No time to do a real post about this right now, but be sure to check out this chat at the WaPo with Charlotte Allen in which she defends her “bitchez is dumb” op-ed piece.
A taste:
Knoxville, Tenn.: So, um, after skimming your previous responses, apparently you were somewhat serious in the overall point you were making about women’s dumbness. Then my question is this — how can you think this would be funny, when you’re basically regurgitating all the old arguments for women’s inferiority, with very little humorous spin at all? If someone were to write a piece like this about Afridan Americans, do you think they should consider it funny? Even something like this about men — arguably the least repressed group of human beings throughout history — would be in poor taste at best. So what made you think people would take the disparagement of women’s intelligence lightly?
Charlotte Allen: People are always writing pieces just like mine about men. It’s called feminist humor. As for African-Americans, for heaven’s sake! Women aren’t a historically oppressed minority; they’re half the population or more! What–are we women always supposed to portray ourselves as victims of patriarchy? That’s absurd in 2008 when we have every conceivable opportunity.