What do women want lolwut?

Apart from stuff, that is?

Naturally, a series of links. To begin with, some on the subject of feminism. And gate-keeping.

Prompted by Melinda Tankard Reist’s legal spat with blogger Jennifer Wilson, Eva Cox writes ‘Feminism, not religion’ is at the heart of the controversy. She also asks ‘Who decides who gets to use the f-word’ (‘Call Me Whatever The Hell You Want’, New Matilda, January 18, 2012; Helen Pringle disputes Cox’s characterisation of feminist politics in ‘Killjoys, Wowsers And The P-rn Wars’).

I propose I decide who gets to use the f-word.

Or Virginia Trioli maybe.

I mean, she wrote the book on it yeah?

Whatever.

‘Enough ink has been spilled in quarrelling over feminism … perhaps we should say no more about it’: Simone de Beauvoir, at the very beginning of The Second Sex (1949). ‘The subject is irritating, especially to women.’

And how.

Jenny Turner examines contemporary UK feminist fashions in ‘As Many Pairs of Shoes as She Likes’ (London Review of Books, December 15, 2011). It’s a pretty caustic affair:

And as for feminist blogging, isn’t it just one of those back-bedroom hobbies, like home-made porn and crafting, that suddenly becomes visible because the technology allows it? (Zadie Smith on ‘the great tide of pornography’ in 2001: ‘It’s not all bad news. We’re talking women whose sexual desires are no longer sublimated into the making of quilts.’)

Speaking of which, there’s a NEW! feminist blog called RAW / ROAR: “Left and feminist writing about politics by Australian women, collected in the one place.” The most recent post — A Cosmopolitan Morality by Tammois (January 18, 2012) — concerns MTR, feminism and religion; The Dawn Chorus is another feminist group blog but it ain’t done published nothin’ since January 2011. Otherwise, Hoyden About Town continues to trundle along the information superhighway propagating a peculiar brand of Godless hedonism, while Down Under Feminists’ Carnival “is a monthly collection of blog posts of feminist interest from around New Zealand and Australia”.