Jessica Valenti
With a new book, Full Frontal Feminism, this blogger is putting the ‘in’ back in feminism
By Sarah M Seltzer
Published: April 27th, 2007 | 11:13am
Blogger Jessica Valenti has become the poster child for young, edgy cyber-feminists everywhere. On the popular site she cofounded, feministing.com, and in her new book Full Frontal Feminism
Valenti’s brand of feminism seeks to bridge the gap between hard-core, second-wave theory and the technologically hip pop-culture aficionados of the third wave and beyond. Plus, feministing really wants to be your friend: it has pages on MySpace, facebook, and flickr as part of its courtship of the young and savvy; in the same vein, Full Frontal Feminism targets young, feminist-curious women in bookstores across the country.
All this re-packaging of feminism hasn’t been unnoticed by friend and foe alike. While Katha Pollitt loves the site, blogger Ann Althouse carped about Valenti’s clothing choice during a meeting with former President Clinton, and a group of angry male readers started a nasty parody site to vilify the site’s founders and allies.
As Full Frontal Feminism’s April 2007 publication date fast approached, Valenti chatted with Venus Zine about her book’s sassy tone, the thriving feminist blogosphere, why we should lay off sexually active young women, and what is about our marriage-obsessed culture ticks her off so much.
What inspired you to start a feminist blog? Did you have any idea that it would become such a magnet for young feminists?
I decided to start feministing because at the time I was working for a national women’s organization, and I felt like young women were getting a lot of lip service but were not necessarily getting heard in the larger mainstream movement.
And at the time my boss had a liberal blog, and he was like, “You should just start something.” I did a Google search for “young feminism,” and the only thing that came up was a NOW page from 1996. There was nothing online. So I saw that there was a gap there, and I think in some respect that has a lot to do with how popular we got. Young women were looking for something online. And there was already a thriving feminist blogosphere that linked to us and helped us get our first readers. But I didn’t quite expect it would become as popular as it is.
Both on the blog and in your book, you spend a hefty amount of time discussing both politics and pop culture. Is sexism an equally serious problem whether it’s found in a bill in Texas legislature or a beer commercial?
They’re different things but they’re not different in terms of importance. With the beer commercial or any kind of image out there in pop culture, that affects you in a more insidious way. At least with that bill in Texas you know what they’re trying to do, but with pop culture or Bratz dolls, you don’t know what’s hit you.
Your blog seems like a sounding board for people who already are feminist, while Full Frontal Feminism targets the “I’m not a feminist but…” crowd, particularly young women. Is that fair?
That’s a fair distinction. With feministing, most of our commenters are people who already consider themselves feminists, and a lot of our readers consider themselves feminist.
But we get e-mails all the time from young women who just came across the site randomly because they did a Google search for Jessica Simpson or something, and they said they had no idea that this was what feminism is about.
So that’s what inspired you to write the book?
That, and I really wanted to write a book that I wish I would have had when I was a teenager, something that would have made sense to me before I got to women’s studies classes — or something for girls who I went to college with, who would never think to take a women’s studies class but whom I knew would have benefited from it.
I feel like there’s a whole contingent of women that we’re being remiss in not reaching out to.
There was a lot of heated debate on feministing about Full Frontal Feminism's provocative cover.
In a way, it’s really subversive and smart. I kind of liken it now to Kathleen Hanna writing “slut” across her stomach. It’s a traditional consumerist image, and scrawling “feminism” across it is subversive.
And we’re trying to get women who are afraid of feminism to read the book. I think it’s a subversive way to draw them in. Once they’re reading the book obviously, the message is a very feminist one. I stand by it, I think it looks good.
The feminist blogosphere, as well as publications like Bust, Bitch, and Venus Zine, have published in a sassier, snarkier tone than their politics might suggest. I feel like your book in particular uses chatty language to show how hip feminism can be. Is that an effort to woo people or are you naturally that jazzy a writer?
The book is very much in the voice in which I talk. Obviously I deliberately wanted to use my own voice and make it as personal as I could, because I’m recognizing more and more through feministing that I may not be the best feminist out there, the smartest feminist theorist, but I think that the contribution I can bring is that I’m a good translator of this stuff. I can talk about it in way that resonates with younger women, to bring people in.
