses Bitch’s recenting fundraising plea, a nasty response from Jezebel blogger Tracie/Slut Machine to our belove mag’s financial troubles, and most interesting, the need for a broad, all-encompassing feminism that covers everything from wonk-tastic politics to Gossip Girl.

Here’s just a little taste of our conversation:

Jessica: Some might say the subject of Pop Culture and Politics, a feminist analysis of media like Sassy magazine or shows like Sex & The City, is frivolous for students.
Andi: When it comes to feminism, there are a lot of internal arguments about what the worthiest debates are. There’s this idea that feminism should only have a couple of different issues or focuses. And there’s also often a fear that, when you’re talking to people who aren’t interested in feminism, you have to kind of snare them, and you have to snare them with an issue that won’t be perceived as frivolous.

Feminism has such bad PR — it has such loaded historical associations. As a result, many feminists are so self-conscious about how they present feminist issues. Certainly in the realm of women’s studies on the academic level, I think there’s a worry that there’s too much focus on representations of women in pop culture, and less sexy issues, like labor politics, get lost in “whether The Pussycat Dolls are empowering” or “whether Sarah Palin is a step forward or a step backward.” I think it’s frustrating! I certainly worry about contributing to that, but at the same time, Bitch’s mission has always been to think critically about media. We didn’t set out, like Ms. magazine, to cover global issues and the nuts and bolts of women’s representation in politics and policy-making.

There’s certainly room for all of these perspectives. It gets frustrating when people assume every feminist publication should be covering the same things. To me, that doesn’t make sense. I’d rather see them cover different things [because] that helps break down the idea that feminism is a monolith.

Andi’s so smart…she is who I want to be when I grow up!  Click here to read the whole interview and put Feminism and Pop Culture on your to-read list.

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