And Nanette, thank you as well, though be warned I found your tone a little condescending. I don’t think that was necessarily deliberate (but I tend to think the best of people whenever I can), but thought you should know how you intially came across to me. Sorry I missed your links upthread, and I appreciate the help!

What causes suspicion is that you are leveling an accusation anonymously on a blog that (I’m assuming) isn’t yours, which is a different matter entirely than regularly writing reviews on a blog that opts not to have a hierarchy and, therefore, doesn’t have an obvious spokesperson or figurehead. This is also why the “Who We Are” section of FR changes weekly. And we have nearly 350 writers who work with us, actually, and some of them also write using pseudonyms.

I do want to point out that the supposedly deleted posting that you described is actually on the site, and there’s nothing that you’ve described that isn’t. Also, there are several dissenting posts – Bobichael, JenW, Anonymous (maybe that’s you too?), Serenity – not just on the FFF threads, but also others.

None of the accusations that you’re leveling actually have any substance to back them up. Yeah, that needed to be bolded. I’m done here.

Look, I’m not shannon, I’m not sylvia, I’m not exangelena. They’re all incredibly intelligent, well informed young women. I’m as ignorant as they come, I can admit I don’t know anything about anything, and I’m pretty typical in the ways I participate in American culture I think. Still, I don’t think the ubiquitous stereotypes of young women as completely vapid, flaky, shallow, unable to process basic concepts and not concerned about anything except the next issue of Seventeen and if holding a book will make us unattractive to the football team or how much cosmos are or whatever are true. I hope I’m wrong, but in most of the reviews I’ve read by young women, they seem to feel condescended to, while it’s older women who maybe tend to think kids today aren’t as bright as they used to be who think it’s just our speed and about all we can handle.

And again, if *not identifying oneself* is suspicious and detracts from the credibility of a comment, as you seem to say, then I’ll just wait for you to go ahead and delete those numerous Anonymous comments that DID make it up on your site in both of those threads, apparently because they happened to agree with you….because, being anonymous, they must be suspicious too, right? Oh, riiiiigggghhhtt…..

Peace.

Bottom line, how disingenuous of you to say *keep it up, no one will hear you if you’re silent* and pose as some noble defender of critique and disagreement, when you CENSOR dissenting opinions on your own blog and then lie about it. That’s just sad, and it makes me doubt your intellectual and moral heft and thus your credibility as a reviewer of any cultural product. *Feminism* may not mean the same thing to everyone, but *honesty* in my eyes is a little more cut and dried.

There are a lot of half- and un-truths stated in reference the post on Feminist Review so I think it’s only fair to clarify the most egregious of them. This supposed congratulatory email never happened. I did, however, send an email about an entirely different topic that said, simply, “see ya ladies tonight!” as I had intended to go to the book party until (essentially) being told not to by Jessica’s sister, Vanessa (full disclosure: Vanessa was my co-worker at Girls for Gender Equity and a good friend, which is primarily how Jess and I know each other). This is why hearsay isn’t admissable in court.

People keep writing that the review was personal, but with nothing more than conjecture to back it up. Certainly Jessica and I don’t have the same feminist ideology or methods for addressing social change, but so what? There’s no personal beef in that; that’s a professional difference of opinion and action. I go to events/protests/speeches all the time to show support for people and organizations that I don’t entirely agree with. I even vote for Democrats sometimes, despite the party being largely centrist and not on point with my ideas about social justice. So if I vote for a Democrat and then critique his or her “keep funding the troops” stance on the Iraq War or their punitive ideas about Immigration Reform, does that mean I’m somehow dishonest when I vote for her or him because I do support their unabashedly pro-choice record and efforts to pass a bill that would create Universal Healthcare coverage? My point is that I’m not so dogmatic in my own belief system that I’m not willing to give credit where credit is due, but I’m also not going to write a less-than-honest book review just because that person is my friend’s sister or a feminist colleague.

On comparing Jessica Valenti to Ann Coulter, Ann Coulter is a right-wing, polemic commentator who is infamous for making ad hominem arguments against those she disagrees with (e.g., calling John Edwards a faggot) and stirring up controversy with her less than tactful mannerisms. This is exactly what Jessica does in her book and on Feministing, but from a leftist, feminist point of view. To a large degree, it’s what her fans like about her writing style.

I think it’s abundantly clear from this thread that “feminist,” like “woman,” is not a homogenous category. And although there is a lot of time and energy spent giving lip service to the desire for “sisterhood” and how “in fighting” is a cause of the stunted growth of the women’s movement, it is just this kind of necessary criticism and the demand to seen and represented that allows for voices of marginalized groups to be heard. So keep it up, y’all, because nobody’s gonna hear you if you’re silent.