Comments on: It truly pains me to defend Ann Coulter, but

By: Feministe » Why calling out misogyny matters

Feministe » Why calling out misogyny matters — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:49:35 +0000

[...] a woman you disagree with on the issues is damaging to all women. And I’ve been on record (as have my cobloggers) for a very long time that using such language and framing (and any other [...]

By: Feministe » If Ann declines, I’m sure Henry can find someone on Craig’s List who’s into his kink*

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:57:09 +0000

[...] can’t believe I’m about to defend Ann Coulter again, [...]

By: Anony

Anony — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:14:10 +0000

Who cares?
It’s funny and she deserves it and more.
It would even more funny if she lost sleep over the picture.

So what i’m saying is, if Ann Coulter was Hitler would you have the same response?

By: wellie

wellie — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:49:05 +0000

the ‘what do you expect, it’s just maxim’ argument, for me, does not work here. coulter is infamous for speaking out of both sides of her mouth, constantly spouting ridiculous hateful trash. maxim knows this, and obviously isn’t a fan of ann. why the need to expel more sexist bs? readers can turn the page and see 50 or so other examples of misogyny in their magazine every month. why not use the tools that ms. coulter supplies every time she opens her mouth to shoot her down? digging into the lowest common denominator and calling her sexist and transphobic names, rather than just using coulter’s ignorant character is appalling. maxim could at least step up to bat here, where the target is just so, well, handed to them on a platter.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:37:34 +0000

I hate Ann Coulter too, but what would you expect from any magazine today? Apart from feminist magazines, what articles do any of you find that make women seem intelligent and don’t focus on their looks?

I picked up a Maxim when I was in Duane Reade the other day to see how it compared to some women’s magazines and it wasn’t too different.

I’d honestly rather read Maxim than for example Cosmopolitan. At least the sexism in Maxim comes from men, and we can see it explicitly rather than those women at Cosmo who preach empowerment, sucking girls and women into reading it, but actually offer no merit and put women down by getting into their subconscious and telling them they are worthless unless they buy this beauty product and that dress.

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Feminists: answering sexism with sexism? So not cool.

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:32:51 +0000

[...] Jill has a post up defending Ann Coulter because Maxim decided that the best way to “zing” her for her anti-Semitism would be to [...]

By: tekanji

tekanji — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:28:17 +0000

mythago: The point is that we, as feminists working to end oppression, have an obligation to ourselves and other women to speak out against sexism no matter who that sexism is directed against. I definitely do think that it's worth pointing out, as you did, that the attack on Coulter is a logical product of the kind of world she's working to create, but that does not mean that we, in turn, should endorse that result, even if that endorsement is simply silence on the matter. Sexism is sexism, even if the person who is being hurt by said sexism has endorsed it. And I think that one thing that we, as feminists, can agree on is that sexism is wrong and should be combated. Painini: Censuring Maxim for printing that transphobic, sexist crap about Ann Coulter counts as defending her. Defending her, however, is not the same as welcoming her as an ally.

By: Painini

Painini — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:51:59 +0000

Um, :: raises hand::, ‘scuse me?

How is this post in any way a defence of Ann Coulter? All I see is a post about Maxim printing something stupid.

The enemy of my enemy … can still be a nitwit I’m better off without, without changing who my enemy is.

By: mythago

mythago — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:57:06 +0000

Calling her a “tranny” is fair game?

No. I’m talking about the comments about her attractiveness. Transphobia is inexcusable in any context.

And to be clear, I’m not saying that it’s perfectly OK for feminists to attack anti-feminists’ appearance. What I am saying is that I find it very hard to be outraged when a conservative fuckwad is blown up by their own landmines. Maxim is exactly part of that anti-female, sexist, judge-me-by-my-legs ethos that Coulter promotes. So when her own compatriots turn around and say she’s unfuckable, I can’t get too worked up. No, that doesn’t make Maxim’s reaction OK. But just as we shouldn’t be running around going “so what? she’s an ugly bitch”, I don’t see the point of “defending” her crazy ass.

As for the Jew-baiting, if a bunch of Coulter’s buddies suggested that her nose was too Jewish-looking for them to take her seriously, I’d have about the same reaction.

By: almaria

almaria — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:14:29 +0000

Cola Johnson writes: We may have an enemy in common, but that does not make us friends.

This brings to mind that Egyptian Mona Eltahawy recently wrote a troubling (for me) article in the Forward called “I Will Stand With the Muslim Brotherhood” (http://www.forward.com/articles/11646/), about how she finds herself forced to defend the Muslim Brotherhood’s right to participate in Egyptian elections even as she finds their sexism odious.

I must say that I find this gnashing of teeth in defense of a fabulously wealthy blond racist from a lad magazine to be a waste of time. If the outrages of trite pornographers occupy so much of your attention, you must be having a slow day. It is like going to garbage dump and then writing 1000 words about the discovery of…. garbage!