mabjustmab | how women are dumber than men (Reply)

Obligatory Post Where We Say Charlotte Allen Sucks

You've no doubt already read this impossibly horrible column penned by conservative freelance journalist Charlotte Allen that ran in the Washington Post on Sunday, but just in case you haven't gotten the outrage out of your system, consider this comment thread the place to do just that.

We hardly know how to begin to wrap our brains around this series of events: Allen, the same woman who wrote the Weekly Standard story dismissing the Jena Six incidents as having been made up, apparently pitched a column to Outlook section editors at the Washington Post about how women are dumber than men. These same editors reviewed the idea, decided they liked it, asked to see a draft, read the actual column, still liked it, and then published it. All along the way, several editors and copy editors were no doubt involved in the editorial process that went into this piece of total garbage, and at no point did anyone stop to say, hey, maybe we shouldn't publish this ignorant pack of lies. Consider our minds officially boggled.

The outraged and, really, dumbfounded response since the column ran couldn't have been more predictable. Gee, you know, it's almost like the Washington Post thought they'd run something this stupid on purpose just so everyone would link to it, comment on it and write in angry emails about it. Our own Jason Linkins has a nice response up at Huffington Post, in which he describes the column as "a nauseous bag, unflinching in it's cliched ridiculousness, that reads like a bad prank."

But the real winners are some of 800 plus comments already posted to the column itself. Here's a few of our favorites:

Charlotte,
Men are dumber than woman. They paid you for this crap article...
I wish I subscribed to the Washington Post just so I could cancel my subscription.

You're right, Charlotte: conservative women like you are too dumb to vote, so on election day, stay away from the polls. Instead, you and Anne Coulter can make sandwiches for the men in your life and send them out to waste their votes on John McCain while you stay home, light a candle for Bill Buckley and cuddle up with hot coco and your Ronald Reagan dolls.

As a thought experiment, imagine that this were written by a black author about black people. Would the Post ever have dared to run it?

Since all the commotion broke out, the Post has added a disclaimer of sorts to the top of the page that reads, "Agree? Disagree? Think this article should never have been published? Send a response to outlook@washpost.com and put "Smarter Than You Think" in the subject line. We'll publish a selection online and in the newspaper on Sunday."

Our own music editor, Amanda Mattos, was so creeped out by the column she quickly fired off a note to the Outlook editor, and the response she got back is pasted below.

Dear Amanda,
Thanks for your note. I am trying to answer all of notes I've received and
there are a lot. With the obvious knowledge that anything I write now will
probably do little to deal with the issue of Charlotte Allen's piece, let
me just say a few words about why we ran it.

I ran it to provoke, but not to offend. I thought the parallel she drew
between fainting Obama followers and Beatlemania was an interesting frame
with which to analyze the Obama phenomenon. She went further, of course, to
draw broader conclusions about the state of her gender highlighting women's
interest in Gray's Anatomy and Eat, Pray, Love. But my reading of it was
more a tongue-in-cheek screed borne from exasperation with her sisters than
a mysoginist rant from a self-hating woman. Yes, she engaged in massive
hyperbole but she did it to try to make a point. That said the piece
obviously offended you and others and I regret that. But it was an opinion
piece and that is what they sometimes do.

Anyway, we've asked for letters that we will not only include on tomorrow's
oped page but in the section as well and online this weekend.

Best,

John Pomfret
Editor, Outlook
Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
(202) 334-6046
(202) 870-0627 (cell)

So, it was all just a big joke? That's pretty hard to believe. As Jessica Valenti over at Feministing rightly points out:

Any quick search of Allen's past writing shows just how seriously she takes her women-hate. Instead of making excuses for running the most craptastic article ever, how about WaPo just takes some fucking responsibility? Weak.

Weak, indeed.