Pile it On, Jezebels

Ah, Jezebel. I enjoy reading you. I find many of your articles interesting, educational, informative and funny. I also find them repetitive, strident, and hypocritical with all of your feel good, pro woman, anti-bodysnarking, let's pat ourselves on the back for our own progressiveness. you want to talk about how you support women and then you pick someone to pile on. It's Taylor Swift or Taylor Momsen or Gwyneth Paltrow and you post article after article about how they are overexposed or egotistical or shallow or blah blah blah. And then in the comments it's a pile on from the commenters, all falling over themselves to agree, and then you get "yes, Taylor Swift should just shut up" and "I hate Taylor Swift, her music is so shallow". or "Gwyneth Paltrow should just stop talking" and "She's so out of touch with reality." And then someone will post a .gif of either Anthony Hopkins or Heath Ledger as the Joker clapping and congratulations, you are SUPER CLEVER.

And then. Then you get one person who says "Also, I feel like Gwyneth Paltrow is too skinny" And suddenly there are 15 comments pointing the person to the "no body snarking policy" and while it's great that there is a no body snarking policy, it's hardly less anti-woman or less negative to regularly tell women that they should shut up, or that there experiences aren't valid because they are white and pretty, or to call them stupid or shallow. So you can keep patting yourself on the back, but don't delude yourself into thinking that making a policy that protects one aspect of women while allowing ever other part of them to be attacked, and then allowing your bloggers to lead the attack somehow elevates you to the most feminist group of bloggers on the web. It's completely disingenuous and the idea that you're setting some kind of standard is ridiculous.

Jezebel is hardly the only website to pull this crap. Oh No They Didn't has favorites that come and go and people who get slagged on for everything from their weight to the last movie they were in, but the primary difference is that ONTD isn't holding itself up like a beacon into the light. The internet is full of blogs who have a flavor of the week and then turn on them and find someone new to exalt. And while many of the blogs out there are total trash, (Perez Hilton and TMZ come to mind) and least they aren't pretending like taking trips down the path to social consciousness means that the stupid crap they pull is somehow negated. Get a grip. And a clue.