3 posts tagged “jezebel”
Currently, I'm sitting smugly in my office and pumping my fist in the air because FINALLY it would appear that the world and the rest of the *feminist* blogosphere are finally waking up to the fact that Jezebel is run by a bunch of fucking morons.
I've disliked them for a long time for various reasons:
They repeatedly stole content I wrote on Dollymix and NEVER linked back to me. They ignored the friendly emails I'd sent them. They glorify drug use. They exude this overly snarky, exclusive Gawker-ish attitude and stick their nose up at smaller blogs.
Yet for some reason tons of women like them, and even media outlets like Fox News act as if they are the first group of women to ever blog about women's issues. My god, those Jezebels are different! They're apparently anti-"body snarking" (like hell they are) and delete mean comments! (Or, comments that criticize them.)
I've always had a problem with them, I've always stood by the fact that
they're not as revolutionary as everyone would like you to think they
are. I've always felt as if they don't actually give a shit about
women's issues, and LO AND BEHOLD IT WOULD SEEM THAT I AM RIGHT.
The blogosphere is on fire with comments and complaints and anger from Jezebel readers and
other feminist bloggers...and, you know, women who don't believe rape
is a joke, and don't give interviews on serious issues drunk off their
ass. (And say things like if you get raped then you just "live through
it" or "I guess I regret being date raped".)
Tracie Egan and Moe Tkcaik went on Lizzie Winstead's show Thinking And Drinking to discuss "sexuality, feminism, freedom, power and responsibility". According to Lizzie, both women were both given information about the nature of the show and what they would be talking about, and Lizzie explained that:
"Tracie assured us she would be cool with anything we talked about in the feminist, political arena, that she was an expert on China, and that they had been talking a lot about rape lately."
Sounds great, right?
Watch the clips above (if you can stomach it) and I'll give you £20 if your head doesn't explode.
A great moment for me was when Tracie explained that women shouldn't just get abortions instead of using birth control because it's "too much of a pain". I also enjoyed when Moe explained that she didn't turn in the guy who date raped her and "go through fucking shit" because it was "a load of trouble" and because she "had better things to do, like drinking more".
Tracie "Slut Machine" Egan (who I have talked massive shit about before, then felt bad, and apologized to her in an email and a column which she never responded to and now greatly regret ever doing so) said that she "hates talking about rape" and that she knows it happens to "smart girls" but that, personally, she's never been "put in that situation" and she's had "lots and lots and lots of sex". (Also, she "doesn't hang out with frat guys".)
She thinks this is down to like, you know, like maybe "education" and because she's just "smart about it". Then, Tracie retracts these statements and defends herself by saying that
"i really, really, really didn't want to talk about rape, and i said so on stage. i also admitted that i can't relate to the whole issue because i've never been raped, and couldn't begin to understand what that's like... i was trying to keep my mouth shut during that whole discussion. (at one point, i even put my head in my hands.)"
Hmmmm....so, who is it that needs some education on rape again? It is
ye old Slut Machine who says stupid, horrendous shit about rape because
she "can't relate to it" - or is it the women who have been raped?
WHAT. THE FUCKKKKKK!?!?!?!?!?!
Also, if you were wondering who the rapists of our generation are like, Moe and Tracie, like, totally know and shit:
Tracie: "I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very assertive men there"
Moe: "The thing about the rapists of our generation, is that they all use drugs, they all have some sort of drug they use on you, so it's good to feel, and I don't know if this has happed to me or if I just drink too much...
Moe: "It's really hard to prosecute them (rapists), so you should try to avoid them at all costs."
Tracie: "I once paid someone to rape me once."
Tracie: "Well, I didn't pay for it, I had a magazine pay for it
Tracie: "I moved here when I was 18 and you think you would encounter more rapists in a big city like this, but, I don't know, I just haven't."
Personally, if it were up to me, and they were my writers, I would have
them fucking fired. But, I suppose Nick Denton is too high and mighty
to do that. (Wonder how long it will take for his Google Alert to pick
up on what I said and for how long it will take for him to leave me
another comment about how Gawker is so IRONIC and FUNNY and how they
were JUST KIDDING AND BEING IRONICAL.)
They're the two most popular editors of a WOMEN'S ISSUES blog that has loads of traffic and that tons of women (blindly...maybe stupidly) trust, and here they are, wasted, and talking flippantly about date rape and how rape is basically a woman's fault.
