Elevate Difference

Reviews by Jen Klee

Jen Klee

Jen Klee currently lives in New York city with her cantankerous cat and her similarly tempered husband. She has had her work published in such publications as Hot Indie News, Beyond Race magazine, and Bust magazine. Jen's interested in veganism, feminism, and punk rock music and is prone to rambling incessantly about these and other topics. Jen's currently on a brief disability hiatus but still has her ramblings and pictures of cats posted regularly on supersoygrrrl.tumblr.com.

Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music

Having been born in the late '80s, I always felt I missed out on everything cool in music. I wasn’t there to see the birth of punk. I wasn’t there for New Wave. I was too young for grunge, and I was too far away from Olympia, WA for riot grrrl. In the 1990s, I bought Sublime’s self -titled album along with Alice Cooper’s School's Out, and that was the extent of my musical awareness.

Women Who Kill

Let me first just throw the creepiness right out there and admit I am a big fan of all media coverage related to serial killers. I love the horrible shows like Cold Case Files, and I love the even crappier rushed books written about every case.

From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News

I consider myself a bit of a news junkie so a title involving both Walter Cronkite and Stephen Colbert immediately caught my attention. While Cronkite was first able to break heavy concepts down for the masses and Colbert was later on able to do the same using humor, From Cronkite to Colbert is not able to do either.

In Praise of Indecency: The Leading Investigative Satirist Sounds of Hypocrisy, Censorship and Free Expression

This is the first of two books Paul Krassner put out this year and, in my opinion, the better one.

Who's to Say What's Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today

I've long been a fan of Paul Krassner's more illustrious friends like Lenny Bruce and Abbie Hoffman, but until now I'd never gotten around to reading Krassner's own work. Who's to Say What's Obscene? appears to be a collection of random essays. I say "appears to be" because for most of the book, I had no idea what was going on. The stories were interesting, but would just go from one to the next with seemingly no connection.

Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style

I have always been interested in the fashion of subcultures. I've been stenciling my clothes, painting stuff on them, adding studs and strategic rips, sewing random things together and pillaging thrift stores since I was a freshman in high school—which is why designer Keanan Duffty's book Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style originally caught my eye.

High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants

Style writer Simon Doonan’s foreword starts out High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Pageants. Doonan feels that beauty pageants geared for children are no more exploitative or harmful than cheerleading or little league. He writes that children learn endurance, losing gracefully, and social skills. It also gives them exercise and breaks from the tedium of childhood.

The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism

The Green Zone takes two very big issues of the moment—global warming and the wars in the Middle East—and seeks to illustrate the correlations between the two.

Briarpatch Magazine: The Gender & Sexuality Issue (March/April 2009)

At first glance, Canada's Briarpatch Magazine reminded me of American feminist magazine Bitch; the content is similar, the overall message is similar, and, hell, even the font in the logo seems similar. What I love about Bitch is that although it’s an American magazine, it covers issues from all over the world, so I can keep up on feminist issues all over just by checking in one place.

Will Work for Drugs

I have always wanted to like Lydia Lunch. I’ve always admired her assertiveness and her dark attitude, and at times, even her severely sarcastic wit.

Permaculture Magazine (No. 60 Summer 2009)

Permaculture Magazine seemed like an interesting concept that you don’t hear about in too much detail. I hate the ‘Go Green!’ trend and was interested in learning actual tips on sustainable living. On this front, the magazine was definitely able to deliver. In this issue, I learned (theoretically) how to build an outdoor wood fire oven, how to care for chickens, tips for inexpensive and green day trips out with the family, and DIY recipes for beauty products, among other things.

Gender and Class in the Egyptian Women’s Movement, 1925-1939: Changing Perspectives

Gender and Class reads like the last reference book in a lengthy series about the Egyptian women’s movement. I came to this review ready to learn something about a time in history that most people probably know very little about. I came away learning only a few ‘vocab’ words from the glossary. Cathlyn Mariscotti’s book reads more like a thesis essay reflecting on a scholarly course the audience has taken rather than a text written for the general reader.
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