Westboro Feminists

Liberal Culture

“ SHIRT CRIME This week TIME Magazine (yes, it is still out there, I was surprised, too) conducted a poll of the word people most wanted banished. Hilariously, “feminist” was winning by a substantial margin when TIME got a case of the heebie-jeebies and pulled “feminist” out of the contest when #Bossy feminists got upset: On Saturday, Time Magazine Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs added an apology to the news website’s poll asking readers what word they want to ban. At the time, the word “feminist” was winning the poll with over 50 percent of the vote. “Editor’s Note: TIME apologizes for the execution of this poll; the word ‘feminist’ should not have been included in a list of words to ban,” Gibbs wrote. “While we meant to invite debate about some ways the word was used this year, that nuance was lost, and we regret that its inclusion has become a distraction from the important debate over equality and justice.” But Big #Bossy did score a victory this week, one that they will probably find to be as Pyrrhic a victory as any won by Napoleon on the road to Moscow. On November 12, the European Space Agency probe, Philae, touched down on a comet called 67P (it has a longer name containing an inordinate number of consonants so I’m using the short name). This was a technical tour de force but what delighted the feminists was the sartorial splendor of project scientist, Dr. Matt Taylor, at the celebratory press conference. First on the scene was an “ecology” major who writes at The Atlantic who calls herself “Rose Eveleth.” “Rose” suddenly found out that someone had died and made her the official enforcer of fairness for women in STEM which just can’t happen around a shirt as glorious as that worn by Dr. Taylor. The whole article (Rose Eveleth and the #Bossy Westboro Feminists)  is worth reading; a real hoot. Looking at Rose Eveleth caused me to immediately recall this story. Sometime post Altamont Concert in December 1969, it became "liberal chic" to have the biker lads, especially Sonny Barger, show up at your soirée. I recall from one of the many books about Barger, how the Angels attended a benefit thrown by some upper west side society gal.  A middle aged matron tried to strike up a conversation with him. He, outfitted in urine and sweat soaked "colors, and swigging beer from a can; She, in the obligatory black cocktail dress, sipping Chablis.  After listening to her for a few minutes,  he stopped her and said, "You need someone to eat your pussy!"  The woman nearly fainted, but get this.  Some days later he gets a phone call from the women asking ... .  I forget whether he accommodated her. Rose Eveleth ”