Feministing points to rumors that male Democrats are split between voting for Obama and McCain. Given the way The Washington Post has handled comparable news about female Democrats and the Obama/Clinton split, they came up with this totally hilarious mock-up for next week's Post:

The depressing news: Talking about women’s rights isn’t doing much to stop female genital mutilation.  The good news: Reminding people that it’s not required by the Quran does seem to be effective.

Not that this should be surprising.  As Samhita at Feministing points out, the feminist movement has always suffered from a PR problem: people see it as the province of privileged white Westerners, so they reject it out of hand.  Oddly, this seems to be echoed in the West via the right-wing rejection of feminism as the province of privileged nanny-obsessed navel-gazers—a rejection often accompanied by complaints that the movement doesn’t care enough about the Third World, despite exactly the kind of anti-FGM work that’s currently being rejected by sub-Saharan Africans as too Western—but I digress.  Feminism has always dealt with these kind of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” issues, and it’ll always get around them.  The point is, when you talk to devout people in the language of their religion, they’re more likely to listen. 

Spencer,

In response to your question of whether I think some of Feministing’s images and links should receive further discussion, I’d say my answer can be summed up in one of the superfluous Latin phrases I picked up back in law school (See dad? All those tuition dollars weren’t for nothing!). The phrase is “Res ipsa loquitur,” and it means, essentially, “The thing speaks for itself.” Do we really need to deconstruct the sociopolitical implications of a giant vagina urinal? Is it somehow remiss not to accompany a picture of a doggy style coffee table with several paragraphs of detailed analysis? Somehow, I think it’s safe to say we all just get it.

As for the question of feminism’s “humorless” baggage, whether or not it’s accurate to say that the traditional movement suffers from a severe humor shortage, it’s certainly portrayed that way (and doesn’t do much to help itself, as evidenced recently by the scene in hopelessly-hyped “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which the faux-hero meets with a group of dour, priggish feminists who stomp from the room once he begins dropping his outrageously sexist and heavily-accented comments. The women later talked of suing). And let’s be honest, a dose of laughter might not be such a terrible thing, as I think the writers at Feministing have realized. Humor can be an excellent source of social deconstruction, as we identify entrenched gender roles and stereotypes by exaggerating them to extremes and then having a good laugh over the results. Of course the legacy of fighting for equality in a patriarchal society isn’t inherently funny, but the ability to step back and recognize that no single viewpoint represents universal truth, and the whole “battle of the sexes” really isn’t a concept with a conceivable winner, can be invaluable.

[Movable Snipe is a Daily Shvitz feature wherein two writers spend a reading a handful of blogs and offering constructive (or savage) criticism in epistolary form. This week's Snipers: Spencer Ackerman and Melissa Lafsky.]

Melissa,

Apropos of Feministing's Buffy clip, allow me to say that it's not my revolution if I can't stake to it. Is there a single feminist out there who doesn't love Buffy? A single sentient, Buffy-experienced human being? I am unashamed to admit that I misted up at the end of "Innocence"; think that Season 7 was a massive triumph; bought the Slayer Collection box-set on Amazon pre-order; and have a treatment ready to go for Season 8: War of the Slayers. Mutant Enemy, give me a call. (And, remember, Willow is a Tribeswoman.)

But back to Feministing. The first I heard of the blog was the boob-controversy that you reference. For the uninitiated, or those too lazy to click through Melissa's links, Jessica 'Nisting recently met with Bill Clinton and posed, along with some fellow bloggers, for a photograph. A conservative blogger named Ann Althouse found comfort in a pixilated version of motorboarding, absolutely obsessing over Jessica's chest and calling her feminism into question over the burning issue of whether or not Jessica was posing with her best boob forward.

The contretemps became a perfect illustration of why Feministing is an energetic blog: Jessica's response took an inane comment from Ann and explored its deeper significance. You see that in the blog's excellent deconstruction of things like the doggystyle table or the rather hideous vagina urinal. Maybe it's a case of the boy trying to be more feminist than the editrix here, but I was a contributor here, I wouldn't be sparing the bile -- this dreck merits way more exploration and invective, and I wonder why it doesn't receive it. Do you think, Melissa, that expressions of feminism carry way too much imposed baggage of "humorlessness," and the self-imposed instinct to avoid the charge can lead to a measure of self-censorship? For my money, the perfect feminist statement remains Crass's brilliant album Penis Envy. Just try to front on "Berketex Bribe."

But we may be a bit wide of the mark when we focus on Feministing's chosen subjects of coverage. What makes it work, I think, is the interplay of the different posters, who have a clear enough sense of the mission of the site -- which is as you describe, Melissa -- to allow their individual voices to harmonize. There's a voice to Feministing that you don't get on other feminist blogs. Anyone who's ever contributed to a group blog knows this is way more difficult to pull off than it sounds. At any moment, I expect the dozen or so Feministers (Feministas?) to burst out a round of "Walk Through The Fire." But maybe that's just the slayage in me.

Spencer

[Movable Snipe is a Daily Shvitz feature wherein two writers spend a reading a handful of blogs and offering constructive (or savage) criticism in epistolary form. This week's Snipers: Spencer Ackerman and Melissa Lafsky.]

Spencer,

I’ve always respected Feministing. As I’ve said before, times are rough for anything calling itself “feminist” these days. From images of the "[un]shaved girl burning her bra, standing on campus screaming at everybody" to invocations of the women’s movement as “bras, aprons and constitutional amendments,” we’ve got an image problem on our hands that’s manifesting in all sorts of backlash-heavy ways. Pop culture reflects a longing for the “manliness” that we modern, career-obsessed, testosterone-leeching succubi have robbed from our male counterparts. Ad campaigns shell everything from beer to deodorant by appealing to that blissful (and virtually nonexistent) era when men could be men without feminine interference. Meanwhile, getting naked in front of cameras has become a co-ed right of passage, breast enhancement surgeries have multiplied to the point of raising the average bra size, and adolescent girls are still absorbing the message that being pretty is just as, if not more, important than being smart. And to top it off, breast feeding is now repulsive enough to get you kicked off a plane.

So when a twenty-something self-labeled feminist like Jessica Valenti starts a blog dedicated to picking up the PR-scarred pieces of the old school women’s rights movement, she earns my instant respect. For starters, she’s automatically signing up for a pummeling from all the tired, humorless antagonists, male and female alike, who see the word “feminist” and start twitching in their eagerness to tear down the source. Let’s see, how can we trivialize and smother this site. A ha! They have pictures of trucker girls in their heading. Degradation! Hypocrisy! And wait, hold on, the founding editor is… hot! Plus she has BOOBS! Photographed in the same room with Clinton, no less. Clearly the whole operation’s a fraud. Light the torches! To the stake!

As for the site’s content, they follow the primary rule of successful blogs (post as often as humanly possible) and show a unique ability to sniff out those invidious little hypocrisies in the mainstream media, all while sparing us the righteous sermonizing that helped land feminism its current bad rep. It’s not the first place I go for in-depth analysis or discussion, but no other women’s sight beats their range of material, covering everything from boob wine racks to interviews with Former U.S. Congresswoman and member of the Nixon Impeachment Panel Elizabeth Holtzman. Plus they’re not afraid to drop the armor, take a deep breath and have some fun with it. Because honestly, where is it written that being a die-hard feminist means you can’t also love Buffy.

[Movable Snipe is a Daily Shvitz feature wherein two writers spend a reading a handful of blogs and offering constructive (or savage) criticism in epistolary form. This week's Snipers: Spencer Ackerman and Melissa Lafsky.]