• Less than 50% of female residents of Ontario who had abnormal pap smears received follow-up care, a new study says. Unsurprisingly, many of the untreated women were from lower-income communities. • AdAge breaks down what we can learn from online dating. Among the bullet-point nuggets of wisdom: "the vast majority of people out there are hurting, confused, bitter, uncertain, cynical and, yes, crazy" and "We are all biologically programmed to be 'about the looks.' Apple has built a small empire based on its remarkable aesthetic." • Ever wondered what happens when you sneeze? This article will answer that question, and several others, like why does a sneeze sometimes feel so fucking good? • Margaret Atwood on the environmentalist message of her new novel, Year of the Flood: ‘‘We tend to pay attention to immediate needs and desires, but we are not so good at looking down the road, and it is really hard for us to look a hundred years down the road.'' Read the rest of the (awesome) interview here. •  A 14-year-old mixed race girl from the UK was driven to attempt suicide by the taunts of her racist 15-year-old classmate. Last month, the boy was convicted of racially aggravated harassment, but he was only sentenced to a six month supervision order and a fine. The victim said of the ruling: "That's pants." •  One Texas sheriff's deputy has been fired and four other deputies have been disciplined for asking a scantily-clad waitress named Bambi to pose on the back of their police cruiser holding a AR-15 rifle. • Controversy is brewing over a book on Frida Kahlo coming out this fall that the publishers say contains "an astonishing lost archive of one of the 20th century's most revered artists … full of ardent desires, seething fury, and outrageous humour." Unfortunately, Kahlo scholars say the items are fake and are pushing Mexican art institutions to step in and "put a stop to this type of fraud." • Director Kathryn Bigelow says she filmed The Hurt Locker, her critically-acclaimed film about the Iraq War, in Jordan because, "It's a movie about the Middle East and, call me crazy, I wanted to shoot it in the Middle East. I don't think Arizona would have been quite right... The nature of this film was so reportorial – if you don't immerse yourself, how are you going to tell the story responsibly?" • A federal judge ruled today in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota challenging informed consent laws that South Dakota abortion doctors must tell pregnant women the procedure terminates the life of a human being. However, she ruled that pregnant women don't have to be told abortion increases the likelihood of suicide or that they have an existing relationship with the fetus. • A British man who had a cornea transplant says he must have received the "cornea of a woman". His wife used to have to pester him to do housework but he says, "Because of my new eyesight I now notice every speck of dust and dirt and immediately want to clean it up... There is a reason why men don't clean normally and I think it's because we just don't see the dirt. But since the transplant I now see it wherever I go."

The thing is, this isn't the first time the mag has had its hand out for "donations." For a publication that is so concerned about the way women act and are portrayed in the media, I'm afraid its publishers are reinforcing the negative stereotype that women are shit when it comes to business.

Granted, I doubt that Bitch's "noncommercial publishing policy" deters larger companies from advertising, anyway. With a circ of only 47,000, Banana Republic and Absolut probably aren't banging down its ad sales team's door for placement. But its ad policy (its website is an "ad-free blog") is perhaps an indication of why such stringent idealism isn't exactly realistic.

But here's the question, if Bitch is only asking for enough money to print one issue, what happens after that? What's the long-term goal here? In the FAQ on the magazine's website, editors state that "we’re in the process of evolving into a multimedia organization. Right now our sights are set on building a strong online presence, but in the not-so-distant future, we’re hoping to get into book publishing, audio and video production, and more." I don't see how this is possible.

Like I said, I worked at the same kind of publication — granted with a much higher circulation — with an incredibly small staff (4-6 women at a time), in a city (New York) with tons more overhead, and managed subscriptions for a time, so I'm fairly familiar with these kinds of budgets. And I know this sounds kind of assy, but maybe it isn't about doing business poorly at all. Maybe the reason why Bitch isn't succeeding is because, although it's trudged along for 12 years, it just isn't successful. Has anyone stopped to think that it's the content, and not the mean, evil corporate world that's costing them money? A lot of women don't really subscribe to the stilted rhetoric of first-year women's studies. And it would seem that a lot of women don't really subscribe to Bitch either.

Bitch Magazine Needs Your Help! [Feministing]