Feminist Site Geared Toward Teens Helpful or Hurtful?

I bet the RageBrothers are gonna get a lot of hits to their website today! thefbomb.com is the wrong link, it should be thefbom.ORG!

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Sorry, thefbomb.org is what I meant to say...

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Of course the non-age-appropriate stuff is problematic, but besides that, I would rather my kids didn't get their gender-based information from an "angry" feminist. I would rather they get positive information from a happy and fulfilled woman - be she an astronaut, a teacher, or a full-time mom. Of course we have all experienced discrimination and stupidity - who hasn't - but we need to help girls put it into perspective and not throw good emotional energy after bad.

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I agree that these topics aren't age appropriate for ALL teenagers (really depends on how old - I think 18 or 19 is different), but teens do talk about sex like it or not (whether you want to talk about it with them). As a parent, I get nervous when young women are discussing sex (esp porn) on the Internet, but that's where parents need to be mindful about their kids' cyber security and should be talking to their kids about these topics as appropriate (not sticking their heads in the sand).

I don't get the whole "sexual revolution" thing associated with what you claim is a "movement" (I regularly used and still use words like "objectification," "gender identity roles" and "homophobia," and yet I waited until 21 to lose my virginity). Yes, I'd much prefer that these young women discuss these feminist issues in college, by reading quality writing and having adult-led conversations, but young people are drawn to thought provoking, edgy new material and the web is where it's at. If you truly want to celebrate "girl power" infused with your own idea of virtue, why not start your own site?

Yes, porn is problematic and I've always had a bunch of issues with it (e.g., objectifying, degrading, gives boys/men the wrong idea about relationships, as well as a very dark and scary industry in my view), but many women recognize that it's complicated because it can be used responsibly and I'm not a man (though some women use porn too, especially the movies designed for women). I know, I know, who wants to support that icky underworld by buying those movies? But I confess I waddled into a local sex store to buy my husband a movie I thought he may, um, need while I was in my final trimester of pregnancy (sort of a joke, sort of not - I'm very realistic and I was VERY pregnant; quite the sight in the suburban sex store!). Believe it or not, someday I do plan to talk to my son very frankly about these issues so he knows where I stand and will think about this, but I just don't think porn is our country's biggest moral problem right now.

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"Even if you can forgive the naïveté, not to mention irony, of a
"young" feminist writer who doesn't bother to watch the film she is
reviewing, and instead takes the word of the Grey Old Lady..."

I'm sorry but that's just hysterical to me right now.....seriously....I am laughing at this very moment!
Considering Rachel recommended Juno as appropriate for young girls before seeing it (but Heard how great it was) AND bashed The Golden Compass before it even came out in theaters it's hard to miss the REAL irony here!

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Even better is the irony of a blogger who doesn't bother to check the links she is "commenting on"...

www.fbomb.org

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Huh. Any child who can think like this one can should be excused the sin of "naivete". She has valid points, and can make them in a succinct manner that speaks to all young women of like intelligence. Should she be reviewing a movie about porn? Absolutely. Teen aged girls are watching MTV on a regular basis, and a great deal of that is "soft porn". Every horror screamer made in the last fifty years portrays women as victims being punished for their sexuality. We give our daughters and sons horribly twisted messages about sexuality and expect them to bow to societal stupidity without question. Kids are drenched in sexual messages from an early,early age (my daughter is seven, and I can say with experience that crap with shoving simpering disney princesses and barbie and apple bottom jeans and knowing all the lyrics to "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.." down their little throats begins to be an issue at two). If you think that girls should be kept from exploring female AND male sexuality in an in-depth way, then you must also think that young girls don't deserve to think their way through their own and the world's social circumstances. No surer way to make a victim than to keep a person in ignorance. Go, JZ!

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I don't see anything age inappropriate about this. These are exactly the kinds of topics I thought about and wrote about as a teenager. I do think it's ridiculous to recommend a movie without seeing it, but that's not enough reason not to let teens look at the site. Anyone is free to go to the site and criticize her for that and/or to disagree with her opinions on anything whatsoever. None of that is harmful to teens or anyone else. Unless of course you have a teen who can't think for him/herself. But if that's the case they've got much bigger problems than what websites they visit.

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This is a young woman who has been proving herself over and over as a leader in a variety of settings. Sixteen is a pretty powerful age and the fact that this one individual is taking it to the level of discussion with her parents, exploration via language with peers and on the Internet - open to where anyone else can comment, and spending time abroad recognizing her own privilege and they thinking about what that all means?

Sounds like she's way ahead of many, many adults.

Full disclosure: I live and blog in the same town as Julie and only learned of her after another outlet wrote about the blog and our town came up in my Google Alerts. Also, very coincidentally, I served as a volunteer overseas in the mid-1980s on the same program as her father. I know this family and I am proud of how she's showing what she's knowing and trying to learn more.

