Humilation for Jessica Valenti

**frostyboy** · 17th-November-2009

A group of people are encouraging a boycott of Jessica Valenti's Feministing website.

Who are these people?

They're feminists!

Please boycott Feministing

I know you may already be boycotting Feministing because of, well, because of loads of reasons.

You may have decided not to go there anymore back when Jessica Valenti’s book Full Frontal Feminism came out and it was shallow racist crap predicated on condescending to young feminists, or when the criticism by women of color was ignored, or attacked.

You may have decided not to go there anymore as part of the boycott triggered by Feministing’s transphobia.

You may have stopped going there after their classist “boycott Walmart” post (no linklove for Feministing, sorry.)

Today I am asking you to boycott Feministing because of the bullying, privileged, bad faith way they have treated feminists with disabilities.

The chat, ostensibly held to improve treatment of disability at Feministing, was a joke. It was a lot of denial of responsibility, especially from Miriam, (“do you think we have control over our comment threads?”) capped by Courtney’s tone argument against amandaw.

In the follow up post on Feministing, Courtney said she was “excited” to learn more about disability, but then rattled off the suggestions for improvements without attribution to feminists with disabilities. When feminists with disabilities came to Feministing to criticize the follow-up post, there was no response from Courtney or any other Feministing contributor, even though she commented on the thread itself.

When I e-mailed Courtney, Jessica, and Miriam to ask for an explanation, only Courtney e-mailed me back (see comment thread), to say that she was no longer willing to engage publicly regarding the chat or the follow up post, and that if Amandaw wanted an apology she could contact Courtney herself. This flies in the face of the agreement that feminists with disabilities were very careful to secure, that the chat and subsequent discussion would be public. (Feministing’s consent to that agreement is right at the beginning of the chat transcript linked above.)

I think Meloukhia is right. This is evidence of bad faith. As of now, Feministing’s follow up post is still up, lending credence to the wrong idea that they are working on disability inclusion. In other words, they are getting a free improvement to their image because of the work feminists with disabilities did for them, when in fact they are maltreating and actively marginalizing feminists with disabilities. This is dishonest and I don’t think we should be silent about it.

Consequently, I am asking you to boycott Feministing. This includes:

1) Taking Feministing off your blogrolls,
2) Not linking to Feministing’s posts or community posts, and
3) Raising awareness of the abysmal way Feministing has treated feminists with disabilities and other marginalized people.

I note that meloukhia’s open letter to Feministing is already at the bottom of the first page of google results for “Feministing.” How about raising that signal even more?

Other suggestions and discussion welcome here.

Please boycott Feministing.

Update: See also my post here.

**Otis the Sweaty** · 17th-November-2009

Trust me, Jessica isn't humiliated. She is the Queen Bee of "4th wave Feminism" and she will not be removed from that spot until a white 20something female decides to establish her own online Feminist empire.

That said, I enjoy watching the Feminist infighting.

**Feckless** · 17th-November-2009

Why do they want to boycott feministe?

**Zuberi** · 17th-November-2009

Like a bunch of children arguing over nothing!

**Otis the Sweaty** · 17th-November-2009

Quote from Feckless

Why do they want to boycott feministe?

The "Super Victims" (trans, WOC, disabled) HATE Feministe almost as much as Feministing. They see them as two wings of the same bird so frequently one will be blamed for something the other did.

**Nynrah Ghost** · 17th-November-2009

Feminists fighting among each other? Heh... That's funny.

**Meadester** · 17th-November-2009

Quote from Nynrah Ghost

Feminists fighting among each other? Heh... That's funny.

Yeah. Kind of like verbal mud-wrestling.

**Aug9th-LiveOrDie** · 17th-November-2009

Quote from Otis the Sweaty

The "Super Victims" (trans, WOC, disabled) HATE Feministe almost as much as Feministing. They see them as two wings of the same bird so frequently one will be blamed for something the other did.

what does my baby nae-nae have to say?

**Marx** · 17th-November-2009

Quote from Zuberi

Like a bunch of children arguing over nothing!

Quote from Nynrah Ghost

Feminists fighting among each other? Heh... That's funny.

Quote from Meadester

Yeah. Kind of like verbal mud-wrestling.

Sadly, I daresay they get enough of a chuckle at our expense probably more often than we do at theirs...

**Otis the Sweaty** · 18th-November-2009

Quote from Aug9th-LiveOrDie

what does my baby nae-nae have to say?

She basically ignores mainstream Feminists these days. She certainly doesn't waste time on clowns like Valenti.

**Meadester** · 18th-November-2009

Quote from Marx

Sadly, I daresay they get enough of a chuckle at our expense probably more often than we do at theirs...

They will no matter what we do. We might as well get our laughs when we can.

**Incognito** · 18th-November-2009

Personally, I boycotted "feministing' the very first time I saw the main web page. Women flipping off "whomever" (what- society? men? each other?) is not something that intrigues me to delve any further. No need to read the content...that visual imagery says enough.

**PokemonMasterTrainer** · 18th-November-2009

Quote from Incognito

Personally, I boycotted "feministing' the very first time I saw the main web page. Women flipping off "whomever" (what- society? men? each other?) is not something that intrigues me to delve any further. No need to read the content...that visual imagery says enough.

And they couldn't be bothered to something remotely original! I think Valenti ripped off the Kappa logo, because that's the first thing that came to my mind:

**Aug9th-LiveOrDie** · 18th-November-2009

Quote from Incognito

Personally, I boycotted "feministing' the very first time I saw the main web page. Women flipping off "whomever" (what- society? men? each other?) is not something that intrigues me to delve any further. No need to read the content...that visual imagery says enough.

dirty hippie tits or STFU, flower child
PS, I never fucked my aunt or my sister, I fucked my aunt's 60 year old homegirl in the bathroom of my cousin's trailer