All posts tagged "Jessica Valenti"

[rebelmouse-image 24749963 alt="jessica-amanda-marc" original_size="240x180" expand=1]Jessica Valenti has formally ended her time at Feministing. It's one of those moments when I get all sentimental, because it's kind of crazy to think of the journey we've all been on. I don't know how many of you know the whole history here, but when Feministing was started, I was still blogging at a small Blogger blog called Mouse Words, and there was no such thing as "feminist blogging". In fact, political blogging was still sort of a new thing; the word still connoted "web logging", and had a diary feel to it. The only two blogs that existed that were explicitly feminist blogs were Feministe, which only had Lauren Bruce at the time, and Feministing. And I suppose Mouse Words, but then as now, feminism was only part of a whole cloth liberal agenda I have with my writing. There was also Rox Populi, which is defunct now, and it was, like Mouse Words, straddling feminism and liberalism in general.

Jessica Valenti's column on Sarah Palin's false embrace of feminism is characteristically excellent, but she does mention something that I've found weird ever since Palin said it:

Sorry if my blogging is sparser than usual. I'm still in New York, and will be until Friday. But everything will be back to normal next week!

Kate Harding and Jessica Valenti both have pieces up defending themselves for marrying, and about the difficulties of crafting a feminist wedding, which are apparently the same exact problems trying to craft an individualistic wedding, which is a mandate that comes down on people just as hard as the one to conform, which creates the industry of everyone copying everyone else's cute unique touches.* I enjoy going to weddings, but have to say that as a guest to many, I think that what really impresses people is if you have good food, a good bar, and if you can get people to dance for hours at your wedding, that matters more than almost anything. But I digress---both Kate and Jessica talk at length about how merely deciding to get married means patriarchal creep into your lives. Jessica found herself taking on most of the planning, and Kate found that even eloping didn't mean she got to escape the horrible wedding beast.