Gawker Feminism

So, let me ask you this: what would a "news" website staffed exclusively by awful people look like if it had any semblance of mainstream credibility?

Why, Gawker. Of course.

And if you took them at their word, you'd suspect that they're into feminism. Like really, really into feminism. Consider for example, Gawker's hilariously-outraged reaction to Wikipedia's decision to bar a number of feminist editors from editing the "Gamergate Controversy" wikipedia page:

"Theoretically, the free encyclopedia is a purely democratic operation—anyone can edit Wikipedia, after all—but there is a byzantine and largely unseen hierarchy that governs disputes among editors, culminating in a Supreme Court-style panel called the Arbitration Committee. The committee's latest decision: to punish a group of five editors who fought to maintain a Gamergate page that presented the 'controversy' largely as an assault on women—that is, who fought to present Gamergate as it actually is."

Gamergate's countless female members -- literally countless, because Gamergate has never been so obsessed with diversity-themed navel-gazing as to actually stop and count --  would certainly disagree with whether or not Gamergate is an "assault on women."

That's been the feminist demagogue take on Gamergate. (Oddly enough these identity zealots don't seem to take much notice of Gamergate's female supporters.)

So Gakwer is into feminism, right? Like really, really into feminism, right?

Well, if you thought so you'd be forgetting that Gawker rose to prominence via a website app that gave people a powerful tool with which to stalk celebrities, and that the 20-something nitwit they sent onto CNN to defend it dismissed concern about it as if it didn't even approach being a big deal.


There were reports of celebrities whose whereabouts were posted to "Gawker Stalker" within minutes -- mere minutes -- of them being there. Many were concerned that "Gawker Stalker" could be used by obsessed fans to beset such celebrities.

It would be foolish to think that female celebrities would be immune from such treatment. Frankly, Gawker was just fortunate that no one was hurt by some dangerous stalker type.

And here's the thing: for a "feminist" website like Gawker to publish such an app does not speak well to how much they do or do not care about the safety of celebrities, especially female celebrities who, it could be said, could be far more vulnerable to that behaviour than male celebrities. At the very least, this is what many feminists would presume.

It's strange to see a "feminist" website care so little for the physical safety of women. It's almost as if they're really, really into feminism until they can make a few bucks off of hanging famous women out to dry. Then, anything resembling a feminist concern for the safety of women is tossed out the window with little more than a smirk to acknowledge whether or not it was ever there at all.

I call it "Gawker feminism." It's a variant of "feminism" that has them espousing feminism when there's rhetorical advantage to be had against people they don't like -- and after Sam Biddle cost Gawker 7 figures of advertising revenue after suggesting people should respond to Gamergate by bringing back bullying, perhaps they have some reason to not like Gamergate -- and dispensing of it when they can earn a few sheckles by doing it.

In other words, they're extremely disingenuous people. That's no surprise. Awful people typically are.