Mr. Bruce doesn’t see what is flying over his head:
So, VP–we have here a staunch feminist, a rude, thoughtless, ill-bred young woman, who demands that she not be treated any different than a man, who may be facing a real threat of physical harm. Does she deserve to be hoist on her own petard? And will you snicker behind your hand if she is harmed?
I doubt that you will, but you do seem to rejoice in her present discomfort, as do some of your posters in their comments.
That is a partially inaccurate summary. It is obvious that Jill of Feministe wishes to be treated very differently than a man, as she is playing host to numerous threats of violence against me. Since I regularly face threats of physical harm far more explicit than those which so intimidate Jill – even from her readers – I’m nothing but amused by her typically strong, independent female response.
Does she deserve to be hoist on her own petard? Absolutely she does. Will I snicker behind my hand if she is harmed? No, because I don’t care what happens to her. She’s a self-proclaimed big girl eschewing the oppressive protection of men, she can fend for herself. In any event, she’s facing no more genuine threat of harm than any other woman in New York. There have been millions, if not billions of Internet-based threats made over the last five years and I’ve yet to hear of one of them being followed through.
Jill is a lovely demonstration of the timorous nature of women. Yet again, we see the Strong Independent Woman is all bark with no bite to back it up, and prone to scurrying away like a panicked lapdog whenever anyone barks back. I don’t rejoice in her discomfort, but neither does the humor in the hypocrisy escape me.
UPDATE: Bonehead appreciates the irony.
Early this morning I went to see the thread at Feministe, and saw a post by Mr. Bruce saying
“Hey Jill– I’m a new reader over at Vox Popoli and I followed a link from there to here. Although I left a lengthy comment there, all I want to say here is that I hope you notify the appropriate authorities, if you have not done so already.
Good luck!”
I submitted a post saying that Vox had published a list of threats published by Jill from time to time. My post appeared for a couple of hours with “pending moderation” beside it. The last time I checked, it had been “moderated” out of existence.
Welcome to the marketplace of ideas…
Yes, they do love debate, don’t they. I wonder why Mr. Bruce doesn’t seem to think that I should similarly notify the authorities about the violent threats from Jill’s readers?