The jealousy of aging women

See, this dog is cute, therefore it is is a whore

This is the most ridiculous shit I've heard about all fucking week

Ann Althouse, who is obviously feeling the pangs of being beaten out by law students and younger faculty for male attention, turns on some woman she's never met for meeting Bill Clinton. It seems tits are the issue at hand. Scroll down to the Clinton article, she's the brunette in the center with the gray top.

Let's take a closer look at those breasts.

I wanted to elevate a discussion from the comments section of a post from Wednesday, you know the one with the photo of the Daou-wrangled bloggers posing in front of Bill Clinton? The first commenter, Goesh, picks up on my prompt -- "Let's just array these bloggers... randomly" -- and wisecracks: "Who is the Intern directly in front of him with the black hair?"

Eventually, Jessica from a blog called Feministing, shows up and says: "The, um, 'intern' is me. It's so nice to see women being judged by more than their looks. Oh, wait..."

Snarky but somewhat conciliatory, I say: "Well, Jessica, you do appear to be 'posing.' Maybe it's just an accident."

Jessica Feministing returns and says:

It's a picture; people pose. And I'm not sure I understand your logic anyway. If I "pose" for a picture (as opposed to sulking and hunching over?) then I deserve to be judged for my looks? I don't see anyone talking shit about the other bloggers smiling pretty for the camera.

Provoked, I decide to actually give her a small dose of the kind of judgment for brains she seems to demanding:

Jessica: I'm not judging you by your looks. (Don't flatter yourself.) I'm judging you by your apparent behavior. It's not about the smiling, but the three-quarter pose and related posturing, the sort of thing people razz Katherine Harris about. I really don't know why people who care about feminism don't have any edge against Clinton for the harm he did to the cause of taking sexual harrassment seriously, and posing in front of him like that irks me, as a feminist. So don't assume you're the one representing feminist values here. Whatever you call your blog....

Making this colloquy into this new blog post, I actually click over to Jessica's blog, and what the hell? The banner displays silhouettes of women with big breasts (the kind that Thelma and Louise get pissed off at when they're seen on truck mudflaps). She's got an ad in the sidebar for one of her own products, which is a tank top with the same breasty silhouette, stretched over the breasts of a model. And one of the top posts is a big closeup on breasts.

Sooooo... apparently, Jessica writes one of those blogs that are all about using breasts for extra attention. Then, when she goes to meet Clinton, she wears a tight knit top that draws attention to her breasts and stands right in front of him and positions herself to make her breasts as obvious as possible?

Well, I'm going to assume Jessica's contributions to my comments are an attempt at a comic performance, as was her attendence at the luncheon dressed in the guise of Monica Lewinsky. Lord knows we need more comical feminists.

Or are you going to say she's some kind of Karl Rove plant? Alternatives: She's a clueless fool. She's in it for the money. (And you know the blog money is all in the T-shirts.)

Now, I can't tell what Ann is worked up about, wishing she was there or wishing she had a girlfriend with tits like that. I don't know what floats her boat. And she's a professor of
law? Wow.

Here's Jessica's response

Feminists don't pose

There's a lot I want to write about the Clinton lunch, including the concerns about the lack of bloggers of color. I will get to all of it. I promise. But right now I'm super pissed and just wanted to know what people thought of this.

I found a couple of other posts like it--talking about the way I looked--and it was really upsetting on a personal (and political) level. But this thread in particular turned kind of nasty.

You know, I was psyched to be invited to this lunch and was feeling pretty honored. But then things like this remind me that no matter what I do or accomplish, because I'm a young woman all I'm good for is fodder for tacky intern jokes and comments that I don't "represent feminist values" because of the way I posed in a picture.

What's worse is that this comes from other women, other progressives, and other supposed feminists. How are we supposed to move forward as a movement if we're busy bashing each other with this ridiculousness?

UPDATE: Althouse has another post up about Feministing being "one of those blogs that are all about using breasts for extra attention." Yeah. Because we don't write anything but stories on titties all day long.

I mean if Althouse is unhappy with her looks, well, they do great cut rate plastic surgery in Brazil. A boob job, a face lift and well, her problems are solved. But to hold up a young woman to ridicule, accuse her of wanting to blow the ex-president and basically imply she was a slut was just wrong. As wrong as implying Althouse is a dried up old hag who needs to see a surgeon.