Fuck you, Jezebel and an even bigger fuck you to Gawker Media.
I'm not saying that they should only employ people who report rape or who are "perfect feminists", but Jesus-Fucking-Christ. Wake the fuck up and smell the responsibility you have as a role model for women. (And YES, you are a role model whether you wanted to be or not.)
A fucking million points to Lizzie Winstead for screaming at them about how their entire blog is based off of EMULATION. On The Huffington Post and Shoot The Messenger, Lizzie Winstead expressed her disgust with Moe and Tracie by saying:
I don’t know if they came to the show drunk, or just ended up drunk by the time they hit the stage, but what I do know is that the discussion that ensued was deeply disturbing to me for a few reasons:
Because they had no regard for the people who came that night and paid money to hear them speak.
They do not understand the influence they have over the women who read them, nor do they accept any responsibility as role models for young women who are coming of age searching for lifestyles to emulate.
Words and actions matter, and those of us who are given a forum to share opinion should always be mindful of that, and those of us who are trying to be watchdogs for the truth, should always call out harmful inaccuracies when we see them. I feel a responsibility to hold these young women accountable for the statements they make as they seem sure to keep repeating them.
As a perfect example of the power these two bloggers have, when one college student expressed her criticism and disappointment with the Jezebels, Tracie and Moe left a comment on her blog defending themselves, she backpedaled and made excuses for the pair. Apparently poor Tracie just doesn't like talking about rape! It's not her fault!
To be fair, as she pointed out in the comments of this post, Tracie was very skittish about discussing the topic of rape because she fully admitted she knows nothing about it. The whole discussion was just very awkward.
And also, it's not their fault they were drunk and saying stupid things! They thought it was a comedy show! Like ,why the hell were they made to talk about all that serious stuff!?
...This show was supposed to be a COMEDY show, which explains why all the intensity took me by surprise, and also kind of explains why Moe and Tracie weren't necessarily prepared. I don't think any of us were ready for the maelstrom of seriousness hurled at the panel/audience.
I don't care what the fuck kind of show you're on, you DO NOT imply
that women who have been raped just weren't being SMART ENOUGH or say
that if you're raped, you just "live through it".
These women are SO MISINFORMED. And here they are, in the position to reach out to thousands and millions of women online who are starved for something real, for something honest and funny and different....
And they've obviously just shit all over it and shown their true colors.
HOWEVER.
Today, The Observer ran an article listing the apparent 50 most powerful blogs in the world, and it's the biggest load of crap ever to be written. Sorry, but it is.
For example, while I love The Huffington Post...it's not the the most powerful blog IN THE WORLD.
Some (most) of these blogs I have never even heard of, and the fact of the matter is, I'm a professional blogger, so I sort of spend a lot of time reading other blogs.
And seriously, as much as we all love Lolcats, would you really consider Icanhascheezburger the 8th most powerful blog IN THE WORLD??!
A lot of the usual suspects are on this list, such as Dooce, Boing Boing, Gawker and Perez Hilton (which I'm pretty sure, Observer, is two words...) but I wonder why Engadget is all the way at 16 after TMZ, when it's consistently number 1 on Technorati.
There are a couple other blogs that while I'm glad these folks have been added to the list, I fail to see how they're one of the most powerful blogs in the world. I'll just leave it at that, through fear of offending anyone.
However, I think the blog on this list that angers me the most rests at number 22...
Mother fucking Jezebel.
Firstly, how a blog that hasn't even been live for a year is the 22nd most powerful blog in the universe is beyond me.
Secondly, are you fucking joking?
I understand that Jezzie is a huge cash/hype cow for Gawker as they're the most popular mainstream blog out there that claims to be feminist and acts as though they're the first female bloggers ever to be paid to call bullshit on The Daily Mail or notice that female celebs are OMG AIRBRUSHED on the covers of fashion mags.
I understand that a lot of women love this blog and think it's the best thing since Lip Venom, but for realzies, I call bullshit.
BULLSHIT.
I know I'm probably supposed to keep my mouth shut through fear of committing professional suicide, but seeing as for the last year that they've been existence they've not once linked back to that blog I run, despite covering story after story after story that I, and a couple other feminist blogs, have covered before they did and act like it's a completely original piece, or only link back to people like The NY Times.
I'm not asking for much. All I'm asking is why they think they're above
common blogging courtesy rituals and why they can't be bothered to do
the polite and respectable thing and pull their well-manicured finger
out of their coke encrusted nose for two seconds and LINK THE FUCK BACK TO US.
