#sorryfeminists

[conservativebrew]

[formalmisintroductions]

Dey call me Betty Cracka 😭😂 #inthekitchen #whereibelong #sorryfeminists #imjustkidding #noonegetsme #hateme #iloveyou Really tho this some bomb ass baked goodie goods mf

[malefeminist]

Even though most people are probably feminists when you break it down, "feminism" is repeatedly subject to discrediting stereotypes, misunderstandings, and disassociation. Even the young teacher who asked Obama and Romney about the gender wage gap during the debate earlier this week claims she is not a feminist. This is a story about a hashtag protest to reclaim "feminism" through delightful and absurd humor:

Deborah Needleman, the editor of T Magazine (and the stylish wife of Slate's own Jacob Weisberg), put up this joking tweet suggesting that feminists dislike women being sexy:

At this point, stereotypes of feminists are mocked so thoroughly that it's impossible to determine if someone who invokes one is trying to reinforce it, making fun of it, or playing up the ambiguity so that you get a little from both camps. Anna Holmes, the founder of Jezebel, and Irin Carmon of Salon (full disclosure: real-life friends of mine who are, may I say, ridiculously sexy ladies) decided to respond in a way that the Internet does best: embracing the confusion by creating the hashtag #sorryfeminists on Twitter.

See what else is being tweeted now: #sorryfeminists on Twitter

[autotrophs-began-to-drool]

Seriously?

[nypl]

[livefromthenypl]

The implicit attitude of this kind of writing is: 'Can you believe these bozos are still acting like this?' The tacit assumption is that we all take for granted a certain set of shared beliefs, and we should mock those few retrograde Neanderthals who do not agree with us. The tone is less urgent and more queenly. It contains the idea that feminism is cool, and that it will mock you like a cool and impressive girl at the lunch table if you are in violation of its principles. The idea is to make fun of your enemies, not preach at them. (This is not, I should add, a wholly new thing. There are historical iterations of this type of feminism in the work of Rebecca West, Mary McCarthy, and Germaine Greer, among others.)

Katie Roiphe in her October 1 article, "The Mockery Feminists". Luckily, this article can be used to unpack why #sorryfeminists took off so fiercely (I also recommend Ann Friedman's fantastic new piece on the NY Magazine site). Roiphe's persistent knowing tone in her work, along with a little thing called controversial rhetoric, has made her a contentious figure in the still necessary and churning feminist movement. In light of all the fantastic conversations that have arisen in the past few days, and looking forward to the conversation that happens tonight with Roiphe, where this will be sure to come up, we're offering a discount code of $10 off each General Admission ticket. Simply enter, "SORRYFEMINISTS" at check-out, and continue the conversation.

Get tickets here...

[annfriedman]

But now everyone has a platform to weigh in on the controversy of the moment. As the Internet has democratized social movements, making clear that full-time figureheads aren’t the only ones who claim an ideology, humor has emerged as a primary weapon for foot soldiers in political combat.

A LOL of One's Own - NYmag.com / The Cut

Big think on the whole #sorryfeminists thing.