Here's another opinion by a real live woman on this

Wherein Ann Althouse Shoots Any Credibility She Had Left

Posted by Jill @ 4:46 pm

From the “chicks just can’t win” files: Jessica from Feministing has the honor of being invited to meet with President Clinton, along with several other bloggers. Said bloggers pose for a photo with Bill. It’s fairly clear that the photo is arranged by height, with the shorter people in the front. Jessica, one of the shorter people there, is in the front row. She stands, back straight, with her hands at her sides like everyone else. She moves slightly over so that she’s not blocking the former President.

But clearly, it’s all about the tits.

Jessica: I’m not judging you by your looks. (Don’t flatter yourself.) I’m judging you by your apparent behavior. It’s not about the smiling, but the three-quarter pose and related posturing, the sort of thing people razz Katherine Harris about. I really don’t know why people who care about feminism don’t have any edge against Clinton for the harm he did to the cause of taking sexual harrassment seriously, and posing in front of him like that irks me, as a feminist. So don’t assume you’re the one representing feminist values here. Whatever you call your blog….

Note that Jessica is posed in pretty much the exact same way (mirror-imaged) as the woman standing next to her. That woman, though, is wearing a black top, so you can’t see the outline of her breasts as well.

Note that Jessica is also wearing a simple grey sweater, with a high neck and cap sleeves. And long pants. And yet Althouse is criticizing her for her “behavior” — which apparently comes down to how she was standing in the photo.

I saw the photo yesterday. I did not notice that Jessica was “posing;” I did not notice her breasts; I didn’t think twice about the arrangement of the photo. Different perspectives, I guess.

Ann’s commenters also jump on Jessica, referring to her as an “intern” — har har — and debating her fuckability. Ann then accuses Jessica of not being a “real” feminist (compared, apparently, to… Ann…), and tells her that she’s misappropriated the word feminism and has done nothing for the movement.

Really, Ann, fuck you. You’re out of line, and this is incredibly shitty.

Perhaps this isn’t the kind of evidence that Ann is looking for, but here’s what Jessica’s done for my feminism: She inspired me to start blogging in the first place. She broadened my perspective as to what even constitutues a feminist issue. She’s shown me that determined women can take their passion and turn it into a career. She has helped to mobilize an entire generation of younger feminists. She’s taken risks, and has been willing to lend her wisdom to the development of our movement. She’s been remarkably successful at a very young age. She’s been a key part of creating online feminist communities, and creating real-life activism and action out of those communities. Her writing has made me think. It’s taught me more than entire women’s studies courses I took. It’s demonstrated that young women are active, intelligent, assertive and engaging. She’s made me proud to identify as a feminist. And she’s one of my feminist heros.

I know she’s inspired many more than just me. And talking about her breasts all the live-long day won’t change the fact that she is an amazing, brilliant, good human being who I’m sure will shape the world in more positive ways than Ann Althouse could ever aspire to.

What Jessica did wrong was show up at a political event in a female body. End of story. Ann, you should be ashamed.

And Jessica, as always, you should be incredibly proud of everything you’ve accomplished.

Look, the young woman's tits are not anything she has to do with. My bet is that her entire family has healthy tits. And as far as fuckability goes, that's a daily calculation for most men looking at most women. But for Althouse to bully this woman and basically call her a whore is just fucked up. Which is what the code word intern means. Not that I think that applies to Monica Lewinsky. Maybe Althouse hasn't had a dick in her mouth, but most women and a few men have. There's nothing wrong in that. It's a natural part of human sexuality, and Lewinsky's only crime was picking a married man. Not sucking his dick.

Althouse did something loathesome for reasons of jealousy. Whether is was because she's a crazy old crank people tend to laugh at, or a desire to bed someone hot with big tits, it's beyond me. But jumping on her because she went to see Bill Clinton and then whipping out every GOP sexist canard, well.......

Maybe if she got laid more, this wouldn't be an issue.

Hey, what am I supposed to day, Althouse set the terms of this debate on a personal sexual level, it's only fair to ask her if her coochie has outside servicing.