Um....

[lirazel]

This is perhaps the most bizarre question I've ever asked y'all. And considering that I have a tag entitled "stupid questions for my flist," that is saying something. But I figure if anyone knows, it's y'all!

I've been catching up on some Jezebel articles, and I've noticed that a lot of the commenters have changed their usernames to something about bringing back MizJenkins. Now, MizJenkins is easily one of my favorite Jezebel commenters EVER, so this makes me concerned. Was she banned? Did she just throw up her hands and say that she can't do it anymore (I wouldn't blame her at all--Jezebel commenters have been spectacularly faily lately, especially when it comes to race)? WHAT HAPPENED? And, more importantly, where can I watch it all play out?

So, Jezzie-flisters (I know there are at least two of you who comment over there and definitely more who read), can you link me to where this all went down? Because I am all ready to get really angry and righteously indignant on her behalf.

Comments

[blackfrancine.livejournal.com]

OK. So, I don't know exactly what or when it happened. But I do know that about a month or two ago there was a big hullabaloo. And a bunch of people got de-starred. MizJenkins was one of them. She wasn't banned, because I saw her on the groupthink thread not too terribly long ago--but she was de-starred. Which is preposterous, because she's awesome. And--yeah--she tends to school fools on the race failage. So she's very much a necessary member of the community.

I think there were a series of inflammatory posts that led to the de-starrings. The only one that I really saw, and that I participated in was this one: http://jezebel.com/5572097/why-shameless-objectification-can-be-a-good-thing , on objectification of World Cup soccer players. Word on the street is that if you disagreed too vehemently with the editors, you lost your star. I don't know how true that is. Disgruntled folks (like the person at STFUJezebel) tend to over-exaggerate how persecuted they are. But since MizJenkins lost her star--along with several other reasonable folks--I tend to believe the gossip this time.

The massive de-starrings have led to a lot of people either laying low (like MizJenkins) or walking away. From what I understand there were a fair number of bannings as well. So the end result is that the comments have been super boring lately. Some of the funniest people were de-starred, and I guess, to replace them, a bunch of B-listers were awarded stars. And it's all "I don't think there's a problem with the Dallas police chief saying that the way to prevent rape is that women shouldn't drink" and "LOL. OMG. Cute shoez!!1!!@" So. Yep. It was a big misstep, I think, from the management. Especially considering that Anna Holmes, the founder/creator of Jezebel left shortly after that--and turned it over to Jessica Coen. So there've been strange changes in content as well. Which hasn't created a lot of incentive for the folks who were de-starred to hang around and earn back their stars.

You can perhaps find out more (though you'd have to get an account) at the basement ( http://jezebasement.proboards.com/index.cgi ), which is a message board set up last year when Jezebel disbanded their open threads (they've since reinstated them). I haven't been over there in quite a while. But I know there's a lot of activity from exiled jezzies. You also might be able to find out something info from HellNoJezebel on tumblr. I wish I could be more specific--but every time people start discussing it, they usually start PMing--I think to avoid any further loss of stars. I might poke around in groupthink later--because I've been wondering about the specifics myself. I've just been a little too preoccupied to bother. I'll let you know if I find out anything.

[blackfrancine.livejournal.com]

OK. I found out more. Get your righteous indignation ready. Miz Jenkins WAS banned. I think I talked to her between the time she was destarred by Irin and the time she was banned by Tracie. She's still active on Gawker, however.

She got into a disagreement about race with Tracie on an article about Carol Channing's mixed heritage. This is apparently the second time Miz Jenkins has been banned--both times it was by Tracie and over a disagreement based in race.

Looking at it, MizJenkins seems pretty in the right to me. She got a little bit ugly for a minute, but in general, she raised a legitimate issue, and was mostly respectful to Tracie. But Tracie never really recognized her argument. Other people who sided with MizJenkins on the thread lost their stars.

Here's the thread . (I'm hoping that link works!)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

OMG. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. WHAT WHAT WHAT. JEZEBEL FAILS SO HARD WHEN IT COMES TO RACE.

But I always appreciated all of her comments on all topics. She often phrased things exactly the way I would want to when talking about sex/objectification/etc. I'm neither one of those super-sex-positive feminists (not that I'm not sex positive, just that I have a more complicated view of women and our relationship to sex than I think is common in most third-wave circles--it's one of the reasons I don't describe myself as third wave), but nor am I a Dworkin type. MizJenkins always seems to walk the line between the two and verbalize things for me that I couldn't myself. I don't blame her if she never returns, but I hope she does, because I will miss her profusely.

Anyways, thanks so much for finding out all the info for me. I greatly appreciate it. I can now at least be ~righteously indignant.

[blackfrancine.livejournal.com]

I think she'll probably come back once the editors get out of their snit. Since she's been banned before and came back, I'm thinking she's not gonna let this keep her away forever.

I really love MJ. The most recent thread I participated in with her had some crazy person being openly racist and attempting to justify it. She just dismantled their argument with so much grace and humor that... I have no words.

And the thing is--part of me loves Tracie (the one who banned her). I think that if I knew her in real life, I'd probably hate her. But, I appreciate her completely outrageous, shameless antics. I think it's good for everyone to witness someone existing with such freedom from self-consciousness. But, man--shamelessness is one of those things--it comes back around. I love that she's shameless about her sexual business, but being shameless about all manner of racism and ablism? Yikes. Not okay.

I don't know. It sucks. Hopefully, MizJenkins will be reinstated soon. :(