Sadly, my two-week stint at Feministe has come to an end. It’s been really fun and informative to read your comments–thanks so much for your feedback. I’m gonna plug my own blog real quick and urge you to contribute your story to Girl-drive.com. I want to continue the conversation Emma and I started for as long as possible. Also, please check out the book–it comes out in late October!
And with that, I want to close by illustrating one of the many ways feminist blogs and their readers are truly influential and kicking ass. A few days ago, a factually inaccurate, blatantly slut-shaming sex-ed website was born: Sense & Sexuality, based almost entirely on the work of Miriam Grossman (of Unprotected fame). A number of feminist blogs condemned its decidedly unscientific tone (there’s a section on beer goggles) and its judgmental tactics to scare young women out of having sex. The comments on feminist blogs were indignant, proclaiming, “I’m gonna go give them a piece of my mind right now!” or simply “Um, what?” The site’s URL was tweeted dozens of times, mostly from liberal and feminist handles.
My week was insane, so I didn’t have a chance to check this site out (I shudder to even link to it, but here it is) until today. And damn. Feminists be representin’ in the blog’s comments section, fer real! They’re not angry comments–although between the posts condemning anal sex and insulting female PhD students, they have a complete right to be. But no, they’re just logical, smart, and articulate. They’re telling it like it is, and calling out the S&S bloggers on their bullshit. Sadly, as some posters discovered, the comments are highly moderated, but head-nodding comments on the site are virtually non-existent , far outnumbered by “WTF?” comments from, well, us. A few (very polite) examples:
S&S: New HPV vaccine’s side effects: good old-fashioned fear-mongering!
Commenter: “Where’s the post where you talk about the side effects of cervical cancer?”
S&S: “Let’s say for a second that global warming is actually real…”
Commenter: “For an ‘all-science-for-realz’ site, your global warming denialism is making that suspect.”
S&S: “Why are all of these conservative Christians having awesome sex? Because they’re in long-term committed relationships (sometimes known as “marriage” for our liberal readers out there). No wonder liberal feminists are so angry…”
Commenter: “Why do you assume that liberal feminism necessarily equates to promiscuity? It doesn’t – it simply means that you can make the choice without being condemned for your actions.”
And these are the only comments they’ve approved! If I were a young woman from a conservative town and I stumbled onto this site after getting false and harmful information about sex and STDs, reading these boo-ya comments might just make me think twice about visiting the site again.
I’m curious to chart the success of S&S, in the wake of abstinence-only funding being zeroed out and the millions of recent conversations about birth control. Most of all, I’m curious to see how far feminist blog readers can influence the relative success (or failure) of a bogus website like this. Let’s find out–comment on the blog and see what happens. And if the comment gets rejected via moderation, take out the curse words, soften the blow, and post again.