Flippant title aside, I'm glad to see that someone writing for a well-know, if ostensibly feminist, site has pointed out that academic writing is alienating to those who aren't part of academia. But I don't think the feminist blogosphere is necessarily chockablock with pendants. Let me explain.
I think the language of the feminist and social justice blog world is insular for a lot of reasons, dry, academic writing is among them, but I don't think it's the biggest problem. Theory is good; I love theory. But theory doesn't always work in the real world.
That being said, what bothers me most about this post is that someone who is, by her own accounts, fairly academically privileged is the one writing about the lack of representation. It is a huge problem in the feminist blogosphere, but, and I say this as someone who doesn't have a slew of advanced degrees and has never taken a formal women's or gender studies course (though I can hold my own in that department, thank you very much), feminist blogs, queer blogs, are invaluable for those who don't have access to academia. Public libraries offer only so much. (One neighborhood library I frequently use has more books by Ann Coulter than they do in their entire LGBT section.) So when I read things like this I'm torn: I don't want things "dumbed down" on my part; that's insulting. But I also understand the need for simple, readable language. Good writers know how to balance the two.
What I really want to see is more writing by working-class women, women who are union leaders, people come to feminism from a completely different place. It's out there, but those writers aren't the ones who are the "face" of online feminism, or unlikely to land guest spots on MSNBC. Those voices need to be centered, too, especially when we're talking about feminism's failure to represent all women.
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