Virginia Pelley

The tragedy one week ago in Isla Vista, California, has sparked vehement debates about gun laws, mental illness treatment, and misogyny in America. They are all worthwhile – even crucial – discussions. But the reality is that although all three of these issues were threads woven ...read more

Some things haven’t changed for women since the 1960s. Two Sundays ago on Mad Men, we watched Peggy Olson feel like she had to smile gratefully when slimy Pete Campbell told her that Don should present the concept of her campaign to their client. Peggy would then chime in ...read more

Time and time again, when child-porn rings are exposed and arrests are made, people act shocked when it’s revealed that the perpetrators worked around children. How could such a well-respected priest/rabbi/cop/teacher/youth counselor/coach do such a thing? How could someone who ...read more

St. Vincent was the musical guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live last weekend, hosted by Andy Samberg. A talented and attractive young woman in a black dress, the singer and songwriter of St. Vincent, Annie Clark, both played guitar and sang very well. Doesn’t ...read more

Summer’s in the air, and you might be thinking that the vacation your kids are getting from the taunting jerks they go to school with might be making life too easy for them. Luckily, Modeling Camp, available in eight cities nationwide, is an expensive, soul-crushing solution. ...read more

Many of us found it heartwarming when people rallied behind Michael Sam – via Twitter, Facebook and a University of Missouri home game, when students formed a “human wall” between the stadium and Westboro Baptist Church idiots protesting nearby -- when he publicly came out in ...read more

Sarah Palin missed the memo, evidently, that speculating about how grandmahood might affect likely presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is sexist. In an interview with Mario Lopez for Extra – and Lopez should be lambasted for asking the insulting ...read more

If you hate global biotech corporate beast Monsanto -- and as well you should -- nonprofit Food Democracy Now! has a clever way for you to fight back against the corporation. Targeting three big investment firms -- Fidelity, Vanguard and State Street – Food Democracy points ...read more

A warm breeze tickles your neck and condensation from your decadent tropical cocktail drips onto your lap as you watch a breathtaking sunset in Oahu. It’s an almost-perfect moment, a moment that could only be elevated to perfection by bragging about it on Facebook. But you ...read more

If you’re a regular Banter reader, you might have noticed our story, “That Which Will Not Go Away,” aka “10 OkCupid Profile 'Don’ts' to Heed If You Actually Want to Get Laid,” in our trending stories sidebar for lo several months now. But you’re probably unaware that the ...read more

**obligatory spoiler alert ** Here’s the latest GOT dispatch from the vomity brain of Salon: Not only was the scene in which Jaime Lannister raped his sister, Cersei, “glamourized,” as they reported earlier this week, but some viewers are pretending that it wasn’t rape at all, ...read more

They kind of look like something out of one of those Japanese invention books,  but despite blogger snickering and criticism that the cyborg glasses developed by a professor at the University of Tsukuba are creepy as all hell, they could become frighteningly useful in the ...read more

Kevin Edson, who refers to himself as Kayvon, made the news Tuesday. Barefoot, wearing makeup and a black veil and armed with a backpack containing a rice cooker filled with confetti, the 25-year-old self-described performance artist and fashion designer from Wakefield, Mass., ...read more

Dove parent company Unilever has made yet another condescending video based on the idea that grown women are as gullible and as obsessed with their looks as 7th graders (and a lot of 7th grade girls would be as insulted by this video as I am). In interviews with a ...read more

Normally, I’m way on board with ThinkProgress, but I think an article they ran yesterday about Brad Pitt’s production company reportedly obtaining the rights to a Rolling Stone story about the Steubenville rape/Anonymous case was a little premature in its criticism. The ...read more

If you’ve seen the James Franco/Seth Rogan and Muppets parodies, you probably know that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will grace Vogue magazine’s April cover, she in a bridal-y strapless, he with his arms lovingly encircling/strategically placed over her hips. You might not ...read more

I've been profoundly irritated for years by the insistence of third-wave feminists that porn is “empowering” to women. The porn industry is built on the backs of girls fresh out of high school, many with abuse histories and self-esteem issues. Many who lack the money and the ...read more

Lady Gaga's Thursday night SXSW performance at Stubb's BBQ in Austin, reportedly a benefit show for her beleagueredcharity 'Born This Way Foundation', was vomit-inducing for more reasons than one might expect. Not only was the show sponsored by Doritos – a snack chip with a ...read more

It's a hard-knock life for hate-spewing racists. Quvenzhané Wallis, the beautiful young actress nominated for an Oscar for her work in Beasts of the Southern Wild, stars as Annie in a remake produced by James Lassiter, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, Shawn "Jay Z" Carter, ...read more

Laughing at Burning Man, the annual festival/haven for weirdos and weirdo wannabes in the Nevada desert is a pastime I have long enjoyed. I lived in San Francisco for many years; I don't know about other cities, but SF is staunchly divided between those who live for Burning Man ...read more

“Trigger warnings,” once a notation on feminist blogs and eating-disorder or sexual-abuse discussion boards, are seeping into online journalism and, as Jenny Jarvie writes in an article for New Republic, onto college campuses. “Such warnings, which are most commonly applied to ...read more

I will admit that it's nice to see celebrities at awards shows asked questions about how they're helping to make the world a better place rather than who they're wearing (which, I don't know about you, but that question always brings Silence of the Lambs to my mind). But I think ...read more

I'll spare you the “There's an app for that” joke and get to the point: BroApp for the Android ($2) was designed for men who fancy themselves too busy to text their girlfriends. Called “your clever relationship wingman” by its developers (and a way to "outsource our humanity" ...read more

The Jesus genre of film is nothing new, but two new titles hopefully are not carving out a new niche in Christian movies: the persecution propaganda flick. Daniel Lusko's big-budget, faith-based Persecuted stars Dexter's James Remar as a popular, principled evangelist whose ...read more