I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about the “crazy and lame” remark from last night and mostly, trying to situate it within one of the topics I am fascinated with: feminist ethics. Because here is the thing: I get it that the tweet was probably meant to be snarky and edgy and oh so ironic. I am aware that some people actually believe these are legitimate jokes to be made. There is a reason hipster racism exists as a category and I see the “crazy and lame” remark in that context.
However, I keep bringing up the issue of ethics and how we have failed to create a certain model of ethical leadership within the movement. And I know people could easily say that Jezebel is not a feminist site which is true. However, Jessica Coen does present herself as a “new face of feminism” and accepts to be featured in a position of leadership within the movement in mainstream media. That alone carries a certain responsibility. Mainly, the responsibility not to be deliberately hurtful to others, that, at the very basic, base level. I get the “foot in mouth” nature of Twitter and the temptation to just say something witty or try to be funny. On Twitter, that is usually rewarded with more followers and more attention. However, there has to be a check and balance where if you are positioned as a visible face of a movement, a position you, yourself accept and actually promote by participating in these features, at the very least, you do not harm those you supposedly represent.
Someone relatively well known within feminism unfollowed me on Twitter last night, I suspect because of how I was barging about accountability and leadership. However, I insist on this because that is at the very root of our collective failures. We can choose to align ourselves with commercial goals that only seek to promote page clicks and media dissemination or we can remain within a certain ethical framework that deems this kind of snark hurtful and unacceptable. We cannot have it both ways. I certainly do not begrudge Ms. Coen for trying to make money and increase the popularity of the media outlet she manages. This is part of earning a living, everyone to varying degrees participates in this system. However, I do hold her accountable for her position of leadership within a movement that supposedly represents me and billions of other people and for failing to take on that responsibility in an ethical manner.
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