Trace's aforementioned picture was clearly satire (and to a slight degree, I'm guessing, a rather candid, daring self-critique). I guess you didn't get it, XX.



As far as the military goes, I will follow Obama's lead and say that if "we do not torture," then "we do not rape." Tolerating of institutionalized coercive sexual violence is wrong. Perhaps if it can be minimized in the military, it can be minimized in society at large - but that's a separate story.

I'll admit, the Thinking & Drinking doesn't show the Jezzies in the best light, but I don't really understand a need to bring it up, as others have noted. In the here and now, I think we all can learn something from our own and others' drunken antics - I've learned responsibility is a survival skill, not just a social grace.

Sadly, I wonder just what some folks think Jezebel is supposed to be. To the degree that anything can be presented simply, with objectivity, Jezebel is a blog that deals with issues primarily of concern to women, but to any given reader, it might mean much more.

While there are undoubtedly strong feminist themes and topics discussed on Jezebel, I have yet to see a manifesto or colophon that outlines the foundations texts of the Jezebel universe that serve as a style guide /bible for "How to Write a Feminist Blog."

What Jezebel has really "got right" is that it doesn't have to draw attention to it's Feminism; Its' there, it's pervasive, it's evolving, and its' readership is richer for it.

Hurting women? Hardly. I think there's an awful lot of diversity represented in the commenter / readership, and I think the writing itself is so popular mainly because of its' pertinence and sincerity to readers' lives. No issue is off the table, but sensationalism is clearly not the goal - it is facilitation of dialogue and opinion.

I appreciate this site's authors and its' commenters for being who they are and doing what they do. How could anyone expect anything more?

/my 2 cents.

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[www.feministe.us]

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I hope that Ms. Hirschman knows that this sort of rhetoric adds nothing to the conversation. And that it's never okay to call someone a bad feminist. Feminists come in all shapes, colors, have differing opinions and ideologies. I think this can be seen in an number of stories that were not mentioned in her article.

I just want to thank the Jezebel editors and commentors for expanding my horizons and my thinking on many, MANY issues. Between the stories and the debates between commentors, I have been exposed to ideas and viewpoints I would have otherwise not had access to. If Linda Hirschman does not realize that this is what Jezebel is about, than I can honestly say that it is her loss.

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It's a shame that Ms Hirschman hasn't spent any time really reading Jezebel, because she might not be so quick to write us off. Saying that this community is just about having guilt free sex and drinking away our sexual abuse is just so very short sighted, and it makes me sad.

Y'all are just awesome - and any visit to the comments during the week or the weekend OT's would prove that Jezebel has done something nearly impossible by creating a safe space where people can have lively and interesting discussions about everything, not just drunken sexcapades (but hey, those are excellent conversation topics, too). Anna and her crew have done one hell of a job keeping things fun and timely and thought-provoking - there's very rarely a post that I don't find educational- and I hope that article does nothing more than drive traffic here and get people to realize what a truly cool place this is.

Jezzies rock. That is all.

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Also, where's PILGRIM SOUL. This is totally a PS comment-worthy post.

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And this confirms that she is just jeal: "It's understandable that young women would prefer the glamorous-looking Jezebels (although compared to the snapshots the photos do seem a little air-brushed) to old-style feminism."

As if what Jezebel writers look like really matters here. We barely even see pics of the Jezebel writers, and I forget what half of them look like. It's not like they're parading their looks around all over the place. What bullshit.

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I'm sorry but saying you're not a woman because you're a lesbo is like saying you're not black because you're rich.

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Becoming a by-word for the definition of ''FAIL'' is not something you want to have to deal with if your work is online.Especially not if you're trying to contend with Jezebel.

What are you, new?

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A) I'm a middle-aged white woman, and I'm really tired of this site, and other feminist women on the internet (such as Linda Hirschman) being all up in my grill about who I am, who I am suspected of being, and what my politics are, based on my middle-aged whiteness. For real. (And yes, I have over-reacted to one line in one post, but it comes after months of experience, and honestly, cut it out).

B) The site has just launched. There is nothing "convenient" about their commenting being down -- in fact, I suspect that they are finding it very inconvenient, indeed.

C) When double X is fully functional, COMMENT WISELY ON SUCH STORIES! Talking amongst ourselves about how utterly lame an article is will not change minds. We are the choir, and we are preaching to it. Withholding page views isn't really a revolutionary tactic.

D) Yes, the story is lame, and on many different levels, one being that just like so many "the trouble with the internet" stories, it reads as if it the author actually has very little experience with the site she decided to cover. And also because of the very notion that being a feminist (or indeed a human being) can ever be a truly "coherent" experience -- we are all nothing but a bundle of walking contradictions, and we all need to learn to better respect each other, even if it occasionally comes at the expense of the broader community.

God. Like the world needs another couple of narrowly defined websites that duke it out on their own commenting pages. Have we learned nothing from the successful Deadspin-Jezebel cross-pollination?

/ellaesther and her rant, out.

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These are common themes (though, for Ms. Hirshman's purposes, framed using Jezebel) that annoy me from pearl-clutching (thank you Anna) old feminist windbags. I find no group more casually narrow-minded about young feminists than old feminists, and yes, that includes men.

The good-ol'-days-of-feminism mentality is ripped right from the good-ol'boy handbook, and the older I get the clearer I am on the fact that it is bullshit no matter who is dishing it out. What's the problem with young feminists? Jezebel? No. I'll say it: the problem with young feminists is old feminists. I run into this in my career every so often, though generally businesswomen are far more pragmatic.

Which leads me to another point of failure: women who spend a lot of time speaking and writing books on women in the workforce are not spending a lot of time in the workforce. My feeling is that I live, breathe, and work my feminism. Being told what the truth of my existence is as a young woman with a career turns me right off, I don't care who it comes from.

Getting marginalized by the women who claim to be my role models would be insulting if I were a woman that needed validation. Take it up with my parents, ladies - they never told me that when saying Fuck You, Establishment I should exempt women.

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