The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

That's What She Said ...

Here’s a thoughtful piece from Courtney E. Martin at the American Prospect responding to Linda Linda Hirshman’s Slate piece from last Friday about the ways in which young feminists resent Hillary Clinton out of a semi-Freudian need to destroy their mothers. For those scoring along at home, Debra Dickerson fires off a round for Hirshman’s team here at Mother Jones.

Anyone but me find it hilarious that every feminist writer of every generation evidently comes to this battle with claims that they are interested in pursuing a deeper, more nuanced conversation about gender, just before they let loose with the scattershot accusations about the other side? Martin accuses some “older women” of dismissing women’s body issues, for instance, as “frivolous.” While Dickerson takes aim at “young women who inherited what we mothers fought for and now want us to disappear so our girls can go wild and pole dance without feeling all guilty.” I get it that Martin’s criticism is couched in a larger discussing about the need to learn from one another and that Dickerson’s going for comedic effect. But their continued talking past each other raises the question about what a “nuanced” conversation about our differences can possibly look like, if every assertion about those differences—be it from Hirshman, Martin, or your mamma—is instantly disparaged as peddling in reductive stereotypes.