note: if your notions of civility are more about form than content, you might want to skip the rest of this.

as I'm hat-tipped in the fuss of the moment, I'll reprint what I had to say about it at Feministing

Oh, horseshit.

Ms. Althouse, discussing a thread on Eschaton in which commenters disparage her as a feminist and as a physical object:

You and others are missing the point. I am asking him to condemn the sexist comments, not monitor or censor everything. I'm asking him to show that he cares, that he is some sort of feminist. I'm just sick and tired of liberals and lefties who assume it's taken for granted that they care about feminism. Atrios is a channel for putrid sexist invective. It's irrelevant that the commenters had a smile on their face when they wrote it or think they are cute when they say it. Try living in the real world and speaking like that. It doesn't work. The fact is Atrios and his defenders are more interested in getting him off the hook than in looking to the infection of bigotry in their own house. Why is he not appalled that this is the "community" he's nurturing on his blog? My theory is he doesn't care about feminism, only his side of partisan politics. I'm calling him on that, and he and his defenders have yet to respond to that. The lack of response is in itself instructive. He doesn't care! Feminists, disaggregate yourself from these folks. Why don't you?

Wank the fuck on, dear.

And I say this as a plain-as-a-mud-fence middle-aged feminist who wears her clothes a size or two up to render the point moot.

I work in a field with more than its share of ambitious, young, attractive women who dress, well, like young, attractive women. Funny how that happens. (I also know quite a few feminist bloggers who are ambitious, young, attractive women who dress, well, like young, attractive women. Funny how that happens too.)

Anyway, as I'm passing familiar with this particular demographic, I'm sort of amazed at how many hostile comments I've read about Jessica's machiavellian cleverness in wearing a light-colored sweater to draw attention to herself. For what it's worth: one thing I've noticed about young women starting out is that they often don't have business wardrobes quite as extensive as those of us who've been buying clothes for a few decades longer.

Offhand, I'm guessing that when she got the invitation to the hastily-arranged blogger meetup in Harlem, she did what most of us would have done when we were starting out: looked through her closet for a presentable outfit all the pieces of which were clean and mended. I think she looked respectable, neat and attractive, which is what business casual is supposed to accomplish.

Anyway.

As contemptible as it is for Ms. Althouse to promote this feeding frenzy (which we've already established is in her own opinion the kind of thing uncivil anti-feminists do) so she won't have to cop to indulging in a little ill-natured cattiness, it's doubly contemptible for her ideological allies to support her bad behavior by inviting their own readers to pile on as though there were some form of principle involved.

Which, somehow, I doubt, unless my mad googling skillz somehow managed to miss the Insta-opprobrium when prominent (to say the least) Insta-mentee Pamela "Atlas Shrugs" Oshry



twice adoringly interviewed political figure (with a documented record of bad behavior toward women) Mr. Bolton



or for that matter, had her picture taken standing all-but-perpendicular to the camera in a light-colored outfit snuggled up next to this guy



Oh, wait, I forgot. There is a principle involved. Instawife said so.

It's not about the breasts. It's the hypocrisy.

Well, gotta give her that.

I am, however, shocked that Sher and Aravosis chose to flash their undershirts through opened shirt buttons like that.

Damn, guys. Cover up. There's a president in the room.