Double X Gets an F
Why is the newest feminist publication attacking feminists?By Kay Steiger
May 14, 2009
A bunch of feminists, myself included, were really excited about the May 12 launch of Double X, Slate’s new site “about politics, sex, and culture—that both men and women listen in on.” After all, the site features a long list of some of the top feminist writers, including The Nation’s Katha Pollitt, former Jezebeler Jessica Grose, Slate’s own Emily Bazelon, the illustrious E.J. Graff, and The Root’s Dayo Olopade. What’s more, after years of drivel-like articles that declared feminism dead and the journalism industry in crisis, it was a reassuring sign that Washington Post/Newsweek International saw potential profits in a woman-focused site.
Then, on Tuesday, Double X went live with articles titled “Whine, Womyn, and Thongs: How Feminism Has Failed,” “How I Got Bored With Feminism,” “Yes, Virginia, Feminism Really is Dead,” and “What’s the Problem Now? Feminism’s Dilemmas.” It’s enough to make all those feminists who eagerly anticipated the site’s launch—again, myself included—want to pull their hair out. What’s more, Double X seems to be trying with all its might to stoke a divisive generational flame war among feminists. This war, characterized in part by accusations from older feminists that younger feminists are somehow betraying the “true” spirit of feminism, is best summed up in the words of Deborah Dickerson in Mother Jones earlier this year: “Today’s feminists need to blog less and work more … I gotta say: Pole-dancing, walking around half-naked, posting drunk photos on Facebook, and blogging about your sex lives ain’t exactly what we previous generations thought feminism was.”
The most egregious story on Slate’s Double X was a takedown of Gawker Media’s blog Jezebel by Linda Hirshman, the author of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World. The piece is a rambling, dated, and—to borrow a word Hirshman used to describe Jezebel-style feminism—rather incoherent criticism of the site.
Jezebel has gained a lot of popularity since its launch; nearly every feminist I know reads it, and, as Hirshman herself points out, it has more than 800,000 readers. Of course, the site isn’t without its problems, some of which Hirshman touches upon in her article. Chief among them is Gawker Media’s tendency to try to pay its writers as little as possible while driving as much traffic and revenue as possible. Hirshman notes that after switching to a policy that tied a portion of writers’ pay to traffic that resulted in an explosion of hits to the site, Gawker Media head Nick Denton quickly pulled the plug on the reward system. Denton also reorganized (that is, cut staff and hours) his company in January. In fact, Double X’s managing editor, as Tracy Clark-Flory pointed out on Salon, was “plucked straight from Jezebel.”
Hirshman says in the piece:
The Jezebels are clearly familiar with the rhetoric of feminism: sexism, sexual coercion, cultural misogyny, even the importance of remembering women’s history. But they are also a living demonstration of the chaotic possibilities the movement always contained. In its origins, women’s liberation meant lifting the restrictions of a sexist and ancient culture. From removing the barriers to women working to striking down the criminal laws against birth control and abortion, feminism was first and foremost a liberation movement. Liberation always included an element of sexual libertinism. It’s one of the few things that made it so appealing to men: easy sexual access to women’s bodies. (And to their stories about sex, which helps explain why 49 percent of Jezebel’s audience is men.)
Additionally, Hirshman rehashes a condemnation of erstwhile Jezebel contributors Moe Tkacik and Tracie Egan’s drunken comments on Liz Winstead’s “Thinking and Drinking” web show more than a year ago. It was something that many feminist bloggers at the time condemned, including young ones. And rightfully so: between the two of them, Tkacik and Egan advocated unprotected sex, said that getting raped is not a big deal, and told victims of rapes not to report them. Jezebel’s editor, Anna Holmes, later apologized on the site.
Most shockingly, Hirshman told Jezebel contributor Megan Carpentier (disclosure: she’s a friend of mine) that she is not qualified to ask the military to prevent rape because she did not report her own rape that occurred when she was 17. (Carpentier was again sexually assaulted more recently; it is something she publicly wrote about, but for legal reasons couldn’t disclose the full details of.) It seems blaming the victim, something I thought had long gone out of style, is back in full force on Double X.
Carpentier responded on Jezebel, summarizing Hirshman’s comments this way:
In other words, if a woman is raped, she should accept that as a consequence of her "Jezebel" lifestyle. If she gets involved in an abusive relationship that, given the well-documented psychological effects of long-term abuse, she has difficulty leaving, any further abuse can be laid at her doorstep because she signed up for it. And if she fails to Do Her Feminist Duty by reporting a sexual assault, she’s an accessory to all future assaults.
Other prominent feminist bloggers voiced their disappointment with Double X’s full-on attack of the work that feminists have been doing all along. Jill Filipovic of Feministe wrote, “If failing to report a sexual assault … is all it takes to be a Bad Feminist who loses her right to criticize the U.S. military for not cracking down on rapists, I’m happy to turn in my Feminist Club membership card right now.” Jessica Valenti said, “Double X as a whole seems to reflect an increasing trend in online women’s and feminist media—and frankly, it is making me tired” [emphasis hers].
I’m not sure where Dickerson, Hirshman, or other feminists are getting their information about feminism today, but, as I’ve written before, young feminists are actually doing really great things these days. Aside from that, the whole notion of a horserace for feminism—who’s “qualified” and who’s the “best” feminist—is absurd. There are plenty of things that feminists actually agree about. I’d like to see some of the items on Katha Pollitt’s “to do” list, which also appeared on Double X, ticked off:
It’s a scandal that the U.S. has no national health care, public daycare system, paid maternity leave, or paid sick leave. It’s a scandal that so many women are poor and socially isolated, that sex ed is hostage to religious nuts, and that access to consistent and respectful reproductive care is so spotty that more than half of pregnancies are unintended. All these benefits would help women, and men too, combine work and raising families more easily.
When we blame young women for not being feminist enough, whatever that means, we continue to focus on what divides us rather than on our common goals, which would be a much more valuable use of our time. Maybe if Double X remembers that, more feminists will be excited to read it.
Kay Steiger is an associate editor at Campus Progress.
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Comments
great article. i agree with some criticisms of certain feminists but overall agree that it’s more important to focus on the issues that matter and are important than to bring up fickle or superficial criticisms…for shock value or whatever. kudos also for the mentioning of rape in the military…military culture can be really, really ignorant and stupid.
— nick - May 21, 08:32 PM - #-nick