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This stuff isn't as heavy as death...

I have a real love/hate relationship with Women's issue blog Jezebel. At first I loved it, loads and loads of female-centric news stories, articles about sexism in the US presidential elections, and an opportunity to talk to other women about the issues that are close to my womanly bosom (failures of the police to catch rape, attitudes to women in the West and everywhere else, the sexualisation of young girls). But good Lord I mostly hate it now. In their desperation to keep the blog as light as it is serious, they're clogging the pages up with daily (at least!) stories about Lindsay Lohan, clips from trashy exploitative reality television shows like Bad Girls Club and Rock Of Love, and posting mean comments about pretty inoffensive women that they don't like (Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston, Nadya Suleman please stand up) while lecturing posters on Girl-On-Girl crime*. 

They also like to fly off the handle, take this for example. This Youtube vlogger Jesusophile posts a litany (arf!) of pro-Christian videos on Youtube and his latest video 'Why It Is Okay For Sex To Hurt The Vagina' got Jezebel editors and commenters really riled up. I watched about 2 minutes of the video and it was pretty clear to me (and most of the Youtube commenters) that this guy is a troll, posting outrageous things for attention. But most Jezebel commenters didn't look at it critically and just posted earnest messages about not caring what God thinks about their vaginas and punching him in the face. 

This is what I hate, hate, hate about Jezebel (along with the frankly unfunny and often mean Pot Psychology - A word of advice, sure you guys are stoned but if someone writes in with a serious worry and you can't give a serious answer, skip it). A lot of the commenters will dive in head first and write embarrassing comments without actually studying the evidence. 

I most definitely describe  myself as a feminist, I respect myself and other women, but unlike some Jezebel commenters I'm not blind to our faults. In order to be taken seriously, we need to be serious, (not all the time), but a blog that purports to reflect the views and interests of today's young feminists can not be posting videos of women in bikinis fighting over men and calling each other bitch when we know that these programmes denigrate and humiliate women for the benefit of the public, so why give them the oxygen of our attention? Why post pictures of cute cats all day so that everyone can comment with 'Awwww' and 'Nom Nom Nom' ad infinitum? Why are Barack Obama's abs more important than his policy, while they complain about Michelle Obama being reduced to mannequin? I mean, if Gawker Media commenters take the piss out of you, you know something is wrong.

Oh and of course there was Rape-gate last year. Moe Tkacik (who now solely works for Gawker) and Tracie Egan aka 'Slut Machine' (who has recently got engaged and funnily enough, now not so comfortable with being known by her former moniker). The two editors went on the Shoot The Messenger Show, got drunk and made some really questionable statements about women who  are raped ('they are like, not smart'), birth control ('pulling out is like, fun') and date rape. Forgive me, but I can't take birth control advice from anyone called Slut Machine/has herpes. 

Click for reportage by interviewer Lizz Winstead.

That may sound completely bitchy and Girl-On-Girl crimey** but I was and still am completely appalled by the things that these women said. Calling into question the intelligence of women who have been raped just because you have been lucky enough not to be is just not on, and then to continue to call yourself a feminist after that is just fucking stupid. But some women are of the opinion that what Tracie said was ok, and that the rest of us are hypocritical and stupid for being of any other opinion. I despair. You can't justify the fact that you've said some really stupid things by saying 'Oh I always stupid things, now chill out grandma!' It just makes you look like a douche. 

Anyway, if anyone can suggest a less hateable blog with a feminist slant, please do.

*Are we really referring to women as 'girls' on a feminist website? Really?

** Seriously. Really?