the post i didn't really feel like writing

1) I wasn't going to dip my toes into this particular sinkhole, but then I watched the videos, then I read this blogger's response, then I read Slut Machine's post about it, and then I sat around feeling sad and thinking about the whole second generation versus third generation feminist thing and getting myself all worked up over it. Then I smoked some weed and decided that my first impulse was probably the right one.

It would have ended there, but the straw that broke the camel's back was of such a particularly weird variety that I felt compelled to write something after all. Basically, a second generation feminist called me out for my screen name, saying that choosing Tits McGee for a handle must mean I'm comfortable with traditional gender roles. (Oh, and also that Star Trek is antifeminist, but that's another post altogether.) After I stopped laughing, I got to work thinking about what I wanted to say about this whole mess.

I don't wish to belabor this. I'm not going to defend or attack Pipenta or Lizz Winstead or the Jezebel bloggers (with whom I have taken issue in the past). Essentially all I really want to say is that as a third wave daughter of a second wave mother, I am acutely aware that we agree about far more than we think we do, and that the common ground is where our focus should fall. Do too many third wavers neglect to give proper credit to the women who secured the rights we now enjoy? Hell yes. Do too many second wavers fail to understand how proudly and publicly claiming and celebrating one's own sexuality can be a feminist statement? Hell yes. But the time we waste passing judgment and hurling insults and degenerating into flame wars in comment holes all over the blogiverse is time we could spend working to address the things that really matter, like the fact that douchebags like this still exist.

2) Or the fact that my beloved Barack has shifted ever so slightly in his stance on late term abortion. I've been willing to overlook a lot of his recent embracing of the center, but this one cuts a bit too deeply. (So, I should note, does his continued support of merit pay for teachers, but that is a post for another time.)

3) Or the fact that not even my beloved Google can get day care right. How is it possible that with so many families having both parents in the work force, we still can't seem to get it together to publicly support adequate child care? What national resource is greater than our country's children? They are the future, after all.

4) In other news, in spite of my feeling a bit burned by Obama, I still went to his website and donated $25 today, because I want to go to Denver, goddamnit. And hell, if nothing else, he's going to rid us of Crocs once and for all! Suck it Nick! Suck it, Dilf!

5) And because it's hot and sticky out and I want to get this over with and go crack a cold beer, here's your cool stuff roundup: improving Hubble, blowing up asteroids, saving the pit bulls, loving the dirigibles, human mirror, Salon finally discovers bacon. Does this mean it's all over? No more bacon parties? (Thanks, Dr. Sardonic!)