"Well, that didn't go well"

"Well, that didn't go well," writes a sadder but not necessarily wiser Kevin Drum re the recent unpleasantness over his "Women's opinions" outing. We appreciate Mr. Drum's courage in presenting a bevy of blogger babes' takes and were fascinated to click on each link to see who's out there on the distaff side of the 'sphere:

It seemed like the usual suspects, some from the left (oh, those Feminazis . . . Why can't they clean up their language?), some from the right, and others, like the divine Ann Althouse from somewhere just left of center. Oh, yes, and ourselves a flaming libertarian, of course.

But the former catblogger's summation of what it all meant was a bit of a letdown:

My critics certainly make a spirited -- if anecdotal -- case for the proposition that women have no problem being as nasty as men.

As if his own post was anything but anecdotal. And there's a fine but discernible line between nastiness and rapier wit, sir.

Comments

[Teresa]

I don't often read Kevin's stuff, it's usually a time issue. But I had some extra and clicked over to read this. Here's what caught my eye...

"Only to this extent: the reason I suggested that women are turned off by the "fundamental viciousness" of blogging and opinion writing is because many women have told me this"

I just can't resist... the mom in me has taken over and I remember statements like this from my kids... So, my response would be - "How many is many?"

[Brian H]

Hmm . . . . well, the fine line often exists mainly in the mind of the wit-spewer. "I was just kidding!" "Can't you take a joke?" "My irony was obviously too subtle for you." etc. ;)

Maybe it's the lack of visible body language and incongruous facial expressions that causes the confusion? LOL

[Yehudit]

I wouldn't classify Meryl as "rightwing." Except on Israel. She's your standard feminist social liberal.

[Sissy Willis]

Thanks for the correction,Yehudit.