So can tried-and-true feminists still learn something from your book?
I’d like to think so. I guess it’s up to the feminists to figure out. For seasoned feminists, it will be a fun refresher. I don’t think I’m saying anything that hasn’t been said before. I’m just trying to put it our there in a new, more accessible way.
In the sexuality chapter, you say you hate how people condemn “Girls Gone Wild” culture — but you ask women to question why they dress and act a certain way. It seems like a tough balancing act for women.
Yes, it is a balancing act. It’s a tough balancing act for me! It’s a personal thing, and that’s why it comes across that way in the book. I think it’s a process that young women go through, that feminists go through.
Working through it as a process is a much better way to handle it than to fly off the handle and say, “This is terrible” or “This is empowering.”
I think I have a problem with a lot of the finger-wagging that’s been pointed in young women’s directions: “You’re being taken advantage of and you don’t see it.” I don’t think it’s useful for them; I don’t think it’s useful for us. What young woman wants to be part of a movement where they’re called stupid?
The media always focuses on the female aspect of teen and young adult sexuality. It’s never “Young boys are getting more promiscuous, what are we going to do?”
I mentioned this in the book. The AMA came out with a study about binge drinking on spring break that said that people were going crazy and they drink and have sex too much. But they only interviewed girls! As if drinking and promiscuity were only something that we should worry about. It reinforces the notion that women are supposed to be the arbiters of sexuality, and that our sexuality somehow means something morally. It’s a really dangerous message to put out there.
It also says that young men don’t have to have responsibility towards their sexuality, which is also a dangerous message.
So can young feminists lip-synch to the latest raunchy pop song with a clear conscience?
That’s really funny, I was out dancing on Friday night with my sister who does feministing, a friend of mine who works for the UN doing gender stuff, and another feminist writer that I know. We were all dancing and “Put it in Your Mouth” came on.
And I was like, “God, someone’s going to take away our feminist badges.”
I think that most young feminists have problematized sexist songs and sexism in their daily lives enough to make those decisions for themselves.
You defend feminists’ right to wear high heels and makeup if they want, but one trapping of femininity you seem incensed about is the hoopla around marriage.
I don’t think there’s any real way to defend “Oh, it’s feminist to take my husband’s name.” I realize that I’m in the minority on this one. Women will get married and will take their spouse’s name. I’m not going to look down on them for it.
But I think it’s something that’s so obviously in-your-face bullshit sexist, that it just kind of pains me to see people do it without trying to do something different, trying to rework that model at all.
With all the talk about feminists who look traditionally feminine, what about women who don’t want to shave or wear makeup?
We call it sexist when men judge us for our looks, but somehow it’s reasonable when we judge each other for our looks?
My point is that you should just be who you are and be comfortable with whatever you’re doing. I wear makeup and high heels, and I’m well aware that part of the reason I wear them is I feel maybe I won’t look as good without them. Does it bother me? Sure, it bothers me, but I’m still going to wear them. I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
You said earlier that you didn’t realize how popular feministing would be. Did you realize how much criticism you would get? You mentioned in your book some guys who set up a fake feministing site. Did you expect that?
I didn’t expect it, but I wasn’t prepared for it. I really didn’t know that much about blogs before I started feministing. I didn’t realize the speed and intensity with which people could attack you, especially in comments on feministing.
The wonderful thing about the feminist blogosphere is you have so much backup, with other blogs and other people. It is very disheartening; I think that we are able to look past it because of the community built in online.
Who are some of your favorite female artists and musicians?
I love The Gorilla Girls. I remember when I was an intern at Ms. magazine, we had a dinner and they were just fucking there, in their masks, eating food.
A lot of feminist ladies like Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Sleater-Kinney — those are the folks I begin with. And pop stars like MC Lyte, and Queen Latifah, and Salt-n-Pepa. That’s kind of more my age. I keep showing my age on feministing.
—
Sarah M. Seltzer is a freelance writer and book critic in New York. Her work has appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, New York Press, and the L.A. Times. Long intrigued by feminism, online or otherwise, she writes about books, pop culture, and miscellany at unpretentiouslitcrit.blogspot.com.
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more