ugh
Been watching in dismay as Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister get pummeled in the press and around the intarwebs for speech that was, in retrospect, certainly inadvisable, but definitely not (to my mind) hateful. What's worst is reading some of the responses from those that we euphemistically call 'wingnuts'; rape threats, death threats, belabored 'jokes' about how they should go and wipe John Edwards' cum off like Monika Lewinsky did after Bill Clinton was done with her. People do think these things, and while I'm certain that the anonymity of the web encourages people to post things they otherwise wouldn't, people do post these things on public forums.
It's a lot of hatred, and all of it very gendered, very 'hateful lesbian cow, you just need to be properly f***ed by a real man' and 'I'd like to f*** you in that dirty mouth' and the like. So, uh, let's talk about why feminism is still necessary. Why is it that only female bloggers are subject to this kind of disgusting, degrading ad-hominem attack? Because when male bloggers / pundits are attacked online, their attackers usually don't speculate on their sexual desirability, let alone threaten to hunt them down, rape them and kill them. You see it on both sides of the spectrum, too- a lot of the criticism of Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter will, at some point, devolve into 'I wouldn't do her with a ten-foot pole'. Why?
Because sexual slights are still the method of choice if you want to shut a woman up, that's why. Because 'slut' or 'cumbag' is still the vilest thing you can call a woman. See a woman, in public, saying something you don't like? Just question her sexual virtue- that'll teach the b**** not to speak out about her beliefs.
It's a lot of hatred, and all of it very gendered, very 'hateful lesbian cow, you just need to be properly f***ed by a real man' and 'I'd like to f*** you in that dirty mouth' and the like. So, uh, let's talk about why feminism is still necessary. Why is it that only female bloggers are subject to this kind of disgusting, degrading ad-hominem attack? Because when male bloggers / pundits are attacked online, their attackers usually don't speculate on their sexual desirability, let alone threaten to hunt them down, rape them and kill them. You see it on both sides of the spectrum, too- a lot of the criticism of Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter will, at some point, devolve into 'I wouldn't do her with a ten-foot pole'. Why?
Because sexual slights are still the method of choice if you want to shut a woman up, that's why. Because 'slut' or 'cumbag' is still the vilest thing you can call a woman. See a woman, in public, saying something you don't like? Just question her sexual virtue- that'll teach the b**** not to speak out about her beliefs.