Re: Nice Planet XI: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!
As an Ivy Leaguer, I'm surprised you like Jezebel, Kep. You're a Greek lettered polo away from being all that is wrong with the world according to them.
I like them because they are saying, sometimes, interesting things; or at any rate are trying to do so. I don't agree with all of it, maybe not even most of it, but I do believe it needs to be said, and by actual humans rather than academics or pundits. They are a voice I don't get elsewhere, and even though they are basically in Spring Training there are flashes of brilliance in with all the rookie mistakes.
Fourth wave feminism is in its infancy and hasn't yet figured out what it wants to be when it grows up. Each wave corrects the excesses of the prior while broadening the scope of the movement, pulling in more related groups.
1st wave: procedural justice
2nd wave: substantive justice
3rd wave: intersectionality
4th wave: ???
The gen pop is always 20 years behind on social movements (because there is next to no intelligent coverage in the mainstream media), and 95% of the criticisms of Jezebel that I have seen are either generalized expressions of male insecurity (basically, criticism of all feminism) or outdated criticisms of 2nd wave feminism that are completely irrelevant to what the Jezebel contributors are trying to do.
The most legitimate criticism of Jezebel has nothing to do with its subject matter: it's often crappily written by young people who really don't know anything about the real world yet, not because they're feminists but because they're typically just off the academic turnip truck and are either regurgitating or reacting against theoretical concepts of no use to anyone except academics. You have to read it through that lens, and it can be irritating, but it's no different that reading most political or social commentary. 20-somethings, even the smart ones, are experientially impoverished, and won't actually have anything worth saying for a decade or more.
On the other hand, Jezebel is also attacked by Haters in a way that Misses The Point just as seriously as when people attacked John Stewart or the Colbert Show. The crazy, misdirected overreaction by a lot of critics kinda proves their central thesis: a lot of brains flip the off switch the moment they hear a feminist voice.
Anyway, I do like it. I am well aware that many Jezebel writers wouldn't like me, but frankly why would I care what they think when I used to carpool them with my daughter to their gymnastics practices? I believe the children are the future, but that means they are exactly as full of sh-t as everybody else.
