Jessica Valenti is right about the Miss Universe Pageant: As offensive as the public ranking of female swimsuit parts may be to the feminist eye, there’s something very comforting about pageantry. Every year, the Universe comes together to televise an event that proves that sexism exists. In other words, they make for a really easy blog item.

And what’s even better for a feminist critic than a beauty pageant? A beauty pageant with judges who try to bolster the Q-and-A with some feminist-lite questions, only to crown the winner who answers with the most sexism-denying rhetoric.

“I believe that nowadays we women have overcome many obstacles, and I do believe that we have reached the same level that men have,” said Miss Venezuela, now Miss Universe, when asked what women can do to overcome sexism in the workplace. “We must realize there are no longer any barriers amongst us.” And the crowd—along with us bored feminist bloggers—goes wild.

Feminist bloggers as colonizers: Surely, parallels can be drawn.

Welcome back to Sexist Beatdown, the weekly feature wherein Sady of Tiger Beatdown (white, heterosexual, cisgendered, American) and myself of The Sexist (white, heterosexual, cisgendered, American), chat. Except for last week, when we did not do it. My fault. BUT THIS WEEK WE ARE BACK, to discuss whether the feminist blogosphere is a form of digital colonialism, and if so, does that explain why feminist blogs are sometimes very boring? Ready, aim:

Read More “Sexist Beatdown: The Triumphant Return!” »

Ha, ha, oh, women are always lying about being raped in order to get out of sticky situations. That’s why the Office is a renowned, award-winning comedy program—because it’s so true to life! But spoilsport Jessica Valenti over at Feministing didn’t like the Office’s recent rape joke. “I generally really love The Office and think that its jokes—even on subjects like race and sexuality—are generally pretty smart and progressive. But I hated this,” Valenti writes, indicating that it is, in fact, possible to screw up the wide-open slam-dunk that is the classic condescending, anti-woman rape joke.