Comments on: The End of the Who What Now?

By: Is Feminist Punditry Really Possible? (Or Positive?) - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Is Feminist Punditry Really Possible? (Or Positive?) - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:41:50 +0000

[...] abbyjean has a point – I don’t think Courtney is in bad faith by any means, but as I’ve said before, I do think she has a habit of “sidestepping a discussion about continued [...]

By: annimal

annimal — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:51:14 +0000

Meh. Articles that pit groups of women against each other are a perpetual media staple (e.g. Mommy wars, etc), and it’s sad to see feminists of both wave stooping to this level.
I’m 40, so I guess that makes me a Generation 2.5 feminist, or a Generation X feminist. But I just see myself as a feminist. We have a long way to go, and each and every one of us plays a role in it. Granted, the methods may change, but there is nothing to be gained by discrediting or ignoring one group or another.

By: AnnoyingFemaleLeadVoiceover

AnnoyingFemaleLeadVoiceover — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:53:10 +0000

“Young feminists should count ourselves lucky that we don’t have one face representing our generation — which would mean one race, one socioeconomic class, one ideological bent. Nothing could be less representative, actually.” What Martin doesn’t get at is the lack of diversity among these many voices online (on more mainstream sites anyway). Not everyone can jump behind a laptop and caterwaul, but what every does is interact offline. My own notion of feminism movementS has always been larger feminist agendas carried out in the everyday (the personal is political and all that jazz) but never in isolation or (self) segregation.

“In that sense it bugs me mostly because it uses this “coat of many feminisms” rhetoric as a way of sidestepping a discussion about continued racism/classism/heterosexism in feminists answering to the dominant paradigmatic description (i.e. young, white, upper/middle-class). It’s an easy way to get away from the difficult question of whether one is really fighting for women when one considers oneself responsible only to a particular segment of them.”

THIS!!! (The three exclamation points mean that I really agree with you PS.)

By: Spark

Spark — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:28:00 +0000

I guess what I was trying to say is, my response to the essay is, “Yeah, and?” I don’t think there’s much of a point to it beside the ZOMG controversy! headline, which who knows, maybe she didn’t even come up with.

I do think it’s weird how she describes these “2nd wavers” dying their hair funky shades of red and going out to lunch with their friends (now that their husbands have hobbies)… it’s patronizing. It seems like Feministing bloggers in particular have major hang-ups about 2nd wave v. 3rd wave.

By: Spark

Spark — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:15:48 +0000

Her essay is part semantics, part imaginary/ overstated “intergenerational divide.” I doubt there ever was unified women’s movement (Ariel Levy’s awesome New Yorker piece on lesbian separatists provided another few fine examples.) Maybe now we’re just better at expressing our different perspectives, and consciousness-raising has gone online. If I was Courtney’s typical, 70s era feminist who had occupied Ladies Home Journal, I’m sure I’d have a lot of nostalgia for those times. And as a “young” feminist, I love hearing those stories, even though it doesn’t seem like a reasonable course of action for today’s world.

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:26:42 +0000

Yeah, that is definitely part of it. Also, I think I don’t like the idea of someone making money for being an activist, feminist, whatever. I’d prefer to think of Courtney (and other “professional feminists”) as being paid for their writing, or their event planning skills, or whatever. But when your title implies that your marketable skill is, basically, supporting a cause? That seems so…ridiculous.

Or it could just be that I have leftover small-minded dreck in my brain from my conservative upbringing and business school education. (This happens sometimes; I’m constantly working on cleaning it out. In fact, I’m practically a professional janitor…of my brain.)

By: Pilgrim Soul

Pilgrim Soul — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:13:14 +0000

It is a bit of an obnoxious phrase if only for the implication that others are mere amateurs.

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:08:59 +0000

I have to say, I’m kind of amazed (and inexplicably perturbed) by the fact that anyone makes a living as a “professional feminist.”

I don’t know why this bothers me. I will ponder…

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:00:30 +0000

@Pilgrim Soul: Ugh, really? That is unfortunate. But hey, you/we are calling her out! We are harpies, hear us screech.

By: Pilgrim Soul

Pilgrim Soul — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:35:34 +0000

Class-based critiques of her work is kinda... far more classy than what happened. Here is a post of hers that made some waves recently. Here is the main critique, although it reverberated around everywhere in the feminist blogosphere. Here is Courtney's (IMHO) less than ideal response.