Girls Like Giants Presents: Our 2011 Preferences (Chelsea B.)

Other than my adored Lula, I don’t have any consistent favorite fashion magazines. However, based on a recent impulse purchase, I think I’ve decided to make the switch for my mainstream fashion subscription from Elle to Marie Claire for 2012. Though I love Elle‘s Joe Zee and annual television themed issue, the articles in Marie Claire were engaging and not written on an eighth-grade level. I’m not sure yet whether Marie Claire will match Elle in surprising and pleasurable editorials, but with the rapid turn-around of bloggers scanning and posting all monthly editorials online, I’m not too worried about missing out. Plus, none of the mainstream editorials are as beautiful as Lula anyway.

Sorry about this detour ladies, but getting knocked up has meant that I’ve been all over some pregnancy and birth books. Whether you’re pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, or have a friend who’s pregnant that you don’t want to buy baby shampoo for, might I recommend some cute board books for the wee one and this fabulous book for mom: Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother by Beth Ann Fennelly. Be warned that some people might be turned off by how the book celebrates the mysticism and magic of pregnancy, but in face of the increasingly medicalized nature of pregnancy and birth literature and rhetoric everywhere else, I found it a welcome and pleasurable read. Fennelly is a poet, and her language, even in casual letters, is so lovely.

My final paper-reading recommendation is a young adult trilogy (that you can buy for pennies on Amazon or at a used bookstore): The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray. I’m halfway through the second book, and it’s so fun. The brief Amazon description of the first book is pretty apt: “A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy–jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.” They’re big, satisfying books with semi-scandalous covers, and each is easily consumable within a couple of days’ time. Perhaps most importantly, Gemma wants to be feminist (even if she doesn’t have the language) and stumbles through negotiating how with a total lack of grace and composure that I recognize and empathize with.

Articles and Blog Posts:

‘No Light, No Light’: White supremacy all dressed up in a pop video is still White Supremacy on Racialicious

‘Housewives,’ Rebranded on the New York Times

Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the (Nearly Impossible to Win) Game: Analysis of Minority Employment by Kristen Warner on FlowTV

The Perks of Being a Killjoy on Rookie Mag

I Saw the Sign, but Did We Really Need A Sign?: SlutWalk and Racism on The Crunk Feminist Collective

Why I’m Fat Positive on You’re Welcome.

Beauty Privilege on Oh, You’re a FEMINIST?

Love ‘The Help,’ But Please Stop Asking Me to Do the Same by Rebecca Wanzo on the Huffington Post

YouTube Videos:

Shit Girls Say and Twitter (If I eliminated all these lines from my conversations…I’d be pretty quiet.)

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love Discussing Race by Jay Smooth