lulz. feminist review folks *were* the ones who criticized FFF
By shag carpet bomb • Mar 8th, 2009 • Category: Feminist Fight Club, Internet, Intersectionality, WMF, Women of Color Feminismoh. that’s rich: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/03/02/who-gets-to-say-what-part-ii-blog-hierarchies/
Lauren points out that Mandy and Brittany, the women at the center of the spat in bloglandia mentioned by BFP, are the same women who were highly critical of Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism. I remember posting about how their criticism was clearly using women of color in order to hash out some personal war between all of them: pivot babe for the circle jerk; the traffick in women of color; that sort of thing.
on the other hand, that doesn’t make what they said right or wrong, actually. some of what they said was right, some wrong. but that they had ulterior motives for saying it, that they were involved in some personal dispute with jessica valenti in real life, really is an ad hominem attack on lauren’s part.
and it’s pretty funny that, while everyone complains that women of color bore the brunt of answering the criticism, ostensibly lodged against “big” white bloggers, turns out that the continued discussion is largely about the big bloggers, largely about how bad and awful certain white women are, largely about how wonderful and giving and self reflective some other white women are.
yadda
here’s a thought on what to do to fix the inequality problem: stop linking to other blogs, stop the link roundups, stop the guest blogging.
instead, stop posting much at all. limit your posting to 1x per week by each blogger. The rest of the time, head over to other WOC blogs and participate — no really: participate. engage. not stupid shit like, “you are such a wise woman of color. i am speechless.” or “i don’t know what to say. this is so great.”
actually engage: ask questions, make connections, criticize, etc.
in other words, i have to totally disagree with holly’s claim that there is something different about *attention* that it doesn’t share in the same economy of desire that, say, cash-money does.
*cough*bullshit*cough*
the problem, in a capitalist society, is that people feel that money *must* be limited, scarce, in order for it to mean anything. just like you can’t give everyone an A. what would an A mean, then? if everyone had millions, in the context of capitalist society — its values, mores, norms, etc. — having millions would be the same thing as having a wheelbarrow full of rolls of nickels. big whoop.
with attention, it doesn’t much matter what you want or desire, or about mores and norms: there really is only so much time in a day. you can’t read everyone. you can’t read everyone carefully and attentively. you can’t read all the woc blogs out there, and link to all of them at some point. you can’t comment on all the blogs. it’s hard to post on your own blog and then make sure to comment profusely at your reader’s blogs or even at the blogs of poeple who don’t read you.
and if you are a blog owner, it’s hard to find the time to post AND comment and discuss *with* your commenters and critics — to really engage them, listen, and thoughtfully reply.
so, this crap about the hierarchical nature of blogging being overcome by something that is supposedly special about blogging? sister, please.
shag carpet bomb is
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There are many writers at Feminist Review and I think the obnoxious person at Feministing was named Amanda. Unless she changed her name to Mandy, it’s a different person. Either way, FR can have a grudge against Feministing because of Amanda,
mandy and mandy.
the feministing link here: http://www.feministing.com/archives/006940.html#comment-76478
further up the thread, mandy “outs” herself by noting that she is a critic of FFF AND the author of an article on baumgartner (sp?) http://feministing.com/archives/006877.html
i don’t both to hot link b/c i don’t want the traffic frankly. not enough time in the day. so, sorry about that.
meanwhile, i kind of think that the whole issue of what their motives were is pointless. they are either right, wrong, in between.
but i guess i do have a little petty schadenfreude over the fact that i called that one for what it was a couple of years ago, but at the time mandy was everyone’s shero because of her criticism of FFF. so, seeing as how it is me blog ‘n’ all, i like to engage in petty gloating. i will probably bring down the wrath of the gods i don’t believe in for being that way!
nice to see you ’round by the way!
It was, indeed, me who was critical of FFF. I do want to say, though, that the criticism then was of the book itself, and not of Valenti personally. She, however, did take that criticism personally, which I can understand now that I’ve been put through a similar ringer where ad hominem arguments abound.
Here’s my question: when do these conversations move beyond attacks on a person or specific blog and become a conversation about the issues/critiques? Because I feel like when a critique is raised the critique itself tends to get lost in personal defense. (I include my own actions in the latter action, so please don’t read this as my letting myself off the hook.)
Mandy –
Quick note: I don’t link out of my posts and don’t want links to my posts for the most part. I mean, I know I can’t stop all of it, but when I can I ask people not to link to my posts because I left feminist bloglandia because of the trashing and have no interest in participating again.
As for your question, I don’t think things will change, but I’m the wrong blogger to ask.
You even pointed this out about FFF — the way Valenti uses ad hominem as a common form of attack against conservatives especially. The problem is that this approach, justified to attack conservatives, is used so commonly, it becomes tacitly assumed that it is an OK, acceptable and appropriate way to behave toward one another.
It’s not.
Something I wrote awhile ago:
In all this, I think it’s important to remember that what happens in Bloglandia ain’t no new thang. I hope you can take time to read Jo Freeman’s essay, which she published as Joreen in Ms. Magazine in 1976.
Trashing: the darkside of sisterhood
fuller context is also here: JO Freeman, Valley Girl — Sorta
I feel ya. I read Jo’s essay when I was in college, and those are wise, wise words. :)