It’s been an extraordinarily ugly weekend in the internets. I have taken sides, and I don’t regret my choice. Defensiveness in the face of well-earned criticism is often ugly, and the last few days offers many examples.

And I’m not providing links in this post. The examples are easy enough to find. Besides, this post isn’t about that ugliness.

This post is about the fact that as I walked ten miles through the hills yesterday afternoon, I was hearing this song in my head over and over, and it felt like a remedy of sorts.

1. 
   Rob G 2006 09 19 at 10:17:26 am

   If someone put a gun to my head and made me walk ten miles, this is what would be going through my head (via my knee);

   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065088

2. 
   Ann Bartow 2006 09 19 at 10:31:28 pm

   Well here’s the thing: I deal with law profs every day, so I wasn’t surprised by the boobular developments at all. Welcome to my world.

   I also had T-Rex’s number already, see e.g.
   http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=879

   Now I just live for the day that the adult-entertainment-shilling bloggers are exposed for who and what they truly are. Hey, I can dream, right?

   Take care, Chris.

3. 
   Rob G 2006 09 20 at 5:58:18 am

   Ann, you wrote this in your comments;

   “Yeah, it’s pretty standard for Supposedly Liberal Dudes to leverage the gender of women they disagree with, unfortunately.”

   Sure, but this is just a specific example of a more general phenomenon. Men of any tribal affiliation will leverage any attribute of a member of an opposing tribe, even an attribute they possess themselves. It’s simply a verbalization of primate feces-flinging.

4. 
   Ann Bartow 2006 09 20 at 7:56:32 am

   When conservatives are in power they pose the biggest direct threats to women, but the do this openly. We know who they are, and we see what they do.  Men who pretend to view women as equals pose different kinds of dangers.

5. 
   Rob G 2006 09 20 at 9:42:46 am

   I agree, and in fact view hidden prejudices as more dangerous than overt ones, because they are more difficult to address, and tend to provoke defensiveness when called out (as we have seen).

   My point was that it is not just about misogyny, but also about how men of different affiliations communicate with each other. I don’t think you can address one without the other.