Rachel, if you feel the material is too mature, then why not recommend that some kind of rating or advisory be put by Julie on the site? Why not recommend that parents monitor what their kids read so that they don't read thefbomb.org if they find it unsuitable?

There are myriad ways for parents to monitor and control what their kids are exposed to. How about empowering the parents to do just that, rather than squelching completely age-appropriate expression by Julie?

You are a journalist, yes? How about you contact Julie directly and invite her to do an email or audio or cam to cam interview with her?

Seriously - there are many, many ways to for you to highlight what's positive rather than keep putting the word feminist in quotation marks.

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You seem very sure of what teens should and should not read or discuss. Meanwhile, we have the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the West by a long shot, and it's not because of feminism. I think you should welcome this young woman's attempt to discuss life as she experiences it. Teens who are too young for the material will naturally not read it. As for the language, give her a break! She is a good writer -- compared with most kids her age and most bloggers. She writes better than a lot of college students, and I know because I've taught them.
By the way, the New York Times is not the Grey Old Lady -- it's just the Gray Lady.
More by the way: My daughter just graduated from Wesleyan. it's an excellent college with a first rate faculty and a wide range of courses. If your kids do well enough in school to be accepted there they will receive a first-rate education.

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This post seems devoted to feminist bashing. I'm curious what you mean by "overuse of tiring feminist terminology." Why does it tire you? What makes you feel it is overused? Do you think the concepts embodied in the terms are not relevant or accurate?

As well, you write, "the movement has decided to celebrate sexual freedom above all else." What exactly are you referring to when you say "the" movement? And where did you get the idea that feminists want to "celebrate sexual freedom above all else"? Please provide examples that back up the generalizations (eg via links).

Finally, you write "...feminism remains detached from virtue." What virtues are you referring to? Equality, respect, and freedom from fear --all traditional feminist tenets -- sound like virtues to me. I suppose you're referring to abstinence. If so, feminism has always supported the right not to have sex as much as to have it -- in other words, choice.

What's "irrelevant" about that?

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I agree with almost everything that has been said in the last few comments. As a youth worker who works with young women aged 9-20 every day, I am so sick of people preaching about what is "teen appropriate." Especially when it's from a teen voice. The young writers have a comprehensive analysis of gender, racial, class and other oppressions, and just because you may not agree with them does not make them inappropriate.

This goes beyond "like it or not, teens talk about this stuff." Not only do teens talk about this stuff, but these girls have a critical analysis that many more of our 16 year olds would have if we didn't have such a censor prone and anti-thinking education system and mainstream media.

Deeming hard conversation over the heads of our young people and deciding that they should "learn about these things in college" is a damn good way to raise a generation of disengaged and uninformed adults. It's a shame you don't give young people more credit, especially as such a relatively young woman yourself. But I'm not surprised, reading your other entries here, you don't seem to have a very strong understanding of media criticism or feminism, especially in that you somehow think it's more ok for you to watch the Real Housewives of NJ than for kids to watch NYC Prep. But I digress... My point is, these girls seem capable of communicating on the same level as "grown up" liberal news sources, and I myself get very frustrated by "tiring feminist" language and these girls aren't using it. We'd have a lot more young women capable of having these kind of complex conversations about issues affecting their lives if we didn't pretend that their lives begin when they go to college.

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I would have killed for that kind of information as a teenager. We can keep putting our heads in the sand and hope that teens do the same, but obviously they aren't. Considering that you're against "NYC Prep" I would think you'd want teens to have access to positive media. While I don't want teens to have access to porn, but the reality is that they do - from MTV videos, reality TV make out sessions & teen movies like "American Pie," I'm happy that someone out there is critiquing it from their POV. And where would you want a 16yo to get their information? Scholastic News? At 16, we should want out teens learning to take in grown up media like the NYTimes and figuring out where they stand.

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I happen to believe that society and popular culture do not allow our children to be children. Same is true with teens. I hadn't heard of this teen blog before reading Rachel's blog, but upon initial inspection, I have to agree with her about the age appropriateness. One person commented that parents should filter their teens' internet sites - agreed - and I am certain that Rachel (based on previous blogs) will do exactly that with her children. Still, it is worrisome that what heretofore would have been considered adult themes have become casual and accepted conversation among fifteen year olds. This cannot be healthy for society, much less for our daughters.

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I agree with all the comments, and I'd love to hear you answer their questions, Rachel. Why don't you get in touch with Julie and let her know your concerns, or see if you can interview her? And what is it about feminism that is so tiresome?

I applaud Julie for bringing normally taboo topics to the table. Also, did anyone see her interview with Gloria Steinem? Awesome: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-zeilinger/gloria-steinem-the-iconic_b_242219.html

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