Peoria Pundit

By Billy Dennis on September 17th, 2006

Take a look at this photo:

It’s a group photo taken at a luncheon a group of bloggers had with President Bill Clinton. If you a make with any sex drive at all, you are going to notice the pretty girl with the attractive figure who is standing fight in front of Clinton. This photo started making the rounds, with comments ranging from juvenile intern jokes to outright condemnation of the blogger in question — Jessica Valenti — for striking a seductive pose.

My two cents: Feh. The best response can be found here.

Folks, I’ve taken more than my fair share of group shots in life. Valenti isn’t doing a deliberately provocative pose, as Ann Althouse suggests and as Dr. Helen repeats. She’s turning her shoulder to the camera. I used to always have folks turn a shoulder toward the camera, if for no other reason than it tightens the photo so more people can fit in. It also makes for more attractive photos. If the young lady in questioned looked “provocative,” it’s because of genetics.

A major theme of the criticism is that Jessica Valenti operates a feminist blog, and the critics suggest that it’s hypocritical to fawn over a Clinton — who has been famously accused of making unwanted advances to women. The other criticism is that as this photo and the Web site seem makes liberal use of breast imagery, and feminists are supposed to be opposed to the exploitation of women.

Several points. First, Clinton has been accused of harassing women and in at least one case of raping one of them. It is far from certain that these accusations are true. The right wing operates under the assumption that any number of wild assertions against him and his wife have been proven to be true, including rampant drug use in the White House, having Vince Foster murdered. The fact is that many people find the accusations to be political hatchet jobs. If Clinton’s feminist supporters do not believe it to be true, then it’s not hypocritical of them to want to have their picture taken with them.

Second: It seems to me that the right wingers are accusing Jessica Valenti of not living up to the right wing stereotypes of feminists as man-hating, sexless drudges who wear baggy clothes and don’t shave their armpits. Instead, they are accusing her of living up to their reserve backup stereotype of feminists as sluts.

Folks, except for a very few real hopeless cases, I’ve never come across a “women’s libber” who met either stereotype. It seems to me that Miss Valenti is a “lipstick” feminist who is far from being afraid of sex or men and who doesn’t want to go through life claiming to be a victim.

My own take on Clinton: Hey, I voted for the guy. Twice. Which was understandable, since it was his getting caught lying under oath during his second term that first led to my disillusionment with the Democratic Party and my eventually becoming a liberal-minded libertarian. I think a person’s sex life is his own business, but he shouldn’t have lied under oath, and he shouldn’t have put himself in the position in which he felt he needed to lie. I regret voting for Clinton, but not as much as I regret voting for that P.O.S. Harry Brown, the anti-national defence Libertarian Party candidate back in 2000. So don’t take this as me trying to to put a Clinton spin on things. I am sooooo not into that.

But it’s 2006. What the Hell are people doing still trying to bring down Bill Clinton? I think the Republicans are more obsessed with him than the people they accuse of being Clinton groupies.

Clinton photo,Jessica Valenti,Ann Althouse,Dr Helen,feministing

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 at 4:44 am and is filed under Overset. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.