I’ve written in this space before about “Feministing,” the humorless, overly earnest feminist-oriented blog that manages to be both obnoxiously preening and unintentionally hilarious. The subject of that earlier post was the outraged befuddlement on the part of one of the blog’s contributors, who didn’t realize that the phrase, “So when did you stop beating your wife?” is a well-worn expression having nothing to do with the endorsement of spousal abuse. It’s a representative example of Feministing’s naivete and the low threshold for outrage that follows from such an unsophisticated understanding of human relations.
Last week, a minor scandal erupted when a photograph emerged showing Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s 27-year-old speechwriter, groping a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton at a party. “Fraternities have been closed for less,” writes Andrew Breitbart in the Washington Times. Personally, I don’t believe that this incident is of such gravity that Favreau should be fired, as some have suggested, but judging perpetually outraged feminists by their own rhetoric and tactics, this is most certainly a kerfuffle of bra-burning proportions. Try to imagine if the man in the photo had been a McCain aide.
The reaction from the ladies over at Feministing? So far, nothing. Instead, you can find a discourse on the “subtle sexism” of a a role-playing computer game, a link to the “National March for Sex Workers Rights,” and a “Feministing Holiday Gift Guide,” including stickers emblazoned with “THIS INSULTS WOMEN.” Those stickers are “meant to be stuck on offensive ads, products, whatever,” but not, presumably, photographs of whizkid Obama speechwriters mimicking the sexual assault of the incoming Secretary of State.
