This was lovely, and thank you for taking the leap to share such an honest and personal piece. It also made me think about the ways in which hatred or anger or clinging to a hardline (all things ladies are generally discouraged from doing) can be an act of self love. From my earliest memories I always disliked my…

*pats head*

No offense taken at all! One of the hardest things about writing this essay was forcing myself to be honest even when I knew I’d be less likable. It’s an important—and importantly humbling—exercise.

Considering the essay is about empathy, perhaps you should read it again before questioning the validity of someone else’s emotions or journey of self-discovery.

“Chillax” is not good advice when offered to someone discussing the results of an apparently deep personal realization about herself and the world around her, following an apprent lifetime of emotional troubles (including episodes of self-harm and at least one suicide attempt). It is trite and stupid and makes you…

Ugh I know. The problem is that the only way I can relax is by filling the cars of people who tell me to “chillax” with pig feces and then setting them on fire! But lucky for you, I’m really trying to cut down on that. Lighter fluid is expensive.

Really? It’s kind of crappy to tell someone to “chillax” as a response to a personal essay about their self-discovery over the past year. The author is asking serious questions about her life and emotional motivations and who are you to tell her how seriously she should take that journey?

Considering Jez relies so much on their readership/commenters, it’s interesting that at every turn their writers try to show just how much they don’t care/actively hate the opinions of the women and minorities that read here.

I don’t think you or Jia or anyone else who likes this article is arguing for anything in the sense of ulterior motives, like “being against intersectionality” or whatever. This isn’t about #notallwhitewomen. This is about criticizing the egregious lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy that is a fundamental part of…

You are fucking killing it on here.

It’s not a “no true Scotsman” fallacy or “expecting feminism to be a single entity” to say that advocating against body shaming when it’s your body, while profiting from it when it’s somebody else’s, is massive hypocrisy. Nor is it “making perfect the enemy of good” to say that asking us to believe the Dunham travesty…

Eh, Jezebel does this thing where they actively champion feminism, going out of their way to berate women who don’t agree with them, and then later claim they “aren’t a feminist website”, even though they clearly want to be perceived as a feminist website, at least by more casual readers. Gawker does no such thing;…

Jesus, I always forget that Schwyzer was a Jezebel writer. And that many people who criticized him or mentioned any of the more horrible things he’d said or done were quickly banned. It might not be the site’s low point (I’m not sure anything will ever beat the post about how the 12-year-old child Roman Polanski raped…

Yes, Jezebel’s anti body snarking policy made it famous, made it covered on GMA and CNN. As did the Faith Hill story. Such an about-face re: the Lena Dunham bounty was distressing.

I miss Lindy West.

Interesting how more than half of the population in the US is female yet people are actually more comfortable with anti-racism activism than with pro-feminism activism.

Nice non-apology about putting Amy Pascal’s pubic hair on blast. I, too, am sorry that I have failed to anticipate the response my public utterings have had on other people. Kinda sounds like “I’m sorry you were offended”, doesn’t it?

You didn’t mention the thing where people try to prove themselves “better feminists than the bad feminists” by writing really long articles about how a few people are doing it wrong and this must generalise to the whole of feminism.

I know what they think they’re saying, but it’s not what they’re literally saying. “Don’t be a victim” is insulting to victims. It’s like “don’t be offended” when someone says something horrible.

Off topic, but I LOVE your name! “Clover Hope”.