We're looking for anything that can be described as "feminist response to pop culture." Our definition of pop culture is broad, encompassing cultural attitudes and myths, phenomena of the popular imagination, and social trends as well as movies, TV, magazines, books, advertising, and the like. Interviews with feminist culture-makers are welcome, as are book and music reviews and nuanced analyses of particularly horrifying and/or inspiring examples of pop culture. Nonfiction essays only. We do not publish fiction or poetry. Ever. Seriously. Finished work and query letters are both welcome. If sending only a query, please include clips and/or writing samples. And hey, everyone likes a nice cover letter. We prefer e-mail submissions >>.
More details:
Features are 2,000 to 4,000 words of meaty critiques, essays, and articles on pop culture from a feminist perspective. We're looking for sharp-eyed perspectives on pop culture and the media, brimming with personal insight and wit. Features vary in format: interviews, reported pieces, and critical essays are welcome, as are roundups and graphically driven formats like timelines, charts, and comics. (Features from the recent past include interviews with Janeane Garofalo, Alison Bechdel, and Coco Fusco; a roundup of female visual artists and their takes on the domestic realm; an analysis of woman’s political humor; and an exploration of how guilty pleasures are marketed to women.) We are not looking for personal essays.
In addition to features, we’re in search of shorter pieces for the front of the magazine. Our front-of-book section features 1000-1500-word columns on film, television, language, activism, advertising, publishing, and more, with pieces taking the form of reviews, critical essays, Q&As, and activist profiles. Past columns have featured a look at how "liberal" became a bad word, an examination of cultural stereotypes about women and hoarding, and a look at the practice of "unschooling."
We also have a back page to fill, generally with a brief history of a pop-culture phenomenon, in our "Annals of..." column.
We're always on the lookout for Love It/Shove It items. Love/Shoves are short (under 500 words) but sharp-eyed and cogent analyses of the latest things that either pleased you or enraged you. We're looking for pieces that are timely, and, more important, go beyond the sentiment of "wow, this s*cks!" in search of deeper meaning. Love/Shoves are accepted on a rolling basis, and are often printed on our website as well as in the magazine, so send things along whenever the mood strikes.
Payment is $100 for features, $50 for front-of-book pieces and back-page pieces, and $10-$20 for Love/Shoves. Please send all materials to info@b-word.org, or attn: Submissions, 4930 NE 29th Ave., Portland, OR 97211. (Don’t forget your SASE when sending by mail!)
Red (#52, Fall 2011)
We’ve done color-themed issues in the past (2002’s Pink Issue, 2007’s Green Issue), but with this one we’re seeing red. It’s a color that’s always been rich with connotations and associations, especially for women, and we want to see what it inspires in you. In what ways is red associated with s3x and gendered bodies? How is red used to color the world around us, from advertising to political campaigning to art to finance to tradition?
Pitch Deadline: February 1st
Underground (#53, Winter 2011)
What kinds of cultural phenomena are labeled—or label themselves—“underground,” and why do they invite this description? The term seems to require a separation from more superficial movements, but does underground always mean deep? Does it mean hidden or secretive? Are there certain aspects of women's personal or cultural lives that need to be protected from mainstream exposure? And where does the division between underground and mainstream lie?
Pitch Deadline: May 1st
Frontier (#54, Spring 2012)
Cyberspace, outer space, down the street—what’s happening at the uncharted levels? The word “frontier” may bring to mind antiquated images of cowboys in the Wild West or scientists in the Arctic, but the concept goes much further and deeper: How is this new era of technology and media changing our world? How are we being shaped and affected at the cultural and individual levels? What social or political boundaries are being pushed? What isn’t being pushed—what’s going, perhaps, in reverse? Where does feminist thought and activism stand in this new landscape, and how is it both effecting the changes around us and affected by them?
Pitch deadline: August 1st
Fame/Fortune (#55, Summer 2012)
Once the rarefied arena of Hollywood stars, world leaders, and otherwise gifted individuals, fame is now a nebulous state of being that’s both increasingly tangible and increasingly meaningless. Likewise, fortune—both in the sense of luck and the omnipresence of conspicuous consumption—suffuses our collective cultural values more than ever. What are the cultural implications and gender dynamics of this new tangibility of fame? To what level has “internet famous” bled into just plain famous? Are we becoming more obsessed with the trappings of fame and wealth—and, if so, how is this changing the context of our identities, politics, and lived experience?
Pitch Deadline: November 1st
Elemental (#56, Fall 2011)
An element: It’s basic, it’s essential, it’s ineffable. In science, mythology, spirituality, and in our everyday lives, we think of elements as the fundamental parts that make up what we experience as a whole. We also use the term "elemental" to refer to natural forces like wind and rain. So what, if anything, is elemental to feminism? And how does our culture create a relationship between gender and the elemental?
Pitch Deadline: February 1st, 2012
Habit(at) (#57, Winter 2011)
We live in houses and homes, but we also live in cultural locations and exist in varying cultural and political moments. Where are we in the current convergence of our homes and our larger environments? What is to be made of the rise of cultural phenomena like DIY hog butchering and radical homesteading—and , of course, whatever the domestic tide of 2012 brings? How do gender and feminism play into our notions of valuing home, hearth, exploration, travel, and family? How do habits—both personal and cultural—inform how we understand them?
Pitch Deadline: May 1st, 2012
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