I get that most of this probably has to do with the fact that earlier
last year I posted something calling bullshit on Gawker God N*** D*****
for saying on his personal blog that "women must have finally
discovered blogs" and that's why Jezebel was so popular.
All I said that I sincerely hope he was joking, or something to that affect, and the bastard must have Google Alerts set up on his name, as less than an hour later he fucking leaves me some stupid as comment letting me know that, um, HELLLO LITTLE GIRL, here at Gawker we're IRONIC and so me saying that was, like, IRONIC and stuff and GOD why don't you get a SENSE OF HUMOUR and wake up to how fucking IRONIC we are all the time.
Anyway.
Aside from my personal bitterness towards them, chew on this:
They have a regular feature called Pot Psychology where regular Jezebel contributor Slut Machine gets stoned with one of her friends,(probably some other Gawker dude that I don't know or give a shit about) and then video tapes her and her buddy answering Jezebel reader's questions whenever they can manage to stop laughing at how wildly hilarious they are for video taping themselves - STONED.
Look, if this were actually funny, I'd be down with it. But seriously? The entire time its' like you can tell that they can't even believe that they're, like, actually getting paid to do shit like that.
But anyway, I digress. It was this week's installment of Pot Psychology that really fucking pissed me off.
So, Slut Machine is stoned out of her mind and then they read aloud a question from a reader who asks if they need to do an enema before they have anal sex. Slut Machine responds that while she's mostly constipated all the time, she then goes on to let us know that, actually, every time she's done anal, she's just done "a lot of coke" first, and that usually "cleans her out". Plus she'd rather do "coke than have an enema any day".
But wait! There's more!
Another reader writes in to ask for advice because she's on anti-depressants and The Pill and has no sex drive. Immediately Slut Machine's stoned pal says, "I really don't think your qualified to give medical advice", but she gives it a go anyway. SM responds that there are "different forms of birth control besides the pill" and her friend interjects that The Rhythm Method works quite well.
Then she goes on to say that "I haven't been pregnant in a while...but the last time I was pregnant I was actually on The Pill" AND THEN MY EYES ROLLED INTO THE BACK OF MY HEAD AND I HAD TO STOP WATCHING.
Seriously?? SERIOUSLY???!?!!!?!
And BEFORE you lay into me about how she's JUST BEING IRONIC and GAWKER IS KNOWN FOR BEING IRONIC, please spare me. That girl is not witty or sober enough to pull off ironic, dry humor like that. Girlfriend was serious about that, and serious about taking coke as she regularly writes about her escapades about who she fucks and how they fucked and what drugs she took.
And, the thing about being pregnant. How can anyone possibly think of this blog as being powerful or informative and take them seriously when they write about "how, like, fucked up it is" that there are still people in the government that would like to see Roe vs Wade overturned when they have some dumbass writing about how she's had god knows how many abortions.
Hi Anti-Abortionists! Meet your new best friend!
Even scarier? All the commenters fucking love it. They write about how they "fucking love her" and how she's "fucking amazing" and how her "pregnancy joke" was so funny...um, not a joke Shirley!!!!
All in all, I find this list to be one massively long piece of shit. It's like they asked their team of 10 people it took to compile that list to just list off some blogs that they've heard of or blogs that they subscribe to their RSS feeds. Or does your friend edit that blog? Sweet, we'll add it to the list...
Also, may I just point out, that one of the morons that helped misquote me and a bunch of other women in their New Feminists piece that I was featured in helped write this. She who does not believe in interviewing people with tape recorder, but just writing down half of every third sentence they say with a pencil on a cocktail napkin.
All I'm sayin' is that maybe The Observer should have spent a little more time and thought and effort into WHO they should be crediting as being the most powerful blogs in the world. Jesus. Maybe I'll start doing my own videos featuring me after I've done crystal meth and then go talk to school children about abstinence only education. That'd be a hoot! Could I be powerful then, too?! DOING ILLEGAL DRUGS AND THEN GIVING ADVICE IS HILARIOUS.
WOW I HAVEN'T RANTED LIKE THAT IN A LONG TIME. Feeeeelllssss goooooood.
So, who would you have liked to have seen on the list?
...And then go BUY SOME OF HER FABULOUS FURNITURE.
I died laughing while reading this article, hopefully you will, too!
Be back soon with the story of how I was almost refused service at the post office for being too "factitious". Seriously.
