You would never listen to the Screaming Females if you required calm — if you wanted to be reassured that the world is stable and the ground is level. But their fifth album, Ugly, manages to blend their signature eeriness with catchy, genre-spanning melodies to evoke something both deeply unnerving and intensely satisfying.  In the opener, “It All Means Nothing,” frontwoman Marissa Paternoster immediately grabs your ... Read More

    I visited Giverny a few years ago, and "punk rock" was not the first, or second, or fiftieth thing that came to my mind while I was there. Clearly I'm just not inspired enough. When E.V. Day, feminist installation artist, sculptor, and photographer, was awarded the Munn Artists Residency by the Versailles Foundation to live on Monet's estate in Giverny in 2010, she proceeded to invite performance artist Kembra Pfahler there to ... Read More

  I have a real soft spot in my heart for female comedians (Kristen Wiig supposedly wants to adopt and I want her to know, on the very off-chance that she's reading this, that I'm available). But that soft spot gets Charmin Ultra best-wipe-your-butt's-ever-had-soft when I find female comedians who manage to make feminist and human rights issues funny. Which means Katie Goodman is currently lounging in my heart, wrapped up in a Snuggie ... Read More

  The American Girl doll is a strange cultural icon of ours. They simultaneously encourage self-love and individuality -- as well as the getting-one-because-everyone-has-one mindset of the herd. They're designed to look like a "real" 9-year-old girl, and aren't disproportionate molds of an unreachable beauty ideal like Barbie -- but they also cost hundreds of dollars more with all of their accessories, making them a conspicuous marker ... Read More

Madge is back with another video, and aside from the obvious "damn she looks GOOD!" comment I could make, I'll point out that the video for "Girl Gone Wild" is definitely a step up from the fun-but-kinda-weird "Give Me All Your Luvin'." For me, the oddness of the latter video could be attributed to the grating misspelling of "loving," but also because focuses on a topic that's not dear to my heart--football. (I understand it was a tie-in ... Read More